Theodore Rex

On my journey to read at least one biography of each President in chronological order, I always found myself wanting to read about Theodore Roosevelt. The man is a force of nature, going from a weak asthmatic boy to an adventure loving man who eventually became President through sheer force of will. And I was just as excited to read Edmund Morris' biographies. Every time I was struggling through a previous biography, I would just think that I was one step closer to his books if I read just one more page. Then I read The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, the first book in Morris' series. I found it to be fun and exciting, especially through his early life. There were some parts that I did not like, however, mainly having to do with his political dealings in the State House of New York. Morris had the habit of telling these events in the most dull and driest way possible. Little did I know that this problem would come back to haunt me as I began Theodore Rex, the second book that describes Roosevelt's two terms in office. Although Theodore Rex does an excellent job describing the issues in Roosevelt's cabinet and domestic political problems, it is inconsistent when it comes to foreign affairs, and describing how Roosevelt the man acted as Roosevelt the President.

Morris uses his considerable talents to describe the issues and problems that faced Roosevelt, beginning with adopting McKinley's cabinet through to the problems in Roosevelt's second term. Morris tends to emphasize the politics of the era, with a solid exploration of the major cabinet members, as well as the political foes Roosevelt had in both the House and the Senate. This made for a decent exploration at the nitty gritty details of how a person can be influenced by their own advisors as well as the other branches of government.

Sadly, this is where the good points end for me, as the rest of this book was a slog to get through. The major reason was that this book simply lacked focus. We would change topics seemingly at random, jumping from a situation with Roosevelt in his office with a cabinet member, to a developing situation in the House, to a problem with factory workers, all with only minimal connecting tissue. This results in the reader moving around with little idea as to what is going to happen next, which can make for a narrative that is difficult to follow.

This isn't helped by the lack of background information. Morris uses only the most minimal information possible to get his point across in nearly every facet of this book, from Roosevelt's family life to international politics. The best example of this is the development of the Panama Canal. Through this book I know that there was a revolution in Columbia, and this led to problems getting the deal to have the canal built for the US, and eventually Roosevelt had to send in warships with troops into the region. That's it. I have no idea as to why there was a revolution, who fought over what or why. The same story goes for the Russo-Japanese War. Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the conflict. You'd think I'd know more than that Russia and Japan were at war...for some reason. Roosevelt ended it with a lot of politicking, the end. This lack of information left me frustrated, to say the least.

Roosevelt and his family are almost wholly ignored as well. Except for a creepy description of Alice Roosevelt here and there, we get no look into his family life, to the point where I forgot he had five other children. This leads me into one other frustration that we do not see Roosevelt as a person, with flaws and all. With the exception of Morris admitting early on that he was somewhat racist for his time (and even this feels glossed over), Morris acts like Roosevelt was a political genius for most of his Presidency. Those few times where he does slip up (inviting Booker T. Washington to the Whitehouse, for instance), it feels like Morris is blaming White Supremacist Newspapers, before Roosevelt's own thoughts on the issue. Most of the time his own thoughts and feelings are given a cursory glance, if any at all. Overall, this leads to the effect of the reader not seeing how the man Roosevelt became in book 1 adapted to being President in book 2.

In the end, this book has been such a negative experience that I will give this book away when I am done with the series. I won't read this again, and I doubt I will be sorry about it. Morris exchanges all the build up and goodwill he had from the first book for a slog of a story that features even the barest hint of the talent and drive we saw in that first installment. I'm going to be reading Colonel Roosevelt, but I won't be looking forward to it. As for this book, I give it a two out of five.