Theodore Roosevelt: The Rough Riders/An Autobiography (Library of America)

Who was Theodore Roosevelt? Most of us think of him as one of America's greatest presidents, a champion of progressive politics, and a master statesman. But many feared the political power that Roosevelt wielded. Woodrow Wilson once called him "the most dangerous man of the age." Mark Twain thought him "clearly insane." William James scorned the "flood of bellicose emotion" he let loose during his presidency. Even his biographer, Edmund Morris, is astonished at Roosevelt's "irrational love of battle."

In this book, Sarah Watts probes this dark side of the Rough Rider, presenting a fascinating psychological portrait of a man whose personal obsession with masculinity profoundly influenced the fate of a nation. Drawing on his own writings and on media representations of him, Watts attributes the wide appeal of Roosevelt's style of manhood to the way it addressed the hopes and anxieties of men of his time. Like many of his contemporaries, Roosevelt struggled with what it meant to be a man in the modern era. He saw two foes within himself: a fragile weakling and a primitive beast. The weakling he punished and toughened with rigorous, manly pursuits such as hunting, horseback riding, and war. The beast he unleashed through brutal criticism of homosexuals, immigrants, pacifists, and sissies—anyone who might tarnish the nation's veneer of strength and vigor. With his unabashed paeans to violence and aggressive politics, Roosevelt ultimately offered American men a chance to project their longings and fears onto the nation and its policies. In this way he harnessed the primitive energy of men's desires to propel the march of American civilization—over the bodies of anyone who might stand in its way.

Written with passion and precision, this powerful revisioning of an American icon will forever alter the way we see Theodore Roosevelt and his political legacy.

"A superb scholarly study of how Roosevelt built his political base on the aspiration and fears of men in a rapidly changing nation and world."—Charles K. Piehl, Library Journal

"A thought-provoking and innovative study of the dark side of Roosevelt's personality. . . . [Watt's] arguments are clear, passionate, and thoroughly supported."—Elizabeth A. Bennion, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

This political vision would serve, and to an unlikely extent, still serves as America's domestic and foreign policy, she suggests. Watts makes this argument implicitly throughout most of the work, however, late in the book she does allow this ghost assertion to manifest itself: "For the remainder of the twentieth century, modernism continued to deprived men of viable lives and to force them into compromises that many consider feminizing and emasculating. As the middle class searched for meaning in a world of bureaucracy and consumerism, and as purchasing power and real wages began their long decline after 1972, men still needed a muscular proving ground on which to inscribe their anti-modern revolt, and the appeal of violence on an official level never diminshed" (page 240).

Indeed, she suggests that the conservative backlash of the past 25 years has borrowed much of the bellicose rhetoric and militaristic ethos of Roosevelt, as well as the sorting of citizens into the deserving and undeserving groups by wealth, ethnic and racial background, and social position. As Watts says with respect to non-white, non Anglo-Saxon males, "Roosevelt's exclusionary language had helped to create an intolerant social milieu and a punitive psychological one" (page 240). As Watt's points out, "(Roosevelt's) vision of manhood rested on the notion of a once strong, but now fragile and ever weakening male self, a notion that arose from his own emotional preoccupations, particularly his disgust for his own and other men's physical inferiority, his pervasive sexual priggishness, his anxiety about future sexual and racial degeneracy, and his fears of an interior cowardice that might be exposed to the outside world" (page 4). And, further, she notes that "Throughout his life, Roosevelt met every appearance of this weakened self with aggressive disciplines and punishments," and that ""No matter how he toughened himself, however, he could not escape living in a Victorian world in which normalcy was at stake and monstrosity was everywhere" (page 4-5). This Victorian world, she claims, has been recently been resuscitated as a political dreamspace in our political discourse.

Watts clearly shows that "Roosevelt was the first president to articulate the shared anxieties of his generation, and he provided its first seemingly coherent response to the current dislocations of modern society" (page 2). In retrospect, the bipolar extremes that Roosevelt practiced as the embodiment of its new "manifest destiny," from gentleman Patroon and cowboy soldier, now seem so extreme that they could not have co-existed in one man. Indeed most modern biographers have difficulty explaining these extremes and tend to focus on one side or the other. And so most accounts are usually are just recitations of his activities, while this most contradictory of all presidents, who led us out of the era of the frontier and into the American Century seems lost to our comprehension. Watts makes TR make sense because her contextualization of his life in his times is completely convincing. Excellent illustrations.

A polyglot collection of Cowboys and Indians, lawmen and outlaws, Ivy Leaguers and half-breeds, the Rough Riders captured the imagination of the nation. Authorized to organize a volunteer cavalry from the western territories, Roosevelt, recognizing that his own limited military experience may prevent the regiment from a timely arrival at the front, accepted the position of second in command to his friend, Leonard Wood. With Wood's leadership and Roosevelt's energy building on the rough and tumble abilities of its troops, the Rough Riders were quickly whipped into shape and shipped to the embarkation site in Tampa.

Struggling to get to the port and aboard ship, the Rough Riders were among the first troops to get into combat. Charging up Kettle Hill during the attack on the San Juan Hills, the Rough Riders passed through glory on their way to the trenches surrounding Santiago.

With the Spaniards vanquished, the Rough Riders took on a more lethal foe, disease, prominently malaria. As a volunteer officer who did not have to fear official retribution, TR took the lead in fighting for an early return of the army to the U. S. before it was destroyed by tropical diseases.

TR tells the Rough Rider story from every angle. The reader meets its characters and learns its legends. We learn of its triumphs and its disappointments, such as leaving many of its men and most of its horses in Florida. We read of the challenges of transport, landing, fighting and marching. The brass come in for both praise and criticism.

Before Teddy Roosevelt earned his reputation as a strong, masculine hunter, explorer, and Rough Rider, he actually endured a sickly childhood. That’s just one aspect of his life covered in this handsomely illustrated biography, which follows his transformation into a disciplined athlete and one of the world’s best-known public servants and politicians. Renowned author John Garraty uses quotes from Roosevelt throughout, giving readers direct contact with the man’s colorful personality. In addition, Garraty masterfully eliminates confusing details, while emphasizing the significance of Roosevelt’s actions as he deals with opposing faction. He emerges as the first modern President and a great statesman.