Customer Reviews

The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Could have been just as truthfully called "The Pride's Lion." This book focuses more on Teddy Roosevelt (TR) with his family as an ever present backdrop, than on the family itself.

Still, this is an interesting book. For TR devotees, they will find this book a summary focusing on the last ten years of his life. It is a time when TR, still vigorous, is launching his children into the larger world and beginning to focus on their efforts and activities to shoulder the family's unique burden of service to the country.

The book takes this period and investigates how TR's larger than life example to and relationships with his four sons shaped their destinies, most immediately by their preparation for and service during World War I.

TR molded the family in his image. His code is their code as they constantly are movtivated by living up to his ideals and frequently take action according to what father would do. This is a portrait of a strong family, wedded to a single world and life view, abiding by commonly held standards that they all internalized and lived by.

This portrait of the family as the core of the Roosevelt existence is touching and provides a good study of the fountain from which TR drank constantly to replenish his soul and steel himself for the public battles that define the statesman.

I would have liked to have had more of a focus on how TR built the family. It would have been interesting to know more of their childhoods -- much the way Edmund Morris plumbed TR's own childhood experiences in "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" -- to better understand how this family developed into the close knit reflection of TR's will.

But it is a relatively short book and does an intersting job on the material it covers. You get a good feel for the Roosevelt family bonds during the period of their children's young adulthoods against the backdrop of the war in Europe and TR's tireless campaigns to shape America as he saw it should be.

In "The Lion's Pride" Edward Renehen treats the reader to an interesting insight into the last years of Theodore Roosevelt's life, with a particular emphasis his impact on World War I and the War's impact on TR and his family.

Beginning with the Roosevelt Family background, the reader is introduced to Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., Greatheart to his family, who taught his children the duties which go with privilege. Greatheart made one decision which would have a profound impact on his progeny: he paid a substitute to take his place in the Union Army. The shame of his refusal to serve which drove TR and his sons to on the battlefields of the world to seek to redeem Greatheart's failure.

TR began his redemptive act during his service as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, from which post he played a major role in getting America ready for and into the Spanish American War. This objective achieved, TR began an insatiable quest to get to the Front. Leaving his family behind, he went to Texas to organize the Rough Riders, an improbable mixture of cowboys and Indians, lawmen and outlaws, westerners and Ivy League athletes. Through TR's persistence they were deployed to Cuba where they charged up San Juan Hill and into glory on July 1, 1898.

After having served as President during a time of peace, TR's marital ardor was again stirred by the coming of World War I. TR, an early and enthusiastic advocate of American preparedness and intervention, raked the neutrality policies of the Wilson administration with merciless fire.

With America's entrance into the war, the cry for TR to, once again, get to the Front arose, not only from TR himself, but from European allies. Georges Clemenceau argued that Roosevelt's was the "one name which summons up the beauty of American intervention" and demanded that Wilson "Send Roosevelt!" In a personal interview, TR had to compliment Wilson in a effort to get command of a division of volunteers. Neither TR, nor allies pleading for a liberating hero, would be satisfied. Wilson, besides being unwilling to give center stage to an aggressive and popular political opponent, recognized that the days of the "Charge Of The Light Brigade" were over. There was no place in modern war for a half-blind, overweight, infection and rheumatism ravaged amateur soldier with a record of insubordination. TR's proposed volunteer division, which would have attracted many of the Army's most promising officers, would have presented a major impediment to the administration's goal of a draft army.

Blocked from the Front, TR made speeches is support of the war effort, while all of his sons would be wounded in action. Ted Jr.. and Kermit served on the ground in Europe while Archie served with British forces in the Middle East and Quentin dueled in the skies over Europe. Many comparisons contrasted the active service of TR's sons with the positions in the rear held by the sons of the Kaiser. Ted, Jr.'s wife, Eleanor, along Woodrow Wilson's son, serviced with the YMCA in France, a fact which provided the basis for sarcastic comparisons. Quentin's death in a dog fight cast a pallor over Sagamore Hill and inflicted a wound from which TR would never recover.

After Quentin's death, TR's life rapidly wound down. Tropical diseases and years of strenuous life finally took their toll with TR's unexpected death on January 6, 1919.

The military service of the Roosevelt family would not end with the death of the Old Lion. His three surviving sons would serve in World War II, two of them dying in uniform. Ted, Jr.. would win the Medal of Honor, a decoration which TR had been denied.

"The Lion's Pride" tells the fantastic story of the life of an extraordinary family. It is the best telling of the World War I era of TR's life which I have found. To learn about either of these topics, "The Lion's Pride" is an excellent choice.

