Reviews
Seven books receive scrutiny in the “Reviews” section, including two biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, specialized studies of the White House and Memorial Day, a collection of Roosevelt’s writings, a look at the Rough Riders of Arizona, and a study of turn of the twentieth-century American foreign policy. John A. Gable notes that Stacy A. Cordery’s biography of Roosevelt serves as a comprehensive historiographical study as it draws on thirty years of Roosevelt scholarship in its quotes and analysis. Gable also offers thoughts on Kathleen Dalton’s biography of Roosevelt, and he provides excerpts from five other reviews of the work that highlight Dalton’s coverage of the role of women in Roosevelt’s life and that affirm Roosevelt as a moderate radical. Of Brian Thomsen’s collection of Roosevelt’s writings, The Man in the Arena, Gable says: “there is no reason to buy this book.”
Gable also reviews Marty F. Feess’s Theodore Roosevelt’s Arizona Boys which examines the life of the Arizona Rough Riders after the Spanish-American War and the many actions taken by their Colonel to help them succeed in their post-war lives. Henry J. Hendrix faults Warren Zimmermann’s First Great Triumph for injecting present day views into his analysis of the makers of foreign policy in Roosevelt’s presidency. Hendrix also examines A History of Memorial Day which traces the transformation of the holiday from a solemn occasion to a day of recreation. Jeremy M. Murphy highlights Gable’s chapter on the Roosevelts in his review of The White House: Actors and Observers, and he also notes the work’s use of the photographs of Frances Benjamin Johnston.
