Theodore Rex. - book review

Contemporary Review, August, 2002

Theodore Rex. Edmund Morris. HarperCollins. [pounds sterling]25.00. 772 pages. ISBN 0-00-217708-0. This biography, first published in the U.S. last year, is about one of the U.S.'s most famous, and most theatrical, Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt. He was Vice-President and succeeded upon the assassination of William McKinley in 1901.

The author follows a 'you are there' approach and takes his readers through Roosevelt's life with a somewhat breathless prose which will appeal or not according to the reader's tastes. It must not be seen to belie the massive research put into the book. The author brings this extraordinary President to life and never loses sight of the man whilst talking about the President. He became President when only 42 and left public office when 51 but he remains one of America's most memorable chief executives. He did more to establish his country's imperial position, to build up the navy and to raise the United States' status as a world power than any previous president. He embodied all th e virtues of the energetic American whose vision knew no bounds. Even America's harshest critic, Mrs Trollope, might have approved. She would at least have been impressed.