History--Book reviews

Eleven topics vie for attention in the “Reviews” section, including six book review essays, three of which are written by John A. Gable. Harry N. Lembeck revisits Jacob A. Riis’s 1904 biography Theodore Roosevelt the Citizen and finds it especially valuable for learning about Theodore Roosevelt’s tenure as Police Commissioner of New York City. Jeremy M. Murphy says that Eric Rauchway’s Murdering McKinley goes against the prevailing trend that sees Roosevelt’s progressivism as genuine, and he disputes Rauchway’s conclusions about the fate of the Socialist Party in the United States. Gable notes that James Chace’s 1912 makes no use of primary sources, but he recommends it “as a good place to start on the election of 1912.”

In his review of Daniel J. Philippon’s Conserving Words, Edward Renehan focuses on Roosevelt, his writings about hunting and ranching in Dakota, and his founding of the Boone & Crockett Club. Gable notes that John P. Avlon identifies Roosevelt as a model centrist in his Independent Nation, and he says that Richard D. White’s Roosevelt the Reformer provides a biography of Roosevelt during his years as a Civil Service Commissioner. The section also has an excerpt from the writings of Douglas Brinkley, notes the passing of Edward Wagenknecht, author of The Seven Worlds of Theodore Roosevelt, and announces that the 2004 meeting of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) will be held in Portland, Oregon. An article on the vice presidential candidates in the election of 1904 and two letters to the TRA praising its journal close out the section.

Photographs of Roosevelt and Avlon appear in the section along with a text box with a quote from Roosevelt about the 1904 campaign.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

The “Notes” section reports on the publication of a new edition of The Man in the Arena, a collection of speeches and essays by Theodore Roosevelt, published by the Theodore Roosevelt Association and now revised and reformatted for distribution to members of the United States military. The second page of the section features a “Books to Buy” essay that promotes seven titles about or relating to Roosevelt, including biographies by Stacey A. Cordery, Kathleen Dalton, and Edmund Morris.

A picture of the cover of The Man in the Arena and a photograph of Roosevelt working at his desk at Sagamore Hill appear in the section.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2004

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 Stacey 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.

An illustration and a photograph of Roosevelt supplement the text.

Twelve books compete for space and attention in this crowded edition of the “Book Reviews” section which includes four feature reviews, two brief children’s book reviews, and notices about six other titles. Matthew Glover counters some of the assertions made by Louis Auchincloss in his Theodore Roosevelt by citing the work of historian John Milton Cooper. John A. Gable provides profiles of Alice Roosevelt Longworth and Eleanor Roosevelt, the subjects of Linda Donn’s The Roosevelt Cousins, and he notes the outsize influence that Theodore Roosevelt had on the extended Roosevelt clan. An anonymous review of Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. Navy, and the Spanish-American War lists the nine chapters that resulted from a conference of the same name, and it notes some of the authors’ ties to the Theodore Roosevelt Association. 

Gable identifies four themes found in the ten essays that make up European Perceptions of the Spanish-American War of 1898, including most European nations’ hostility to the United States in the conflict, and he emphasizes the role played by the Roosevelt Study Center in fostering the emergence of a cohort of European scholars of American history. Two books aimed at children are reviewed in the “Kids Corner” section, and “Other New Books” highlights six titles published in 2001-2002, including new paperback editions of the Roosevelt biographies written by Edmund Morris and his wife Sylvia Jukes Morris. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Edward Renehan praises John A. Corry’s A Rough Ride to Albany: Teddy Runs for Governor because it illuminates one of the few episodes in Theodore Roosevelt’s life that has not been thoroughly studied. Renehan touches on some of the key players in New York state politics and notes that Roosevelt, despite his recently won fame as a Rough Rider, barely prevailed in the 1898 contest. A photograph of Roosevelt speaking from a flag-draped platform appears in the review. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2001

Creator(s)

Renehan, Edward, 1956-

Henry J. Hendrix reviews Kenneth Wimmel’s Theodore Roosevelt and the Great White Fleet: American Sea Power Comes of Age and finds it disappointing because it is “somewhat shallow” in its treatment of the times and figures that marked the rise of American naval power at the turn of the twentieth century. Hendrix notes the importance of Alfred Thayer Mahan, Theodore Roosevelt, and others to the creation of a modern American fleet. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2000

Creator(s)

Hendrix, Henry J.

