Ricard, Serge

Serge Ricard recounts his involvement with the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal in publishing Edmund Morris’s translation of Leon Bazalgette’s 1905 booklet about Theodore Roosevelt. Ricard provides biographies of Bazalgette and another French scholar, Albert Savine, who published a longer study of Roosevelt in 1904. Ricard highlights Bazalgette’s other biographies of notable Americans, Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, and he notes that Savine translated four of Roosevelt’s books into French.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2020

Creator(s)

Ricard, Serge

Serge Ricard provides three pages of corrections, clarifications, and explanations of Edmund Morris’s translation of Leon Bazalgette’s booklet Theodore Roosevelt. Ricard admits that “Morris knew French very well,” and he applauds his translation. Most of his comments and corrections are minor, and he makes it plain when he feels Morris has mistranslated Bazalgette’s writing. Ricard supplies excerpts from both Roosevelt’s writings and from others to clarify a point or to supply a quotation that escaped Morris.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2020

Creator(s)

Ricard, Serge

Serge Ricard studies the attitude of the United States government to arbitration and disarmament proposals put forward by the First and Second Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907. Ricard notes that the United States approved of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, but he stresses that the nation, especially under the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, did not pursue disarmament proposals. Ricard asserts that Roosevelt always favored preparedness over disarmament as the best means to avoid war, and he notes that the United States’ traditional policies of isolationism and non-interference in European affairs made it unlikely the country would embrace international bodies. Ricard notes that Secretary of State Elihu Root managed America’s participation in the Second Hague Peace Conference of 1907.

Six photographs and one illustration accompany the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2015

Serge Ricard argues that Theodore Roosevelt was very well prepared by temperament and experience to be a masterful diplomat as president. Ricard does not dwell on Roosevelt’s actions as president, but instead examines the ideas and beliefs that informed his approach to foreign policy, highlighting his insistence on peacetime preparation for war. Ricard dwells on Roosevelt’s fears about Japanese and German threats to American security, and he also discusses Roosevelt’s thoughts on Russia, Great Britain, and France.

Photographs of Ricard, Roosevelt, and Roosevelt’s son Archibald B. Roosevelt supplement the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2007-10-27

Serge Ricard argues that there were two sides to Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy: “a sort of Jekyll and Hyde” approach that mixed professional diplomacy with imperialism. Ricard notes the shift in the historiography of Roosevelt’s diplomacy during the 1980s with an emphasis on placing Roosevelt’s actions in the context of his time that is more complimentary to his reputation. Ricard praises some aspects of Roosevelt’s foreign policy record, but he contends that Roosevelt could not entirely escape the racist and imperialist thinking of his time that led him to belittle nations like China and Colombia.

A photograph of Roosevelt with a large globe and a text box listing the members of the executive committee of the Theodore Roosevelt Association accompany the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1992

Serge Ricard traces the presence of Theodore Roosevelt in France by surveying the works of French authors and historians and finds that Roosevelt has struggled to gain a large following in France when compared to other American presidents. Ricard lists some of the translations of Roosevelt’s writings, notes the rise of interest in Roosevelt during his presidency, and discusses the long gaps in Roosevelt scholarship produced in France. Ricard also lists six articles he has written about Roosevelt.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1984

Creator(s)

Ricard, Serge