Samuels, Peggy

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. 

Report on the successful effort to posthumously award the Medal of Honor to Theodore Roosevelt for his actions during the Battle of San Juan on July 1, 1898. The report details the history of the efforts to secure the medal for Roosevelt dating back to the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, and it closely examines the renewed efforts since 1996, highlighting the work of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) and numerous members of Congress. The report also covers the White House ceremonies of January 16, 2001 presided over by President Bill Clinton, and it includes coverage of the heroics of Andrew Jackson Smith who was also posthumously awarded the medal for his actions during the Civil War. A history of the Rough Rider regiment, Clinton’s remarks at the ceremony, and the citation accompanying Roosevelt’s medal are included in the report. 

Five photographs from the medal ceremony and two of Roosevelt appear in the article.

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Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

John A. Gable critiques a book and an article that have been cited to undermine the case for awarding Theodore Roosevelt the Medal of Honor. Gable considers Teddy Roosevelt at San Juan: The Making of a President by Harold Samuels and Peggy Samuels and an article by military historian Mitchell A. Yockelson. Gable argues that the panel considering the merits of Roosevelt’s case should consider these works so that they can see the weakness of the argument against awarding Roosevelt the medal. Gable highlights some of the deficiencies in each of these works and refers to the Samuels’s book as “a blatant hatchet job.” 

A photograph of Gable with Tweed Roosevelt and two photographs of the Roosevelt Rough Rider equestrian statue in Portland, Oregon, supplement the letter. 

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Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

The “Book Reviews” section features three essays. In “‘The Negatives Are the Score the Prints Are the Performance,” Chris Foster examines Side Trips: The Photography of Sumner W. Matteson, 1898-1908. Foster looks at the development of photography equipment, especially Kodak cameras, notes the various locations in the American West, Mexico, and Cuba that Matteson documented, and pays particular attention to Matteson’s photographs of Native Americans and their culture. A photograph of a buffalo, a copy of which Matteson sent to President Theodore Roosevelt, accompanies the review and is the only illustration in the section.

In “A Tribute to George E. Mowry,” John Robert Greene reviews Reform and the Reformer in the Progressive Era.” Greene examines each of the essays in this tribute to George E. Mowry, a historian of the Progressive age, and finds a number of them disappointing, but he reserves special praise for an essay that provides an overview of Mowry’s career and for the transcript of an interview with Mowry from 1980.

John A. Gable reviews Peggy and Harold Samuels’s Frederic Remington: A Biography in “Remington’s West.” Gable notes the importance of Remington, Theodore Roosevelt, and Owen Wister to forming Americans’ view of the frontier West, and he catalogs many of Remington’s illustrations, paintings, and sculptures, some of which belonged to Roosevelt. Gable pushes back against some of the criticism that the Samuels compile against Remington, and he notes Roosevelt’s admiration for the artist.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal