T.R.: The Last Romantic

This book was HW Brands' first book-length biography. He tackled a challenging subject and succeeded marvelously. The thing about Teddy Roosevelt is that he would be a fascinating character even if he had not become President.

To fit Roosevelt's life into a single volume extended the book to 800+ pages (paperback), but well worth the read. This life deserves it. TR's maniacal energy pulses through the book. TR was a true polymath as well as a 'man of action'. He charges through the book and a towering public career with 'dee-lightful' gusto. An extreme example: he gave a speech in Milwaukee despite still bleeding from a gunshot received that same day. Roosevelt's biggest political mistake came when he announced that he would not run for show more second full term (He did so because he had served nearly all of McKinley's term). As a result he was out of office at the age of 50!

At the same time his private life revealed a darkness. Stunned by the early death of his father when he was a youth and then by the deaths of his first wife and mother on the same night when he was at Harvard, Roosevelt seems to have never recovered emotionally. After the latter event, he left for the Dakotas and his cowboy period leaving his infant daughter (the redoubtable Alice Roosevelt Longworth) behind. The child, whose mother died two days after her birth, was virtually ignored by Roosevelt. Near the end of his life his youngest son dies in World War One and TR is crushed.

Brands makes extensive use of Roosevelt's personal letters to tell the story of this amazing life. Highly recommended. show less

An excellent biography of a complicated man. It is based on TR's voluminous correspondence.

This is an unvarnished look at a giant in American history. Here is the romantic hero that has attained near folk legend status. Here also in a man of enormous ego. Here is a man deeply impacted by the death's of loved ones (his father, while he was a young man; his first wife and mother, at the same time, and shortly after the birth of his daughter; and his son on the "glorious" battlefield near the end of his own life).

Brands neither overstates TR's accomplishments, nor overstates his character flaws.

It is a very readable 800+ pages, filled with the very words of the man. A giant biography of a giant man.

If you don't have the time to invest in Edmund Morris' three-book set on Roosevelt, this book gives you a good and fair perception of one of our finest presidents.

this is the 1st Teddy Bio I've read, so I cannot compare it to others. At over 800 pages, I was still left feeling that I'd barely skimmed the surface. Would have liked more detail on his time in Africa and the Amazon, but really, eveything was given fairly even coverage

I would recommend this book to anyone who has TR on their heroes list. Brands does a really great job of bringing TR to life.

A good biography of a man who did many things in his life. Read for POTUS book club.