This is a haunting look back at a time that seems never to have been and a bigger than life figure whose influence on his family was at once wonderful and tragic. The author moves quickly, giving just enough detail to render a sure sense of family life at Sagamore Hill and the White House. He touches on playtimes led or inspired by loving bear of a father, TR. He recalls the competitiveness of Roosevelt's children as they strive to impress their father, and he notes the impact of Roosevelt's glory on hills called Kettle and San Juan: "Teddy Roosevelt's children grew up in the glow of Roosevelt's crowded hour." Roosevelt clamored for war with Spain in 1898, and when he got his wish, he made the most of it, charging into enemy rifle fire on horseback, while his men moved ahead on foot. He came home a hero, boastful and proud. In time, he would have cause to wonder about the impact of his hour of glory. His sons, always quick to follow his example, had no three month assignment when their war came, but instead endured long months at or near the front, ill prepared, poorly equipped and plagued by doubt. TR knew that WWI was no summer season war. The weapons were deadlier, the losses staggering and the warring sides grimly determined to fight on. He wrote one of his sons, "If after you have been in the fighting line, you are offered a staff place in which you can be more useful, it would be foolish to refuse it ..." His worry was too late. Three of his boys would suffer serious injury. One would lose his life. The death of his youngest shook TR. "I can see how he constantly thinks of him," wrote Mrs. Roosevelt, "and not the silly recollections ... but sad thoughts of what Quentin would have counted for in the future." In less than six months Roosevelt himself would be dead, in some sense a second victim of the bluster and blast that so defined him. What is most unique about this book is its feel for Roosevelt family life, the relationship of one to the other, the numerous and varied activities, the friends, associates, wives and husbands, and, at the center, holding everything together, the wonderful and impossible Bully Boy, Theodore Roosevelt. Renehan creates a kind of challenge to the self-interest, materialism and disjointedness that so characterizes life in our time.

I have just finished The Lion's Pride and have finished crying. Theodore Roosevelt has been my hero since boyhood; I've visited Sagamore and TR's grave, read Morris's excellent Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, the delightful Mornings on Horseback by McCulough, other bios, and TR's own The Rough Riders, so I know the major triumphs and tragedies in Roosevelt's life. But in Renehan's book, whose focus is on TR's 4 sons, 2 daughters, and their children, I kept hoping what I knew would happen would NOT happen. I wanted TR to win a third term, survive into old age, have some active role in World War I, not have a son die in that war, etc. I kept saying, "NO, I don't WANT this to happen this way!" But it did; there is more sadness in the Roosevelt family than, perhaps, in most others. But the Roosevelts lived life to the fullest (the "strenuous life" in TR's words) and that is a lesson we could all remember.

Renehan draws on first-person accounts of people who knew TR and his children to paint vivid, vibrant pictures of a prominent American family in peace and war. There are unforgettable vignettes of veteran Rough Riders visiting TR long after the Spanish-American War, of soldiers who served with TR's sons in WWI, and of TR's "war" with Woodrow Wilson about America's role in WWI.

The deaths of 3 of TR's sons can legitimately be seen as metaphors for America in the 20th century. One died in combat, one died of a coronary, and a third, an alcoholic, died by his own hand. All were successful in various ways, but one wonders if they ever really escaped the shadow of their father.

Renehan omitted my favorite TR story. TR, his wife, and a friend were on a back porch somewhere, rocking and talking on a warm summer evening. The quiet was broken by TR, who slammed his fist down on the arm of the chair. His wife, who knew him well, asked calmly, "What is it, dear?" "A mosquito," TR replied. His wife replied, "He killed mosquitoes as if they were lions, and lions as if they were mosquitoes." (Apologies if I have the wording and setting a skosh wrong).

Finally, compare TR with today's politicians, and anyone who has been in the White House in the lifetime of the vast majority of us. Do any compare to TR? I don't think so.

This story of a famous American family deserves an honored place among the best of bios about TR. It is history at its most compelling: the interweaving of the lives of one group of individuals in the great events of the previous century.

Renehan is one of the best popular historians at work today. In THE LION'S PRIDE, he provides an engrossing read and a unique angle of vision on a figure we all thought we knew well: Theodore Roosevelt. Here we have a sympathetic and totally new interpretation of TR. Here we see him as a devoted and idolized father, as a romanticizer of warfare, and [in the end] as a tragic antihero as these two key elements of his personality collide.

TR For Father of the Year? Definitely not in 2001. But perhaps in 1917!

Was Teddy Roosevelt a loving and devoted father, or was he a hawkish militarist who pushed his sons to enlist and fight a war he wished he could?

I'd say he was both!

Undoubtedly, TR loved all his children. And though his attitude toward them seems harsh by modern standards, I think he was a good father. Clearly his children all loved him dearly. He never asked more of them than he demanded from himself.

This is a wonderful book: sometimes sad, sometimes funny, but fascinating all the way through!

This is one of the best biographies of Theodore Roosevelt that I have ever read. It is interesting when you read this book and compare the legacy of the Roosevelt family and the Kennedy family. This is just my own opinion but I think the Roosevelt have more personality then all of the Kennedy family which is strange considering that the Roosevelt's are more overlooked.

Roosevelt was in effect the first of the modern politicians but still elements of the old school.

He was arrogant, a jingoist, and bombastic. He was also larger then life and an honest man in his own way. He also made sure that two of his sons served with the ground forces during WWI. That is something that cannot be said politicians today.

