From Publishers Weekly
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was the first president to make the federal goverment rectify harsh social and economic conditions. It was during his administration (1901-1909) that the U.S. was transformed from a provincial nation on the fringes of global affairs into a world power. Those are key contentions of this first-rate biography, in which Miller ( FDR: An Intimate History ) covers the political accomplishments and personal facets of this prismatic figure--politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, historian, biographer, adventurer. What distinguishes this biography from others is its concentration on TR's relations with his close associates and his family, particularly his first and second wives (Miller is the first biographer to make extensive use of Roosevelt's courtship letters). Here is Teddy Roosevelt in three dimensions: ardent, inexhaustibly vital and astonishingly versatile. Photos. History Book Club and BOMC alternates. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Book News, Inc.
From the press release: "The only complete, up-to-date, one-volume biography of Theodore Roosevelt in print...." Although publicists' claims are often inflated, this one is verifiable in Books in Print, which reports only a number of juvenile titles, some works on TR's career, and a 1956 biography. The author has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize four times and is an experienced biographer. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.


Book Description

Nathan Miller's critically acclaimed biography of Theodore Roosevelt is the first complete one-volume life of the Rough Rider to be published in more than thirty years. From his sickly childhood to charging up San Juan Hill to waving his fist under J.P. Morgan's rubicund nose, Theodore Roosevelt offers the intimate history of a man who continues to cast a magic spell over the American imagination.

As the twenty-sixth president of the United States, from 1901 to 1909, Roosevelt embodied the overwheliming confidence of the nation as it entered the American Century. With fierce joy, he brandished a "Big Stick" abroad and promised a "Square Deal" at home. He was the nation's first environmental president, challenged the trusts, and, as the first American leader to play an important role in world affairs, began construction of a long-dreamed canal across Panama and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for almost singlehandedly bringing about a peaceful end to the Russo-Japanese War.

In addition to following Roosevelt's political career, Theodore Roosevelt looks deeply into his personal relations to draw a three-dimensional portrait of a man who confronted life-wrenching tragedies as well as triumphs. It is biography at its most compelling.


About the Author
Nathan Miller, a four-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize, is the author of FDR: An Intimate History, The Roosevelt Chronicles, and The U.S. Navy.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

As the twenty-sixth president of the United States from 1901 to 1909, Roosevelt embodied the overwhelming confidence of the nation as it entered the American Century. With a fierce joy, he brandished a "Big Stick" abroad and promised a "Square Deal" at home. He was the nation's first environmental president, challenged the trusts, and, as the first American leader to play an important role in world affairs, began construction of a long-dreamed-of canal across Panama, and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for almost single-handedly bringing about a peaceful end to the Russo-Japanese War. In addition to following Roosevelt's political career - from his role as a youthful reformer battling New York City's corrupt Tammany Hall machine to his term as New York State governor to his presidency, in which he established the progressive agenda, to his ill-fated run on the third-party Bull Moose ticket in 1912 - Theodore Roosevelt examines the man as well. This book looks deeply into his personal relations with his close associates and his family, his children, and particularly the two women he married. Theodore Roosevelt presents a three-dimensional portrait of a man of flesh and blood who confronted life-wrenching tragedies as well as triumphs. It is biography at its best.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was the first president to make the federal goverment rectify harsh social and economic conditions. It was during his administration (1901-1909) that the U.S. was transformed from a provincial nation on the fringes of global affairs into a world power. Those are key contentions of this first-rate biography, in which Miller ( FDR: An Intimate History ) covers the political accomplishments and personal facets of this prismatic figure--politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, historian, biographer, adventurer. What distinguishes this biography from others is its concentration on TR's relations with his close associates and his family, particularly his first and second wives (Miller is the first biographer to make extensive use of Roosevelt's courtship letters). Here is Teddy Roosevelt in three dimensions: ardent, inexhaustibly vital and astonishingly versatile. Photos. History Book Club and BOMC alternates. (Nov.)

Booknews

From the press release: "The only complete, up-to-date, one-volume biography of Theodore Roosevelt in print...." Although publicists' claims are often inflated, this one is verifiable in Books in Print, which reports only a number of juvenile titles, some works on TR's career, and a 1956 biography. The author has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize four times and is an experienced biographer. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kirkus Reviews

Appropriately big and vigorous life of the 26th President, by Miller (Stealing from America, p. 772; F.D.R., 1982, etc.). Despite his modern-day reputation as an imperialist and worse, Roosevelt emerges from Miller's pages—the first major one-volume life of TR since William Henry Harbaugh's Power and Responsibility (1961)—as a tremendously energetic reformer and moral beacon on the issues of his age. He took on corrupt politicians and bureaucrats throughout his career, and he instituted federal regulation of food and drug purity and of rapacious big business. Miller details the Roosevelt myth—TR's willful growth from puny scion to Rough Rider to "big stick" President—and finds it to be largely accurate, but the author concentrates less on the public man and more on his relations with close associates. Described by Lord Morley as "a cross between St. Vitus and St. Paul," Roosevelt was perceived by his friend Henry Adams as having "that singular primitive quality that belongs to ultimate matter—the quality that medieval theology assigned to God—he was pure act." Roosevelt's career rose meteorically from his election to the New York State Senate, and by age 24 he was the most famous politician in the state. Yet his personal life was marred by tragedy: His beloved first wife, Alice, died at 22 of a kidney disease; and his brother Elliot (father of Eleanor) died of an alcoholic seizure. Miller masters not only Roosevelt but fascinating ancillary facts as well—e.g., how TR's secretary of state, John Hay, while a young reporter, traced the origin of the Great Chicago Fire to Mrs. O'Leary's infamous cow. A sympathetic, detailed, tremendously readableaccount of the eventful life of our most energetic, irrepressible President. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs—not seen.)