Lion in the White House: A Life of Theodore Roosevelt [Hardcover]

Aida D. Donald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 22, 2007

New York State Assemblyman, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, New York City Police Commissioner, Governor of New York, Vice President and, at forty-two, the youngest President ever-in his own words, Theodore Roosevelt “rose like a rocket.” He was also a cowboy, a soldier, a historian, an intrepid explorer, and an unsurpassed environmentalist-all in all, perhaps the most accomplished Chief Executive in our nation’s history. In Lion in the White House: A Life of Theodore Roosevelt, historian Aida Donald masterfully chronicles the life of this first modern president. TR’s accomplishments in office were immense. As President, Roosevelt redesigned the office of Chief Executive and the workings of the Republican Party to meet the challenges of the new industrial economy. Believing that the emerging aristocracy of wealth represented a genuine threat to democracy, TR broke trusts to curb the rapacity of big business. He improved economic and social conditions for the average American. Roosevelt built the Panama Canal and engaged the country in world affairs, putting a temporary end to American isolationism. And he won the Nobel Peace Prize-the only sitting president ever so honored. Throughout his public career, TR fought valiantly to steer the GOP back to its noblest ideals as embodied by Abraham Lincoln. Alas, his hopes for his party were quashed by the GOP’s strong rightward turn in the years after he left office. But his vision for America lives on. In lapidary prose, this concise biography recounts the courageous life of one of the greatest leaders our nation has ever known.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this brisk biography, Donald, former editor-in-chief of Harvard University Press, ascribes Teddy Roosevelt's popularity to his combination of charisma and substance; he was an electrical, magnetic speaker, according to one contemporary newspaper account, and he hit themes that resonated with ordinary folks, such as honesty in government and opportunity for all. In the White House, Roosevelt established a model of positive, active governance and insisted that the president was more powerful than any business tycoon. Donald pays particular attention to Roosevelt's pioneering conservancy efforts, and she suggests that one of his most important acts was to appoint Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. to the Supreme Court. Donald also touches on the personal: his grief when his first wife died, and his passionate love for his second wife, with whom he set a new standard for presidential domestic life, entertaining with a gusto unmatched until the Kennedys. The book is refreshingly slim, but sometimes—as in the brief discussion of Roosevelt's appointments of African-Americans to government jobs—one wishes for more. Indeed, there's not much here that readers won't find in other studies of Roosevelt, but Donald's swift prose makes this a satisfying read. Photos. History Book Club main selection.(Nov.)
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Review

"Aida Donald's elegant and affectionate portrait of Theodore Roosevelt is less a biography--although it provides a perceptive account of the events of his life--than a masterful essay on idealism and power, and on the complicated relationship between the two. There are many studies of Theodore Roosevelt, but everyone interested in the man should read this beautifully written and deeply intelligent book." -- Alan Brinkley

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; First Edition edition (October 22, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465002137
• ISBN-13: 978-0465002139
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,018,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't try to cram TR into limited modern political boxes, January 12, 2008

By 

Roger D. Curry (FAIRMONT, WV USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lion in the White House: A Life of Theodore Roosevelt (Hardcover)

I always enjoy a read about TR and the original works OF TR, since he's a genuine hero. Lion in the White House is a good, solid, basic biography which adds very little to the scholarship of the extensive biographies of the past decade. The unique thing I really got from it is a reasonable interpretation of TR's intervention in the 1902 Anthracite Strike, reasonable being defined as I agree with it and it's a noble conclusion. (I have a strong Progressive bent. I'm allowed to. It's America - the America that TR believed in and worked for.) Edmund Morris's The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, and the (hopefully) to-be-written volume about the post-presidential years remain the gold standard of TR bio's, and H.W. Brands' TR: The Last Romantic runs a close second. Lion in the White House is a great place to start study of TR. The Library of America has published a volume called Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches, which gives thinking people some original source matter to read for themselves. One recommended and fun (if quirky) TR tome is My Last Chance to be a Boy, by Joseph Ornig, which is a detailed account of the 1913 - 14 Brazilian expedition.
The Democrats and Republicans of 1900 wouldn't recognize the parties of today. TR's policies and passions were not shaped around tired but limited modern menus of the stereotypical "right" and "left." For example, he was for open immigration, which would displease many today. He also strongly believed that immigrants needed to speak English and become Americans, rather than something hyphenated, which would displease the rest of modern politicos. Get a grip, we're not going to bring America forward by wrapping ourselves in emptiness, we need to actually READ TR's advice and get off our collective butts, THINK, REASON and ACT:
"It is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds."

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Frustrating Reading Experience, January 12, 2008

By 

J. E. Obrien (Worcester, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lion in the White House: A Life of Theodore Roosevelt (Hardcover)

Please think twice before you waste your money on this biography.
It is an often irritation and annoying reading experience that is only comparable to an insipid, opinionated high school history textbook. This so-called "scholarly and academic" work by a writer with impressive credentials on paper has no footnotes, endnotes or a detailed bibliography. As a result the many questionable and provocative statements of historical fact and controversial interpretations of T.R's motivation by the author cannot be easily checked without recourse to other historical works.
I shuddered to think of the consequences if a graduate student had presented this weak effort as a thesis! Stick to Edmund Morris or H.W. Brands if you are looking for a real biography of T.R.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dignity, December 28, 2007

By 

William J Higgins III (Laramie, Wyoming United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lion in the White House: A Life of Theodore Roosevelt (Hardcover)

A most respectful, learned and concise biography of Theodore Roosevelt has been unleashed by historian Dr. Aida Donald. She covers it all in a forthright and approachable manner, the result of which is a fast paced and very readable book.

T. R.'s political life was a whirlwind of activeness to straighten what had been crooked. He was a man for the common good and fairness of the American laborer and the world at large. Fighting corruptness, injustices and contaminates in the political and private arena, whether domestic or internationally, Roosevelt was adhering to Lincoln's principles of progressivism and ideologies.

Two minor points:
Regarding the Spanish-American War in 1898, where it is stated that "The multimillionaire officer John Jacob Astor gave Roosevelt's regiment the munificent gift of a fully equipped battery- worth about a hundred thousand dollars...(page 90)". This was not the senior fur trade and real estate magnate himself as he died in 1848. It was possibly his descendant John Jacob Astor, IV.
Secondly, the River of Doubt, which T. R. descended and later was called the Rio Roosevelt, is south of the Amazon not north (page 256).
Great biography. Highly recommend.