Teddy Roosevelt loved war and encouraged his sons to serve in World War I. This book seeks to show how the views of Roosevelt the Rough Rider were reflected in the life and service of his sons (and daughter). This is a semi-tragic story and well told. My reluctance to give it 5 stars is simply that it doesn't quite have the page turning fascination of Morris's Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.

Renehan's accounting of the last years of Theodore Roosevelt Jr. is condensed and fascinating. Mostly covering 1898 and 1910-1919, the book provides insight into the southern New York high society of the early 20th century. Famous names, including Vanderbilt, Roosevelt, Cowles, and Coolidge, parade across the pages.

Nuggets include the mention of Harvard in that time as a conservative and pro-military bastion (compared to today's institution fighting military recruitment in court), Woodrow Wilson viewed as an appeaser, a coward, and an appointer of bigots in his administration (in contrast to a reputation as being a visionary negotiator), observation by Gen. George Patton that Theodore's eldest son, Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt III, was a courageous commander- but no soldier (both father and son won the Medal of Honor...a feat perhaps not matched by any other American family), and the contrast highlighted between Kaiser Wilhelm's non-combat patronage of his sons (during WWI) and the former president Roosevelt's sons participating in front line combat. Another interesting fact: three of Roosevelt's four sons died in military service--one killed in action, one dead of a heart attack a month after D-Day and one day before he was to be promoted to major general, and one a suicide). The fourth suffered from the long term effects of severe war wounds.

Roosevelt is also revealed as a founding father of the original progressive movement...born out of the Republican party, no less. "Progressive" used to mean advocating sensible capitalism through the restraint of unlimited power of large corporations (through the Sherman Act) and the promotion of sound environmental policy and conservation. It also demanded the U.S. government uphold its main role--that of national defense. This is in stark contrast to today's "progressive" thinking--complete rejection of market economics and corporations, radical environmentalism, and pacifism. Roosevelt must spin in his grave.

All in all a great primer of the former president. Makes you want to immediately run out and read more.

In "The Lion's Pride" Edward Renehen treats the reader to an interesting insight into the last years of Theodore Roosevelt's life, with a particular emphasis his impact on World War I and the War's impact on TR and his family.

Beginning with the Roosevelt Family background, the reader is introduced to Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., Greatheart to his family, who taught his children the duties which go with privilege. Greatheart made one decision which would have a profound impact on his progeny: he paid a substitute to take his place in the Union Army. The shame of his refusal to serve which drove TR and his sons to on the battlefields of the world to seek to redeem Greatheart's failure.

TR began his redemptive act during his service as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, from which post he played a major role in getting America ready for and into the Spanish American War. This objective achieved, TR began an insatiable quest to get to the Front. Leaving his family behind, he went to Texas to organize the Rough Riders, an improbable mixture of cowboys and Indians, lawmen and outlaws, westerners and Ivy League athletes. Through TR's persistence they were deployed to Cuba where they charged up San Juan Hill and into glory on July 1, 1898.

After having served as President during a time of peace, TR's marital ardor was again stirred by the coming of World War I. TR, an early and enthusiastic advocate of American preparedness and intervention, raked the neutrality policies of the Wilson administration with merciless fire.

With America's entrance into the war, the cry for TR to, once again, get to the Front arose, not only from TR himself, but from European allies. Georges Clemenceau argued that Roosevelt's was the "one name which summons up the beauty of American intervention" and demanded that Wilson "Send Roosevelt!" In a personal interview, TR had to compliment Wilson in a effort to get command of a division of volunteers. Neither TR, nor allies pleading for a liberating hero, would be satisfied. Wilson, besides being unwilling to give center stage to an aggressive and popular political opponent, recognized that the days of the "Charge Of The Light Brigade" were over. There was no place in modern war for a half-blind, overweight, infection and rheumatism ravaged amateur soldier with a record of insubordination. TR's proposed volunteer division, which would have attracted many of the Army's most promising officers, would have presented a major impediment to the administration's goal of a draft army.

Blocked from the Front, TR made speeches is support of the war effort, while all of his sons would be wounded in action. Ted Jr.. and Kermit served on the ground in Europe while Archie served with British forces in the Middle East and Quentin dueled in the skies over Europe. Many comparisons contrasted the active service of TR's sons with the positions in the rear held by the sons of the Kaiser. Ted, Jr.'s wife, Eleanor, along Woodrow Wilson's son, serviced with the YMCA in France, a fact which provided the basis for sarcastic comparisons. Quentin's death in a dog fight cast a pallor over Sagamore Hill and inflicted a wound from which TR would never recover.

After Quentin's death, TR's life rapidly wound down. Tropical diseases and years of strenuous life finally took their toll with TR's unexpected death on January 6, 1919.

The military service of the Roosevelt family would not end with the death of the Old Lion. His three surviving sons would serve in World War II, two of them dying in uniform. Ted, Jr.. would win the Medal of Honor, a decoration which TR had been denied.

"The Lion's Pride" tells the fantastic story of the life of an extraordinary family. It is the best telling of the World War I era of TR's life which I have found. To learn about either of these topics, "The Lion's Pride" is an excellent choice.