Book Review - Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

Finally... after 31 years, Edmund Morris, Theodore Roosevelt's greatest biographer, has completed the third and final volume of his Theodore Roosevelt trilogy.

Edmund Morris began his three decades-long project to chronicle the life and times of the 26^th President of the United States in 1979, when he published The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, a masterful, Pulitzer Prize-winning look at Theodore Roosevelt's life from his birth in 1858 to his succession to the Presidency in 1901. It took Morris another 22 years to write and publish the second volume of his planned trilogy. Theodore Rex, published in 2001, was no less outstanding than its predecessor; it examined Roosevelt's 7½ years as President of the United States, and ended with his departure from Washington, DC at the end of his elected term in 1909.

Now comes Colonel Roosevelt, Morris's superb third volume of his Theodore Roosevelt (TR) triptych. Published in November 2010, this book traces the final ten years of Theodore Roosevelt's life. These were the years of Roosevelt's "retirement," although it becomes plain from the book's outset that "retirement" for TR was anything but a time of relaxation and leisure. In many ways, the years 1909-1919 were the most crowded of TR's all-too-brief life. They were, in the end, also the most frustrating and tragic.

As Morris's masterful story opens, it is 1909, only a few months after TR's presidency ends. Not content to simply return to his Sagamore Hill estate in Oyster Bay, New York, TR has instead gone on an African safari with his son Kermit and a traveling party of over 300 native Africans who serve as guards, horse boys, tent men, and porters. The safari travels through British East Africa (present-day Tanzania and Kenya), Uganda, Sudan, and Egypt. TR's expedition is fairly well blood-soaked, as he takes every opportunity to hunt for and kill as many species of African game as he can. But the safari's purpose is not simply to hunt game. TR, who has once again taken up the writer's pen in order to earn a post-presidential income, is preparing a series of articles for Scribner's magazine, and possibly a book.

Theodore Roosevelt is by now one of the most famous men in the world. Even while on safari, he is followed by an entourage of reporters who have one question on their mind: what are TR's plans for his political future? It's already a well-known fact that Roosevelt is becoming increasingly disappointed in his hand-picked successor to the Presidency, William Howard Taft.

This increasing estrangement between TR and his former Vice President forms the central chapters of Colonel Roosevelt. TR returns to the United States from his African expedition in 1910. Upon his return, he cagily avoids answering any questions concerning political affairs, although his irritation with Taft's less progressive policies is readily evident. An increasingly radicalized Roosevelt and a more conservative Taft try on several occasions to reconcile their differences, but to no avail.

By 1912, the rift between former President Theodore Roosevelt and President William Howard Taft has widened. TR is dismayed by the direction toward which the country is heading... away from the progressive reforms he had so forcefully initiated during his seven years as President. He determines that he is the best man to save the United States from the rightward drift of the Taft-led Republican Party. He will therefore challenge Taft for the Republican nomination for President in 1912. If that challenge fails - and TR instinctively knows it will, since Taft controls the Republican Party's nominating processes - then Roosevelt has the option to break away from the Republican Party and run as a Progressive.

Indeed, this is exactly what happens. The Republicans re-nominate Taft, the Democrats choose New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson, and Progressives within the Republican Party break away, hold a convention of their own, and anoint TR as their candidate. After a bitterly fought campaign, in which Taft and Roosevelt hurl the bulk of their invective at each other instead of their common Democratic opponent, the results are clear: Wilson handily wins the election, but Theodore Roosevelt finishes second in the race, well ahead of his archrival Taft.

Theodore Roosevelt's initial ambivalence towards the newly elected Woodrow Wilson quickly turns to skepticism as he realizes that the self-professed progressive Democrat will continue leading the country in a more conservative, business-friendly direction. Skepticism gives way to outright loathing with the coming of World War I and the sinking of several passenger ships, including the Lusitania, by the Germans. Roosevelt, always a military enthusiast and ready for a fight, constantly challenges Wilson in public to abandon his pacifist policies and take strong measures against Germany and her allies. But Wilson refuses to take the bait.

During this period, in 1914, Roosevelt embarks upon another scientific expedition - this time to Brazil, where he, his son Kermit, and a party of naturalists and explorers, chart the course of the "River of Doubt," a tributary of the Amazon River originating in Paraguay. The trip almost costs Roosevelt his life. The party is faced with the loss of its supplies and equipment, attacks by indigenous tribes, insects, disease, and starvation. TR experiences recurring bouts of malaria. He loses over 70 pounds on the trip, and is unable to walk by the time the expedition reaches its final destination.

In 1917, the United States enters World War I. Roosevelt is faced with even more frustration... and then heartbreak. He petitions President Wilson to allow him to raise a division of volunteers, with him (TR) as commander, to fight in France. Wilson and his Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, coolly rebuff Roosevelt's entreaties. He is too old and, at best, a military amateur. But TR's four sons - Ted Jr., Archie, Kermit, and Quentin, are all commissioned as army officers and sent to the western front. They all serve with heroic distinction. Ted Jr. and Archie each win a French Croix de Guerre and Kermit wins a British Military Cross.^* Nineteen year-old Quentin Roosevelt, an Army aviator, is killed in action, shot down by the Germans as he attacks a ground target in France.

Theodore Roosevelt's last years are spent quietly at his Sagamore Hill home. His grief over Quentin's death never leaves him; yet he takes great pride in the wartime accomplishments of his three remaining sons. By the end of World War I, TR is exhausted and his health is in steep decline. His weight has ballooned. He suffers from rheumatism and heart problems. On January 6, 1919, he dies at his Sagamore Hill home. He is only 60 years old.

As he did with The Rise of Theodore Rooseveltand Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris proves once again with Colonel Roosevelt that he is a real master of the biographer's art. Employing prose that's always lively, eloquent, and entertaining, Morris paints a wonderfully detailed portrait of Roosevelt in his last years - ever a man who truly was "larger than life." Colonel Roosevelt is a fair and balanced biography, although Edmund Morris displays an obvious affection for his subject. Morris combines an intellectually stimulating and literate historical narrative with brilliantly insightful historical analysis.

What I find most impressive about Colonel Roosevelt - indeed the entire trilogy dedicated to telling Theodore Roosevelt's story - is how seamless and detailed a tale Morris is able to weave. Theodore Roosevelt's life was comprised of so many "crowded hours" that the task of presenting it in a manner that is comprehensible to general readers must have been daunting for Morris. Yet that is exactly what he so masterfully accomplished. All three books read almost like a set of novels. They present Theodore Roosevelt's life in a manner that makes each volume very hard to put down.

MY VERDICT: Colonel Roosevelt is an extremely readable, highly entertaining, and factually impeccable concluding volume of Edmund Morris's trilogy dedicated to the life of Theodore Roosevelt. As he did in The Rise of Theodore Rooseveltand Theodore Rex, he completely captures the essence of this towering early twentieth century figure, making him totally relevant to today's readers. Highly recommended!

SOURCES AND NOTES:

^* Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was also awarded the Silver Star for bravery in World War I. During World War II, his gallantry on Omaha Beach (as a Major General) on June 6, 1944, earned for him the Medal of Honor.

Morris, Edmund. Colonel Roosevelt. New York, 2010.