Book Review - Theodore Rex

Author: Edmund Morris

Theodore was the original hustler, TGIM, and work hard play hard characture. He’s all energy and spirit, something that Morris has conveyed well in his writing because I couldn’t put that book down. On one page Theodore writes into his diary that we has a desire and on the next page, sometimes even the next paragraph, he ventures out with annoyingly predictable success at achieving it. It’s incredibly difficult not to fall in love with him, or in my case, ddeply envy him. Although I read this one in only a few days, I found it quite hard to get through due to Theodore’s maturity rather than Edmund’s writing. Coming into this book I expected the same spotenaity that came with the first book, on a single page where we might read about him heading west, a note would come in informing him that one of his books became a best seller, he’d stalk and kill a bear after ten miles, another letter from the GOP on his nominating to the Senate, and finally him discussing the differences between native birds with life-long fur trappers over dinner. Instead dozens of pages were dedicated to the back and forth messaging he orchestrated for quelling the Russo-Japan War.

No doubt some politics junkies would find his handling of these crisis more interesting than I, but Morris has done such a great job at portraying Teddy as a truely universal man that I doubt hes more of a puppet master than a being made of pure natural charisma. If it’s the former then i’m not sure much stood out to me, and maybe it’s not all as obvious as House of Cards makes it seem, something I might be to dull to pickup on no matter how it was spelled out to me. Yet if it’s the latter, why not give us more of that? The passages about meetings in Rock Creek or on the tennis court seem infinitely more enjoyable than him contemplating the tighrope of offending Lilly White southerns while courting the black vote in Ohio. Maybe in this case they’re the same - If anyone were to collect the breadth of unique experiance that Roosevelt did, they too might be qualified to govern the United States comprised of all her different peoples.

Ultimately though I can’t hold much against Morris, what i’m most upset about is that Teddy got older. Gone are the richeous crusades that would kill most careers over civil service laws or enforcing prohibition. Replaced with moderations between overworked, starving, and poisoned mine workers against Robber Barons where Roosevelt seeks compromise. Even more dissapointing is his conviction on race relations that are perfectly optimized as to not upset the election cycle. Of course, as a historian, Edmund is trying to put this in context. However I can’t help that the author suggests Roosevelt did an admirable job when plenty of others at the time were calling for significant more action from the top. Their omittance makes him seem more progressive than he really was.

Some of Edmund’s personal preferances might have leaked through during his interpretation on Roosevelt’s handling of the Stock Market Crash of 1908. Years before TR suggested that Wall Street could lose some money, and when it came down to it - They did, probably didn’t learn a valuable lesson, and continued on. With this lens his actions later seem all the more clear, instead Morris suggests that he was “fiscally retarded”. It’s shocking to me that he could think someone who talks to everyone and reads everything could lack at least a basic understanding of fiscal policy. Instead he let the banks worry, and not-so-suprisingly they came together to find the money to keep themselves afloat. Seems like a win to me.