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The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women Who Created a President
A spirited and poignant family love story, revealing how an icon of rugged American masculinity was profoundly shaped by the women in his life, especially his mother, sisters, and wives.Theodore Roosevelt wrote in his senior thesis for Harvard in 1880 that women ought to be paid equal to men and have the option of keeping their maiden names upon marriage. It’s little surprise he’d be a feminist, given the women he grew up with. His mother, Mittie, was witty and decisive, a Southern belle raising four young children in New York while her husband spent long stretches away with the Union Army. Theodore’s college sweetheart and first wife, Alice—so vivacious she was known as Sunshine—steered her beau away from science (he’d roam campus with taxidermy specimen in his pockets) and towards politics. Older sister Bamie would soon become her brother’s key political strategist and advisor; journalists called her Washington, DC, home “the little White House.” Younger sister Conie served as her brother’s press secretary before the role existed, slipping stories of his heroics in Cuba and his rambunctious home life to reporters to create the legend of the Rough Rider we remember today. And Edith—Theodore’s childhood playmate and second wife—would elevate the role of presidential spouse to an American institution, curating both the White House and her husband’s legacy. A dazzling and lyrical look at one America’s most significant presidents as we’ve never seen him before, The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt celebrates five extraordinary yet unsung women who opened the door to the American Century and pushed Theodore Roosevelt through it.
451 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 7, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 134 reviews
June 21, 2024
This was a fascinating look at Theodore Roosevelt and the strong women that surrounded and bolstered him to become the historical icon that he is today.
January 31, 2025
SENSATIONAL!
Teddy Roosevelt’s life cannot be fully understood without inclusion of the women who formed his “support system.” I especially loved how the audiobook version features sound recordings of the book’s key figures. Truly wonderful!
Teddy Roosevelt’s life cannot be fully understood without inclusion of the women who formed his “support system.” I especially loved how the audiobook version features sound recordings of the book’s key figures. Truly wonderful!
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October 22, 2024I had the pleasure of moderating a talk recently with Edward O’Keefe and he is a fantastic speaker, making the interesting facts in his biography come alive!
November 20, 2024
Great look at one of the most remarkable US Presidents, through the shade of the most influential women in his life: his mother, two sisters and two wives (and, to an extent, his daughter Alice).
This biography stands out in that it gives Roosevelt’s first wife, Alice Lee, her due as an influence on his early progressive leanings. It provides a fair look at his mother and second wife Edith, warts and all: the first a Confederate sympathizer, and the second a holder of some racist views that would shock the modern reader. It includes their jealousies, tempers, and faults, while also lauding their political influence, successes, and family loyalty in balancing out a man who was prone to excess, depression and impulsive behavior.
By the end of the biography, you can see how the influence of these women impacted Roosevelt’s career and presidency
This biography stands out in that it gives Roosevelt’s first wife, Alice Lee, her due as an influence on his early progressive leanings. It provides a fair look at his mother and second wife Edith, warts and all: the first a Confederate sympathizer, and the second a holder of some racist views that would shock the modern reader. It includes their jealousies, tempers, and faults, while also lauding their political influence, successes, and family loyalty in balancing out a man who was prone to excess, depression and impulsive behavior.
By the end of the biography, you can see how the influence of these women impacted Roosevelt’s career and presidency
August 31, 2024
This book looks at the life of Theodore Roosevelt an influenced by the women in his life. His mother, two sisters and his first and second wife. His mother and first wife died on the same day. His second wife was a childhood friend. All these women had an impact on his life. I didn't enjoy this book as much as "The Old Lion." I had never understood why Theodore Roosevelt was on Mt Rushmore but after reading these two books, it makes more sense. He was an impactful president.
May 29, 2024
3.5 stars
The O’Keefe mostly proves his thesis regarding the instrumental role of women in defining his political vision. However, he did not prove that Alice Lee had any influence on him. We are supposed to assume she’s smart because of her family’s progressive background. We all know that even the most brilliant families can have kids without that spark. Maybe she was a dud.
