Turk, Richard W

Six works compete for attention in this edition of the “Book Reviews” section, including two works by Theodore Roosevelt: a collection of nine of his speeches and essays published by the Theodore Roosevelt Association and a reissue of his The Naval War of 1812. The review of The Man in the Arena: Speeches and Essays notes that John A. Gable wrote the introduction and explanatory notes, and it provides context for some of the selections. A portion of Gable’s introduction follows the review. Seth Cropsey praises Roosevelt’s naval history and stresses its fairness and “balanced objectivity” and notes its relevance to contemporary debates about how to deploy the American navy.

Lewis L. Gould reviews James Wright’s study of the Progressive era in New Hampshire and notes that Roosevelt’s Bull Moose campaign set back the cause of reform in the state. Archibald B. Roosevelt, Junior, joins his cousin Kermit Roosevelt, Junior, both grandsons of Theodore Roosevelt, in publishing a memoir of his service with the Central Intelligence Agency, For Lust of Knowing: Memoirs of an Intelligence Officer.

The section notes the publication of works on Roosevelt’s time as Police Commissioner of New York City and on his relationship with the naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan, and notes that each will be reviewed in an upcoming issue of the Journal.

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