Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris, biography, 766 pages.
The third volume in Morris's massive biography of our twenty-sixth president is a wonderful book. Following The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, winner of the Pulitzer Prize back in 1980, and 2002's Theodore Rex, the third volume begins as Roosevelt embarks 1909 expedition to Africa, after Taft has taken office, and follows TR through the end of his life, in 1919. These ten years were full of adventure, foreign and domestic, and each chapter of this book, concerning his political endeavors, the activities of his friends, his acquaintances, and the members of his family, is worthy of its own book-length treatment. A great many of these adventures and adventurers do have books written about them, by Roosevelt himself, by one of his contemporaries, or by historians through these last hundred years. Chronicled here: Roosevelt hunting, Roosevelt's falling out with Taft for Taft's failing to remain true to the progressive cause, and TR's subsequent campaign against him for the 1912 nomination. There are political back-stabbings (not by Roosevelt, at least not as he sees it), political beat-downs, actual beat-downs (again not by Roosevelt), and Roosevelt being shot in the chest by a madman, and then giving a ninety-minute speech before allowing his aides to take him to the hospital.

The rest of the world also played a large part in Roosevelt's life, and he played a large part almost everywhere he went. TR's pre-war European travels had him hob-nobbing with various heads of state. He was close enough to all them to see war coming, and he was not one to shy away from war. He was no fan of Wilson's League of Nations, "why can't we all get along," philosophy and once the election was over and Wilson had settled into the Oval Office, TR proceeded to let everyone know, through speeches and his voluminous writings, precisely how he felt. The war years were hard on the Roosevelt family. Teddy himself was not allowed to serve, though he desperately wanted to. Sons Ted, Archie, Quentin, and Kermit all served. Archie and Ted were wounded. Quentin never came back. His plane was shot down, and he was buried in France.
Teddy Roosevelt was a great man, with big ideas, enormous energy and huge flaws. This is a big book, readable and enjoyable. The pace never flags as it tries to cover all of the details of ten years of a very large life.

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