The only words we hear from Alice are from two letters. The first: “Teddy I long for some nice quiet little evenings with you alone. It makes me homesick to think I shall not see you for so long, for I love to be with you so much.… Don’t you think I am pretty good to write you every day? I suppose you laugh and say, these funny letters, they sound just like Alice.… I suppose you start today for Minnesota. Do keep well & enjoy yourself. Good night and sweet dreams. Your loving, Alice”. In the second she wrote to “My own dearest Teddy” with the wish it were the day of their wedding, adding: “I just long to be with you all the time and never separate from you, even for three weeks. Teddykins, I know you can make me happy and you must never think it would have been better for me, if we had never met; I should die without you now Teddy and there is not another man I ever could have loved in this world.”
Neither letter speaks to either intelligence or political acumen. That doesn’t stop the O’Keefe, who then highlights a passage from one of Teddy’s letters: “I love to talk over everything with Baby,” Roosevelt wrote after the election. “From Politics to Poetry, and to read aloud to her, either from a History or standard novel or from the daily newspaper that forms our only intercourse with the outside world.” Again, the author claims, “Alice was clearly a woman sufficiently mature and intelligent to discuss politics and poetry and to share an interest in both history and the daily news. She was, in short, a Lee.” —Do note, in Teddy’s letter, that he reads TO her, and Teddy makes no mention of actually discussing things with her.
The author dismisses the baby talk that riddles Teddy’s letters to Alice, which, are a far cry from the intellectually lofty, albeit tender, correspondence between John and Abigail Adams. His missives are thickly sown with a mixture of infantilizing and idealizing epithets used to address and describe her. “Pretty,” “sweet,” “baby”—which became “baby wife” after the couple wed—alternate with “queen,” “purest queen,” “my pure flower,” “my pearl,” and “my sweet, pretty queen.” He also applied the more frankly erotic “witch” and “bewitching.” Such terms are fair fodder for those biographers and commentators who dismiss Alice and Theodore’s marriage to her as one-dimensional, but Roosevelt’s letters were never intended to be seen by anyone except her.” Um, I can’t imagine the Adamses wrote their letters primarily for posterity.
I understand that Edith probably burned every letter between Teddy and Alice she could find. I have to believe, though, that Alice wrote letters to her family in Boston. Surely some of those letters survive. If so, they would quickly prove or disprove the O’Keefe’s belief in Alice’s intelligence and influence. In the meantime, I tend to agree with Edith’s summation of Alice Lee to stepdaughter Alice, that Alice 1.0 would have bored Teddy to tears if she had lived.
O’Keefe’s extensive research illustrates the influence of the other women in Teddy’s life, even if he does quote from (Sylvia?) Morris and Dalton too frequently.
The O’Keefe mostly proves his thesis regarding the instrumental role of women in defining his political vision. However, he did not prove that Alice Lee had any influence on him. We are supposed to assume she’s smart because of her family’s progressive background. We all know that even the most brilliant families can have kids without that spark. Maybe she was a dud.
The only words we hear from Alice are from two letters. The first: “Teddy I long for some nice quiet little evenings with you alone. It makes me homesick to think I shall not see you for so long, for I love to be with you so much.… Don’t you think I am pretty good to write you every day? I suppose you laugh and say, these funny letters, they sound just like Alice.… I suppose you start today for Minnesota. Do keep well & enjoy yourself. Good night and sweet dreams. Your loving, Alice”. In the second she wrote to “My own dearest Teddy” with the wish it were the day of their wedding, adding: “I just long to be with you all the time and never separate from you, even for three weeks. Teddykins, I know you can make me happy and you must never think it would have been better for me, if we had never met; I should die without you now Teddy and there is not another man I ever could have loved in this world.”
Neither letter speaks to either intelligence or political acumen. That doesn’t stop the O’Keefe, who then highlights a passage from one of Teddy’s letters: “I love to talk over everything with Baby,” Roosevelt wrote after the election. “From Politics to Poetry, and to read aloud to her, either from a History or standard novel or from the daily newspaper that forms our only intercourse with the outside world.” Again, the author claims, “Alice was clearly a woman sufficiently mature and intelligent to discuss politics and poetry and to share an interest in both history and the daily news. She was, in short, a Lee.” —Do note, in Teddy’s letter, that he reads TO her, and Teddy makes no mention of actually discussing things with her.
