Edmund Morris writes an exhaustive book about the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt. Viewed as one of the greatest American presidents, his legacy of progressivism has held up over the century since his administration. He widely traveled the nation and the world. Roosevelt lived on the land as a rancher and homesteader, was a sportsman, philanthropist, scholar and avid reader, cavalry commander and consumate politician.
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He was the first president to win the nobel peace prize for helping to broker an armistice between Russia and Japan. Roosevelt helped to establish national parks, monuments and forests and was concerned with conservation issues. He fought Spain over Cuba and the Phillipines and re-emphasized the Monroe doctrine to keep European nations from being involved in the Western Hemisphere. He created the second most powerful navy in the world. He took over the work on the Panama Canal project from France. His administration pushed through legislation to protect children by enacting the first child labor laws and setting food and drug standards. He established antitrust laws and upheld the Sherman Antitrust act as a part of his "trustbusting" policy. He played a leading role in the settling of the anthracite coal strike in Pennsylvania in 1902. His opposition to discrimination was so great he invited Booker T. Washington to a White House state dinner. the first African American ever to be extended such a invitation prompting death threats against Roosevelt's life.
His legend was cemented by finishing a speech given while injured with a bullet in his chest from a would-be assassin. His sparing of a bedraggled bear cub during a hunting expedition created the teddy bear.
The review of this Book prepared by David Fletcher
The second volume of Morris's biography of Theodore Rooseveldt begins with his call to take the oath of office after the assassination of President Mckinley in 1901 and takes him through his two terms as president. It covers all of his most important accomplishments as president: the Panama Canal, the Phillipines, the creation of the national parks, and the capital/labor problems his administration had to deal with.
The review of this Book prepared by Jack Goodstein