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Theodore Rex (Modern Library Paperbacks) (Paperback)
by Edmund Morris
| Category:
Biography, Political skills, American history, Great American presidents |
| Market price: ¥ 198.00
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| MSL Pointer Review:
A bully book about a towering epic character, a great president, this awesome biography is simply a historical masterpiece. |
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Author: Edmund Morris
Publisher: Modern Library; Reprint edition
Pub. in: October, 2002
ISBN: 0812966007
Pages: 792
Measurements: 8 x 5.2 x 1.3 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00240
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0812966008
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- Awards & Credential -
The New York Times Bestseller and sequel to the winner of Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. |
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- MSL Picks -
Reading Edmund Morris's book must be a little like the experience of meeting Teddy Roosevelt: one is intimidated by the power of the voice, awed by the intelligence, and, rarely, irritated by tangential details and ego-tripping.
In short, Morris does a stellar job of conveying the depth of Roosevelt's career during his seven years in office as president. For his early years, you will have to read his other volume, or try Mornings on Horseback, but for a record of his achievements in the early 20th century, you can't beat Morris's detailed research. Morris is unabashedly in favor of Roosevelt, covering in depth Roosevelt's key initiatives, such as the building of the Panama Canal, the peace between Russia and Japan, the emasculation of the big trust companies, and the start of the modern conservation movement.
Not being overly fond of political wrangling did not aid me in certain chapters, which detail the machinations of the Senate and House, and Roosevelt's rivalries with certain key members, but they are integral to Roosevelt's success. Morris avoids the vacuum mentality of some biographers, who suck up societal context in favor of making their subject shine. Instead, he shows how Roosevelt, like Elizabeth I, was an astute politician and manipulator, often playing to both sides in order to achieve his aims. Like Good Queen Bess, Teddy also knew how to capture the popular imagination, through his moral righteousness, his anarchic active glee, and his forward thinking. Not to mention his catchphrases ("Bully!") and his fondness for bears.
But Roosevelt was also bombastic, overeager, and, in his own way, pragmatically imperialistic - not above interfering in another country's destiny if it threatened the wellbeing of his own. He was in favor of building up the biggest navy in the world, to counter the growing threats of Japan, Germany, and to make them behave (as in a dispute over Morocco between France and Germany). In a less intelligent leader, the maxim, "Walk softly and carry a big stick", is a dangerous one to live by, but Roosevelt was deceptively canny about people. His handling of negotiations and truculent leaders is a lesson in diplomacy and negated the need for war.
Domestically, Roosevelt co-existed with powerful men with the same, and some would say even more, influence on world affairs. His administrations were fortuitously allied with a time of general national prosperity. But to go to the mat with Wall Street tycoons like J. Pierpont Morgan and Rockefeller on issues of monopoly and come out fighting was an admirable feat. On the other hand, Roosevelt was none too quick with figures, and it was left up to men like Morgan to bail out the system by injecting private money when it threatened to crumble. A Republican liberal, Roosevelt made room for discussions with Booker T. Washington and publicly disavowed the practice of lynching, but his record on race was scarred when he let his sense of presidential prerogative override a poor decision discharging black soldiers after the "Brownsville Incident".
Overall, there are two qualities that strike me about Roosevelt after reading this admirable book: his sense of moral rights (to preserve natural landscapes for future generations, to prevent monopolization of the nation's wealth in a few hands, to keep the peace in a world of bullies) and his sense of balance. Although he resembled the strongman in the circus, Roosevelt had the deftness of a diplomat and the wherewithal to keep his gloves on.
(From quoting Elinor Teele, USA)
Target readers:
Readers who are interested in Theodore Roosevelt, American presidency, American history, leadership, political skills, and/or great biographies.
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- Better with -
Better with
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (Modern Library Paperbacks)
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Edmund Morris was born and educated in Kenya and went to college in South Africa. He worked as an advertising copywriter in London before immigrating to the United States in 1968. His biography The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt won the Pulitzer Prize and American Book Award in 1980. After spending several years as President Reagan’s authorized biographer, he published the national bestseller Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan in 1999. He has written extensively on travel and the arts for such publications as The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Harper’s Magazine. Edmund Morris lives in New York and Washington with his wife and fellow biographer, Sylvia Jukes Morris.
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From Publisher
Theodore Rex is the story - never fully told before - of Theodore Roosevelt's two world-changing terms as President of the United States. A hundred years before the catastrophe of September 11, 2001, "TR" succeeded to power in the aftermath of an act of terrorism. Youngest of all our chief executives, he rallied a stricken nation with his superhuman energy, charm, and political skills. He proceeded to combat the problems of race and labor relations and trust control while making the Panama Canal possible and winning the Nobel Peace Prize. But his most historic achievement remains his creation of a national conservation policy, and his monument millions of acres of protected parks and forest. Theodore Rex ends with TR leaving office, still only fifty years old, his future reputation secure as one of our greatest presidents.
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Chapter 1
The First Administration: 1901-1904
The epigraphs at the head of every chapter are by "Mr. Dooley," Theodore Roosevelt's favorite social commentator.
The Shadow of the Crown
I see that Tiddy, Prisidint Tiddy-here's his health-is th' youngest prisidint we've iver had, an' some iv th' pa-apers ar-re wondherin' whether he's old enough f'r th' raysponsibilities iv' th' office.