The author dismisses the baby talk that riddles Teddy’s letters to Alice, which, are a far cry from the intellectually lofty, albeit tender, correspondence between John and Abigail Adams. His missives are thickly sown with a mixture of infantilizing and idealizing epithets used to address and describe her. “Pretty,” “sweet,” “baby”—which became “baby wife” after the couple wed—alternate with “queen,” “purest queen,” “my pure flower,” “my pearl,” and “my sweet, pretty queen.” He also applied the more frankly erotic “witch” and “bewitching.” Such terms are fair fodder for those biographers and commentators who dismiss Alice and Theodore’s marriage to her as one-dimensional, but Roosevelt’s letters were never intended to be seen by anyone except her.” Um, I can’t imagine the Adamses wrote their letters primarily for posterity.
I understand that Edith probably burned every letter between Teddy and Alice she could find. I have to believe, though, that Alice wrote letters to her family in Boston. Surely some of those letters survive. If so, they would quickly prove or disprove the O’Keefe’s belief in Alice’s intelligence and influence. In the meantime, I tend to agree with Edith’s summation of Alice Lee to stepdaughter Alice, that Alice 1.0 would have bored Teddy to tears if she had lived.
O’Keefe’s extensive research illustrates the influence of the other women in Teddy’s life, even if he does quote from (Sylvia?) Morris and Dalton too frequently.
December 4, 2024
Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the ALC and Simon Books #partner, for the finished copy of The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt in exchange for my honest review.
As soon as I saw this book, I knew I had to read it. I’m a huge fan of anything related to the Roosevelts, especially Teddy Roosevelt and I loved that this book in particular focused on the women who had an impact in his life. I love going deep into the lives of those who shape our leaders and this one ended up being just as fascinating and insightful as I hoped!
This book focuses on the strong women that Theodore Roosevelt was lucky to have in his life and how they helped shape him to be the man he ultimately ended up becoming. We learn a bit about his mother, Mittie; his first love and wife, Alice; his older sister, Bamie; his younger sister, Conie; and his second wife, Edith. I had come into this book already knowing a bit about Alice, having already read a historical fiction book about Teddy and her love, which I really loved. The other women I had a passing knowledge of and loved learning more about them. And I loved how Teddy wasn’t afraid to lean on these women, especially his sisters, when he was running for office or in office.
This book was very readable and engaging. It also has me wanting to do deep dives on each of the women themselves, which I love! I’m so glad to have this one in my collection…and I highly recommend picking it up!
Audio thoughts: I love listening to nonfiction and I love when the author is able to narrate them. In this case, the author was able to effectively tell the story just the way he wanted. And the bonus content included at the end, the Roosevelt family recordings, was a cool bonus!
You can see all my reviews at: https://www.alwayswithabook.com/
As soon as I saw this book, I knew I had to read it. I’m a huge fan of anything related to the Roosevelts, especially Teddy Roosevelt and I loved that this book in particular focused on the women who had an impact in his life. I love going deep into the lives of those who shape our leaders and this one ended up being just as fascinating and insightful as I hoped!
This book focuses on the strong women that Theodore Roosevelt was lucky to have in his life and how they helped shape him to be the man he ultimately ended up becoming. We learn a bit about his mother, Mittie; his first love and wife, Alice; his older sister, Bamie; his younger sister, Conie; and his second wife, Edith. I had come into this book already knowing a bit about Alice, having already read a historical fiction book about Teddy and her love, which I really loved. The other women I had a passing knowledge of and loved learning more about them. And I loved how Teddy wasn’t afraid to lean on these women, especially his sisters, when he was running for office or in office.
This book was very readable and engaging. It also has me wanting to do deep dives on each of the women themselves, which I love! I’m so glad to have this one in my collection…and I highly recommend picking it up!