Linda E. Milano reviews Betty Boyd Caroli’s The Roosevelt Women and John A. Gable examines eight books published to coincide with the centennial of the Spanish-American War in the “Book Reviews” section. Milano praises aspects of Caroli’s work, but she details what she considers the sometimes inaccurate and unfair depiction of Ethel Roosevelt Derby. Gable likes the two pictorial histories of the war by Stan Cohen and Ron Ziel, and he also admires the two works based on primary sources, Wallace Finley Dailey’s editing of Theodore Roosevelt’s war diary and Jeff Heatley’s compilation of newspaper accounts about the Rough Riders’ return to New York state. While Gable notes three other works, he devotes four paragraphs to a detailed critique of Teddy Roosevelt at San Juan by Peggy Samuels and Harold Samuels which he labels a “trashy book” for its reliance on unreliable sources and its agenda of belittling Roosevelt’s actions in the war. 

The section includes a text box containing the mission statement of the Theodore Roosevelt Association. 

Seven books are reviewed and one title receives attention because of its reissue in this crowded edition of the “Book Reviews” section. John A. Gable, editor of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal, reviews three works, including an evaluation of Theodore Roosevelt as a politician, a biography of Roosevelt, and a historical novel. Gable likes David H. Burton’s Theodore Roosevelt, American Politician though he disagrees with some of Burton’s analysis, but he is less enthusiastic about H.W. Brands’s T.R.: The Last Romantic, partly because he faults Brands for never properly defining what he means by “romantic.” Gable praises The Angel of Darkness, Caleb Carr’s sequel to his very popular The Alienist, because both “successfully teach readers about various aspects of American life a century ago.” 

Henry J. Hendrix finds that in Theodore Roosevelt and the British Empire, William N. Tilchin provides a plethora of evidence to support his thesis that Roosevelt wanted to forge a closer relationship with Great Britain. Michael L. Manson commends the many illustrations used to populate Ron Ziel’s pictorial history of the Spanish-American War, Birth of the American Century. In a brief review, Elizabeth E. Roosevelt says that William T. Hagan’s Theodore Roosevelt and Six Friends of the Indian shows how a range of personalities tried to influence Roosevelt’s stance on Native Americans as both Civil Service Commissioner and President. Gregory A. Wynn criticizes George Grant for trying to pigeonhole Roosevelt as a Christian conservative in his Carry a Big Stick, and he says that the book’s factual errors and exaggerations make it of little value to Roosevelt scholars. 

“Book Reviews” notes that William H. Harbaugh’s Power and Responsibility: The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt, “the best one-volume complete biography,” has been reissued in a new hardcover edition. A photograph of Gable and Carr and two photographs of Roosevelt with members of the Rough Riders appear in the section.

This edition of “Book Notes” lives up to its billing as it features two brief reviews and notes about five other works previously reviewed in the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal. The section praises two new works, a biography of Alice Lee Roosevelt and a study of the Rough Riders from New Mexico, and it promotes Joseph R. Ornig’s study of the River of Doubt expedition and three books on Theodore Roosevelt’s tenure as Police Commissioner of New York City.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1994-1995

Creator(s)

Unknown

Seven books, including two memoirs, are examined in six review essays in this edition of the “Book Notes” section. Michael L. Manson reviews two books on Theodore Roosevelt’s 1914 scientific expedition to Brazil; one penned by Roosevelt and the other by Joseph R. Ornig. Manson praises the forewords to both books written by Tweed Roosevelt, and he finds Ornig’s book provides a detailed look at the expedition and the cast of characters besides Roosevelt who made it successful. Stacy A. Cordery notes that journalist Joseph Alsop’s memoirs deal mostly with the major events and figures of the mid to late twentieth century, and she reveals Alsop’s opinions of various senators, presidents, and generals.

Richard P. Harmon faults Peter Collier’s The Roosevelts: An American Saga for focusing too much on the private lives of the two Roosevelt families, and he says that many of Collier’s assertions are not backed by evidence and that the book relies too much on a psychohistory approach. James Summerville asserts that H. Paul Jeffers’s look at Roosevelt’s tenure as Police Commissioner of New York City, Commissioner Roosevelt, disappoints and that readers should turn to Jay S. Berman’s study or to coverage of this period of Roosevelt’s career in biographies. John A. Gable provides a positive and short review of a short book, William H. Harbaugh’s fifty page history of Pine Knot, which Gable says is written with “charm and style.” Robert D. Dalziel, President of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA), reviews the memoirs of Hamilton Fish, a winner of the TRA’s Distinguished Service Medal. Dalziel says that Fish’s opinions are straightforward and blunt like their author.

Two photographs appear in the section: one shows three members of the Rio Roosevelt Expedition of 1992 and the other dignitaries of the Dutch government at the Roosevelt Study Center in the Netherlands.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

John A. Gable reviews Nathan Miller’s Theodore Roosevelt: A Life and claims that it “replaces all previous popular, general-audience biographies of TR.” Gable places Miller’s work in the context of the many other biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, such as those of Henry F. Pringle and William Henry Harbaugh, and he asserts that there is still a need for a multi-volume treatment of Roosevelt. The “Books” section also details the contents of Theodore Roosevelt: Many-Sided American, a collection of forty-two essays originally delivered at an April 1990 conference at Hofstra University. The “Book Notes” section highlights the work of Roosevelt scholars Douglas Brinkley, David G. McCullough, and Edmund Morris, and takes special note of two works on the Teddy Bear.