On the morning after McKinley's interment, Friday, 20 September 1901, a stocky figure in a frock coat sprang up the front steps of the White House. A policeman, recognizing the new President of the United States, jerked to attention, but Roosevelt, trailed by Commander Cowles, was already on his way into the vestibule. Nodding at a pair of attaches, he hurried into the elevator and rose to the second floor. His rapid footsteps sought out the executive office over the East Room. Within seconds of arrival he was leaning back in McKinley's chair, dictating letters to William Loeb. He looked as if he had sat there for years. It was, a veteran observer marveled, "quite the strangest introduction of a Chief Magistrate... in our national history."
As the President worked, squads of cleaners, painters, and varnishers hastened to refurbish the private apartments down the hall. He sent word that he and Mrs. Roosevelt would occupy the sunny riverview suite on the south corner. Not for them the northern exposure favored by their predecessors, with its cold white light and panorama of countless chimney pots.
A pall of death and invalidism hung over the fusty building. Roosevelt decided to remain at his brother-in-law's house until after the weekend. It was as if he wanted the White House to ventilate itself of the sad fragrance of the nineteenth century. Edith and the children would breeze in soon enough, bringing what he called "the Oyster Bay atmosphere."
At eleven o'clock he held his first Cabinet meeting. There was a moment of strangeness when he took his place at the head of McKinley's table. Ghostly responsibility sat on his shoulders. "A very heavy weight," James Wilson mused, "for anyone so young as he is."
But the President was not looking for sympathy. "I need your advice and counsel," he said. He also needed their resignations, but for legal reasons only. Every man must accept reappointment. "I cannot accept a declination."
This assertion of authority went unchallenged. Relaxing, Roosevelt asked for briefings on every department of the Administration. His officers complied in order of seniority. He interrupted them often with questions, and they were astonished by the rapidity with which he embraced and sorted information. His curiosity and apparent lack of guile charmed them.
The President's hunger for intelligence did not diminish as the day wore on. He demanded naval-construction statistics and tariff-reciprocity guidelines and a timetable for the independence of Cuba, and got two visiting Senators to tell him more than they wanted to about the inner workings of Congress. In the late afternoon, he summoned the heads of Washington's three press agencies.
"This being my first day in the White House as President of the United States," Roosevelt said ingratiatingly, "I desired to have a little talk with you gentlemen who are responsible for the collection and dissemination of the news."
A certain code of "relations," he went on, should be established immediately. He glanced at the Associated Press and Sun service representatives. "Mr. Boynton and Mr. Barry, whom I have known for many years and who have always possessed my confidence, shall continue to have it." They must understand that this privilege depended on their "discretion as to publication." Unfortunately, he could not promise equal access to Mr. Keen of the United Press, "whom I have just met for the first time."
Boynton and Barry jumped to their colleague's defense. Roosevelt was persuaded to trust him, but warned again that he would bar any White House correspondent who betrayed him or misquoted him. In serious cases, he might even bar an entire newspaper. Barry said that was surely going too far. Roosevelt's only reply was a mysterious smile. "All right, gentlemen, now we understand each other."
Much later that evening, after a small dinner with friends in the Cowles house on N Street, the President allowed himself a moment or two of querulousness. "My great difficulty, my serious problem, will meet me when I leave the White House. Supposing I have a second term... "
Commander Cowles, replete with roast beef, sank deep into leather cushions and folded his hands over his paunch. He paid no attention to the cataract of talk pouring from the walnut chair opposite. For years he had benignly suffered his brother-in-law's fireside oratory; he was as deaf to Rooseveltian self-praise as he was to these occasional moments of self-doubt. How like Theodore to worry about moving out of the White House before moving in! The Commander's eyes drooped. His breathing grew rhythmic; he began to snore.
"I shall be young, in my early fifties," Roosevelt was saying. "On the shelf! Retired! Out of it!"
Two other guests, William Allen White and Nicholas Murray Butler, listened sympathetically. Prodigies themselves-White, at thirty-three, had a national reputation for political journalism, and Butler, at thirty-nine, was about to become president of Columbia University - they were both aware that they had reached the top of their fields, and could stay there for another forty years. Roosevelt was sure of only three and a half. Of course, the power given him dwarfed theirs, and he might win an extension of it in 1904. But that would make its final loss only harder to bear.
So Butler and White allowed the President to continue lamenting his imminent retirement. They interrupted only when he grew maudlin-"I don't want to be the old cannon loose on the deck in the storm!"
Undisturbed by the clamor of younger voices, Commander Cowles slept on. |
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| View all 11 comments |
The Washington Post (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-31 00:00>
In Edmund Morris, a great president has found a great biographer... Every bit as much a masterpiece of biographical writing as The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, which won the Pulitzer Prize.
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Times Literary Supplement (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-31 00:00>
As a literary work on Theodore Roosevelt, it is unlikely ever to be surpassed. It is one of the great histories of the American presidency, worthy of being on a shelf alongside Henry Adams’s volumes on Jefferson and Madison. |
The New York Times Book Review (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-31 00:00>
Take a deep breath and dive into Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris’s sequel to his 1979 masterpiece, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt... He writes with a breezy verve that makes the pages fly.
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San Francisco Chronicle (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-31 00:00>
A shining portrait of a presciently modern political genius maneuvering in a gilded age of wealth, optimism, excess and American global ascension. |
View all 11 comments |
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