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acardattack's review
4.5
wonderful read about one of history's most interesting figures. Teddy was such a great man, he had his flaws, especially with hindsight, but for a lot of things, he felt like he was ahead of his peers
I did skim the first couple chapters about his early life. Yes its important to his development, but it doesnt really interest me
I did skim the first couple chapters about his early life. Yes its important to his development, but it doesnt really interest me
chadtrim's review
4.0
A sprawling and thought-provoking portrait of a President I thought I knew a lot about, but really didn't. If I'm being perfectly honest, regardless of whether or not this was Brands' intent - my perception of TR was pretty tarnished by this book. He had a massive chip on his shoulder, an inferiority complex rivaling Tr*mps and possessed one of my least favorite politician qualities of all time; being extremely hawkish. To be fair, most past Presidents were all of the above. Regardless, the book was great and I’d for sure read a Presidential Bio again.
aaronesharp's review
4.0
A good read on TR. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, though it was a good 800 pages. A lot of info on Roosevelt before the presidency.
maggil's review
4.0
Brands strikes an excellent balance between relating the extraordinary particulars of TR's life in factual detail and editorializing his thoughts and decisions (especially later in life) with some unpartisian reality.
arista_k's review
3.0
Meh. The Edmund Morris trilogy was significantly better. SIGNIFICANTLY. I just don’t know how a 800 page book managed to be so superficial! I’ve read a few Roosevelt biographies before so I didn’t expect to be surprised by much, but I’d have liked to learn SOMETHING. Not to be. Major policy initiatives get a paragraph but Brands’ theory on Roosevelt’s psychology (based on woefully little, I’ll add) manages to choke up whole chapters. I had to make myself finish the last- god help me- 300 pages of this one.
cspiwak's review
4.0
this is the 1st Teddy Bio I've read, so I cannot compare it to others. At over 800 pages, I was still left feeling that I'd barely skimmed the surface. Would have liked more detail on his time in Africa and the Amazon, but really, eveything was given fairly even coverage
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