Audio thoughts: I love listening to nonfiction and I love when the author is able to narrate them. In this case, the author was able to effectively tell the story just the way he wanted. And the bonus content included at the end, the Roosevelt family recordings, was a cool bonus!
You can see all my reviews at: https://www.alwayswithabook.com/
November 20, 2024
Ironically, the very masculine, hyper-active Theodore Roosevelt, was guided by a cadre of women: his mother, Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt; his elder sister, Bamie; his younger sister, Corinne; his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee; and his childhood sweetheart and second wife, Edith Carow … these five women challenged him, advised him, and loved him, exercising an influence very much under the radar of the times … absolutely stellar …
July 4, 2024
This was an interesting read about the six women who supported, advised, and loved TR through all his life.
Charging up San Juan Hill, his South American exploratory expedition, living on a cattle ranch in the Badlands, hunting big game in Africa, TR as the macho and alpha male had the freedom to pursue his dreams because the women around him were the tight village whose opinions and loyalty he had faith in.
Charging up San Juan Hill, his South American exploratory expedition, living on a cattle ranch in the Badlands, hunting big game in Africa, TR as the macho and alpha male had the freedom to pursue his dreams because the women around him were the tight village whose opinions and loyalty he had faith in.
July 26, 2025
A fascinating and outstanding joint biography of Teddy Roosevelt and the women who surrounded him: his mother, his sisters, and his two wives. While there are a few points for the author perhaps overstates his case (the TR legacy is a bit more nuanced than merely “a self-made man“, who cannot be now understood without this new biography of his ladies), I thought this was a great book.
November 25, 2024
This was a well-written, insightful look into the life and family of Theodore Roosevelt, specifically the women who made him who he was--his mother, sisters, and wives. I learned a lot about each of them. It's interesting to see a life trajectory in hindsight and its impact since. The credit does belong to the 'man in the arena.' ;) Here are some good quotes:
"I was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and I often like to joke that at birth in North Dakota you are given a choice of idols: Peggy Lee, Lawrence Welk, Roger Maris, or Theodore Roosevelt... Phil Jackson... Josh Duhamel... Louis L'Amour or Chuck Klosterman (p. xi)."
"Theodore Roosevelt was not the impossibly hardy, self-made man of myth and lore. Far from it. The most masculine president in the American memory was, in fact, the product of largely unsung and certainty extraordinary women (p. xiii)."
"This book celebrates five of the extraordinary women who surrounded TR: Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, Anna Roosevelt Cowles, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, and Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt... mother, two sisters, and two wives--women to whom he owed an inestimable debt of gratitude (p. xv)."
"From the beginning, the survival of Theodore Roosevelt was very much in doubt... Childhood asthma... Chronic congenital diarrhea... frail frame... high fevers and racking coughs... Yet he endured (p. 3)."
"It is no surprise that young Theodore idolized his father, which may have compounded this problem (p. 4)."
"The Roosevelt fortune was founded on the hardware business begun in 1797 by Theodore Roosevelt's great-grandfather, James Jacobus Roosevelt in lower Manhattan (p. 5)."
"Mittie Bulloch was a sharp-witted romantic, later rumored to be the inspiration for Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (p. 7)."
"Mitte and Thee's 'unity of feeling' would be tested during the Civil War, which erupted eight years and three children into their marriage. Theodore Sr. was a Northerner and Unionist, whereas Mittie, born in Hartford, Connecticut, but raised in Georgia, was, in her son's words, 'a sweet, gracious, beautiful Southern woman, a delightful companion and beloved by everybody' but 'entirely 'unreconstructed' to the day of her death' (p. 11)."
"Throughout the Civil War, the Roosevelts lived in a house divided in a nation divided (p. 13)."
"In an era when medical science was often at a loss, travel, especially distant travel that required an ocean voyage, was seized upon as a sovereign curative for all manner of vague disease and even vaguer malaise. All Mittie really wanted was to satisfy her longing to visit England... Thee vastly expanded the trip into a Grand Tour of Europe (p. 19)."