A photograph of Miller appears on the first page of the section.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1992

Four books are featured in this edition of the “Books” section with a lengthy book review essay, a brief review, and two notices that act as endorsements for the respective works. In “Serge Ricard on Theodore Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy,” William N. Tilchin examines Ricard’s Theodore Roosevelt: Principles and Practice of a Foreign Policy. Tilchin notes that Ricard’s work is free of much of the ideological baggage that marked his previous work on Roosevelt’s diplomacy, and he carefully lays out the organization of the book, highlighting the main points of each part. Tilchin notes the policies and actions for which Ricard praises Roosevelt, such as his preparation of the United States Navy for war while Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and he also criticizes Ricard for some of his assertions. Tilchin concludes that Ricard’s work “is among the most ambitious and important books ever written on Roosevelt’s foreign policy.”

The section features five brief excerpts from Theodore Roosevelt: Many-Sided American and six excerpts from Nathan Miller’s biography Theodore Roosevelt: A Life. “Books” closes with an anonymous review of Matinecock Light, a history of the Oyster Bay, New York, Masonic Lodge which counted Roosevelt as one of its members. An illustration and a photograph of Roosevelt appear in the section.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1992

Three books and an essay are reviewed in the “Books” section. John A. Gable examines Kristie Miller’s biography Ruth Hanna McCormick and finds that it provides not only a look at her pioneering life in Republican politics, but that it also shows the impact of the Progressive Party into the 1920s. Gable notes that McCormick achieved many firsts for women in politics. Dennis Flanagan reviews War Plan Orange, the winner of the 1992 Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize, and reveals that American strategists had been debating about how to conduct a war against Japan decades before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In “Theodore Roosevelt, Carl Akeley, and the American Museum of Natural History,” Debby Applegate reviews a biography of Akeley and an essay that examines his work at the museum. Applegate highlights Akeley’s relationship with Roosevelt that began with his African safari, and she highlights how the works under review stress that the museum and its Roosevelt Memorial Hall are not “timeless” but represent the thinking of the men and the times in which they were built, and she cautions against casually condemning their work. A separate “Book Notes” section mentions twenty-five books on Roosevelt related topics or from Roosevelt historians, ranging from children’s books to biographies to a cookbook. The work of David G. McCullough, Douglas Brinkley, and Sylvia Jukes Morris are highlighted.

Photographs of Miller, Akeley, and the Barosaurus exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History illustrate the sections.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

John A. Gable reviews Lewis L. Gould’s The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and Jean Fritz’s Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt! in the “Book Reviews” section. Gable provides a detailed look at Gould’s work and compares and contrasts Gould’s assessments with those of other historians. Gable notes that Gould has a mostly favorable impression of President Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign and domestic policies, but he faults Gould for not adequately addressing Roosevelt’s achievements in conservation, and he disagrees with Gould’s assertion that McKinley was the first “‘modern President.'” Gable praises Fritz’s biography of Roosevelt for children, stating that it is a good starting point to learn about Roosevelt. Stephen W. Zsiray provides the first ever review of a software program in the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal with a look at a program that allows players to recreate the election of 1912. “Book Reviews” closes with a listing of ten Roosevelt related titles that are currently in print or have been reissued in paperback.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1991

Creator(s)

Gable, John A.; Zsiray, Stephen W. (Stephen William), 1951-2014

Two books undergo scrutiny in this edition of the “Book Reviews” section while ten others are mentioned in a “Book Notes” subsection that lists recently released or reissued titles. Elizabeth E. Roosevelt reviews Richard H. Collin’s Theodore Roosevelt’s Caribbean and gives a brief overview of each of the work’s four sections, praising the book for its portraits of key players involved in the various diplomatic tussles of the Roosevelt administration in the Caribbean basin. The review is followed by seven excerpts from Collin’s book, ranging from a single sentence to short paragraphs. Donald F. Kirkpatrick reviews Ralph H. Lutts’s The Nature Fakers which chronicles Theodore Roosevelt’s fight with William J. Long and other nature writers who attributed human traits to animals.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1991

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Elizabeth E.; Collin, Richard H.; Kirkpatrick, Donald F.; Unknown

John A. Gable reviews two works in the “Book Reviews” section. Gable praises James B. Reckner’s history of the Great White Fleet and notes that the work favors the military and technological aspects of the cruise, and he emphasizes that the cruise served as an important test for the navy in many respects. Gable also favors Louis Auchincloss’s The Vanderbilt Era: Profiles of a Gilded Age which looks at how the fortune of the Vanderbilt family helped shape American art and architecture in a quest to create an “American Renaissance.”

