T.R.: The Last Romantic

by H. W. Brands Narrated by Matt Kugler

Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author, an acclaimed biography of President Teddy Roosevelt

Lauded as "a rip-roaring life" (Wall Street Journal), TR is a magisterial biography of Theodore Roosevelt by bestselling author H.W. Brands. In his time, there was no more popular national figure than Roosevelt. It was not just the energy he brought to every political office he held or his unshakable moral convictions that made him so popular, or even his status as a bonafide war hero. Most important, Theodore Roosevelt was loved by the people because this scion of a privileged New York family loved America and Americans.

And yet, according to Brands, if we look at the private Roosevelt without blinders, we see a man whose great public strengths hid enormous personal deficiencies; he was uncompromising, self-involved, and a highly imperfect brother, husband, and father.

Beautifully written, and powerfully moved by its subject, TR is the classic biography of one of America's greatest and most complex leaders.

Editorial Reviews

Booknews

Brands (history, Texas A&M U.) traces Roosevelt's life (1858-1919), chronicling 60 years of ambition, tragedy, experience, achievement, and frustration. Revealing the private man behind the public hero, he shows how public strengths hid troubling personal deficiencies. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Kirkus Reviews

Theodore Roosevelt emerges as considerably more than his toothy Rough Rider legend in this extensively researched, psychologically penetrating biography of our 26th president.

Even as an asthmatic child, when he began to mold his mind with tales of heroes and his body with physical exercise, Roosevelt saw life as a series of struggles and achievements, according to Brands (History/Texas A&M Univ.; The Reckless Decade, 1995). In young adulthood, this quest for heroism redoubled with the death of his father, who set a near-impossible moral standard. T.R.'s Manichaean perception of the world gave him the moral confidence, energy, and charisma that endeared him to supporters, but it also led him to intemperate, even demagogic attacks on opponents (e.g., he accused Woodrow Wilson of "criminal folly" for not preparing the US more thoroughly for entry into WW I). Brands absolves him of what critics viewed as his hypocrisy, noting that Roosevelt's near-total incapacity for reflection and self-knowledge led him, for good and ill, to ignore legal and procedural obstacles (notably by fomenting revolution in Panama to get the canal built there). Brands also adeptly traces the effect of Roosevelt's romanticism on his private life, noting that T.R.'s grief over the death of his first wife was so intense that he almost never referred to her after she died and maintained a more distant relationship with their daughter, Alice, than he did with the children of his second marriage. Brands accords Roosevelt full credit for blazing a path for future presidents in assuming responsibility for the economy and international security, and for using his office's "bully pulpit" to goad the national conscience.

Missing some of the brio of Edmund Morris's The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and of the colonel himself, but a life that pays its subject the ultimate tribute of taking him seriously as an adult.

From the Publisher

"A rip-roaring life of Theodore Roosevelt, in my view the most lovable, fascinating and creative of American presidents. Every red-blooded American should read this entertaining book.... Mr. Brands calls T.R. the last romantic, and it is true."—Paul Johnson, Wall Street Journal

"Roosevelt's life in Mr. Brands' able hands is a demonstration of the remarkable power of the human will. Roosevelt literally created the character he lived out, and then lived within it until he finally became his creation."—Washington Post

"Brands makes the case that Roosevelt believed in heroes and measured himself against giants of history and literature.... He puts them in vivid context with often wry narration and an impressive depth of historical research."—USA Today

"Brands outlines with suitable vigor the most important aspects of T.R.'s presidential years.... It seems likely that T.R. will stand for some time as the standard one-volume life."—Chicago Sun Times

"Brands shows how this hero of the charge up San Juan Hill, more than anyone else, led the United States onto the world stage."—Los Angeles Times

"Brands' narrative is lucid, fast-moving and unblended by hero-worship. In a single volume he has packed Roosevelt's 60 years of ambition, adventure, expediency, achievement, and, finally, frustration at having peaked too soon."—Publishers Weekly

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170236138
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	08/13/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos