Edmund Morris, The Rise Of Theodore Roosevelt
(Modern Library, 2001)
Reviewed by Gene Griessman, Ph.D.
www.presidentlincoln.com

If you're interested in leadership, leadership style, Teddy Roosevelt, American Presidents generally, great quotes, or you just want a good read, go out and get a copy of The Rise Of Theodore Roosevelt.  Winner of the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in hardcover in 1979, the writing is spectacular, and the subject--Theodore Roosevelt--is undoubtedly one of  the most remarkable men who ever occupied the White House. 

Morris's more recent treatment of Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, which deals with Roosevelt's later years and frustrating last years, is not as fast-paced as this splendid book.  In Theodore Rex, Morris sometimes gets bogged down in details with the result that the book  somehow lacks the energy of this book, which never flags from beginning to end.

Here is an excerpt  "He never tires of reminding people that his famous aphorism 'Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick" proceeds according to civilized priorities.  Persuasion should come before force.  In any case it is the availability of raw power, not the use of it, that makes for effective diplomacy." 

Another selection:  "Youngest and most vigorous man ever to enter the White House, he exults in what (the) New York Tribune calls 'an opulent efficiency of mind and body.'  He loves power, loves publicity for the added power it brings, and...seems to have disproved the Actonian theory of corruption.  Curiously, the more power Roosevelt acquires, the calmer and sweeter he becomes, and the more willing to step down...although a third term is his for the asking. Until then he intends to exercise to the full his constitutional rights to cleave continents, place struggling poets on the federal payroll, and treat with crowned heads on terms of complete equality....Henry Adams calls him 'the best herder of Emperors since Napoleon.'"