Two photographs appear in the section: one of Reckner and one of the USS Theodore Roosevelt underway in the Mediterranean Sea with other ships of her battle group and planes from her air wing.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1989

William N. Tilchin surveys the major works on President Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy from 1956 to 1986, looking at nine books and one article. Tilchin provides detailed reviews of eight of the books, and highlights the discussion of diplomacy in the ninth. In doing so, Tilchin addresses the historiography of Roosevelt and his foreign policy, and he demonstrates how Roosevelt’s reputation as a diplomat grew from the low point it reached with Henry F. Pringle’s biography of 1931. Tilchin touches on the major international crises and issues of Roosevelt’s presidency, including the Philippine American War, the creation of the Panama Canal, and the voyage of the Great White Fleet. The essay is supported by 183 endnotes and includes a listing of publications about Roosevelt’s diplomacy not addressed in the text.

The article also contains three text boxes: one lists the leadership of the Theodore Roosevelt Association; another, “About the Author,” notes Tilchin’s work as a teacher and historian; and a third says that this issue of the journal “is dedicated to the people of the State of North Dakota.” A portrait of Roosevelt and a photograph of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt with elements of her air wing illustrate the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1989

Two books are reviewed and two books are revisited in this edition of the “Book Reviews” section. John A. Gable examines The Letters of Edith Wharton and focuses on what the letters reveal about Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, Theodore Roosevelt’s sister, and Ethel Roosevelt Derby, the president’s daughter. Gable provides portraits of each, and he notes that Edith Wharton “regarded [Theodore] Roosevelt with an awe bordering on worship.” Perry D. Floyd asserts that Garrett and Roosevelt falls short as a biography of the last twenty years of lawman Pat F. Garrett’s life in part because there was not much a relationship between Garrett and Roosevelt. Floyd says that the available evidence cannot support the book’s title.

The column offers extended quotes from Lewis L. Gould and Gable taken from their reviews of Carol Felsenthal’s biography Alice Roosevelt Longworth, and it features a notice (which acts as an advertisement) about the reissue of the Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia. The notice quotes from William Allen White’s foreword to the 1941 edition.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1989

Three works come under consideration in the “Book Reviews” section. Cole Patrick looks at both the 1941 and 1989 editions of the Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia. He comments on the work of Albert Bushnell Hart in compiling and editing the first edition, and he quotes from William Allen White’s foreword from 1941. Patrick explains the various additions made to the 1989 edition by John A. Gable of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA), including a bibliography, a chronology of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, and a history of the TRA.

Tweed Roosevelt examines Bartle Bull’s Safari: A Chronicle of Adventure and highlights its coverage of Theodore Roosevelt’s African safari of 1909-1910, and he also looks at other figures, British and American, who made safaris. He praises the book’s organization and illustrations but faults it for not giving a sense of who the hunters were as people, Roosevelt included. Marilyn E. Weigold praises Elizabeth Winthrop’s novel, In My Mother’s House, for its “precise descriptions of life in Manhattan in the last few decades of the nineteenth century.” The novel’s main character is based on the life of the daughter of Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, Theodore Roosevelt’s sister.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1989

John A. Gable, editor of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal, reviews three works and Richard H. Collin a fourth in the “Book Reviews” section. Gable examines a history of Theodore Roosevelt’s tenure as Police Commissioner of New York City, a biography of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, and a reissue of Hermann Hagedorn’s classic study of Roosevelt’s time in Dakota, Roosevelt in the Bad Lands. Collin studies a work on the relationship between Roosevelt and the naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan. Gable lists sixteen changes introduced to the New York City Police Department (NYPD) by Roosevelt, and he finds Jay S. Berman’s study important as the first book solely devoted to Roosevelt’s years with the NYPD despite his misgivings about its use of academic language and police jargon.

Gable focuses on Hagedorn’s research and on his relationship to the Roosevelt Memorial Association rather than on the content of the book, but he quotes David McCullough in arguing that Roosevelt in the Bad Lands remains valuable to those wanting to know about Roosevelt’s time in the West. In reviewing Carol Felsenthal’s Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Gable quotes from newspaper reviews, compares the book to previous biographies, and asserts that it is the best overall study of “Princess Alice” done to date. Collin highlights episodes, mostly negative, from Mahan’s career, and argues that Richard W. Turk’s study of the Roosevelt-Mahan relationship is deeply flawed by its lack of knowledge of Roosevelt, factual errors, and a weak bibliography. A photograph of USS Theodore Roosevelt appears in the Collin review.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1988