"Mittie spent countless hours tending to her son. She took Teedie to Russian baths and massaged his aching chest and neck. 'Mama's love and attention were magic' (p. 24)."
"Conie was aligned with her brother in recognizing not just that pain and suffering were inevitable, they were useful and necessary (p. 28)."
"'I Love Thee.
I love thee, and my heart will hear
The seal which thou hast set forever;
Truth weaves the silken chain I wear
That death, and death alone will sever.'
No doubt a wordsmith as skilled as Edith appreciated the double entrendre. 'Thee' was one of the many per names Edith had for Theodore (p. 44)."
"Theodore Roosevelt had never been an emotionally steady young man (p. 45)."
"If Edith Carow was the bonus sister of the Roosevelt family, Bamie qualified as its bonus mother (p. 46)."
"Theodore used his sister as a messenger rather than communicating directly, and, despite his emphatic underscores, he did not mention Edith in his diary for the whole summer (p. 51)."
"Why had Theodore not come home sooner? Did he fear acknowledging the impending awful finality? Or could it have been that Elliott had failed to convey urgency until their father's final day (p. 53)?"
"Had he proposed and been rejected (p. 59)?"
"In the sweep of seven months, Theodore lost his father and the woman he may have expected to marry. As he made plans to return to Harvard, he would do so without his best friend as well. On August 23, one day after Theodore and Edith hiked Tranquility to their ill-fated rendezvous, Henry Davis Minot self-committed to a sanitarium (p. 60)."
"He was happy, for Theodore Roosevelt had just met Alice Hathaway Lee, the woman who would help recenter his life (p. 61)."
"Theodore Roosevelt was in darkness, and he sought out new light (p. 65)."
"Judging from Theodore's relationship to her and the passion of the letters that passed between them, 'Sunshine' embodied the sheer vibrance of her presence. She glowed with life (p. 72)."
"TR's strategy to win Alice, not surprising given his later and more celebrated efforts to charge up San Juan Heights, bust a trust, or run as a third-party independent, was simple: direct and sustained advance (p. 77)."
"It was Alice whom he now pursued most relentlessly (p. 78)."
"Word of Theodore's drunken exploits traveled back to the Roosevelt family in New York... Theodore was aware of his brother Elliott's alcoholism and the downfall of Charles Carow. He ought to have known he was careening in a dangerous direction (p. 97)."
"Theodore was redeemed once again by the good graces and charm of the Roosevelt women (p. 99)."
"Alice significantly altered his trajectory and, therefore, history itself (p. 101)."
"Young Theodore Roosevelt longed to be his father (p. 103)."
"Roosevelt realized that holding on to Alice demanded a change of career. He needed a first-class ticket to ride in Alice's world, and science was issuing no tickets in that class (p. 104)."
"Alice by his side, Theodore Roosevelt prepared to embark on the rest of his life (p. 105)."
"Theodore Roosevelt was in love (p. 106)."
"'I think there can be no question that women should have equal rights with men' (p. 107)."
"On October 13, 1880, Edith Carow gave a dinner party for the man everyone in their circle once believed she would marry (p. 113)."
"Between Alice and Edith there was no demonstrative hostility, but neither was there any chemistry (p. 115)."
"Alice, the relative newcomer in his life, had been the object of a lustful pursuit (p. 115)."
"He continued to pursue the law (p. 119)."
"On August 3, Theodore--unaccompanied by Alice--set out with two guides to ascend the infamous Matterhorn (p. 125)."
"Roosevelt's political rise has been compared to the ascension of a rocket (p. 130)."
"Now only the physics of gravity, as undeniable and inevitable as fate, could alter Theodore Roosevelt's trajectory (p. 131)."
"Alice Lee transformed the life of Theodore Roosevelt (p. 135)."
"'Winning' Alice turned him toward politics (p. 136)."
"While he made a strong first impression, it's not clear the New York State Assembly made much of an immediate impression on him (p. 137)."
"While TR vaulted from one political triumph to another, Alice Lee, who gave him everything, seemed--perhaps--incapable of giving him a child (p. 139)."
"At last, in the spring of 1883, Alice announced that she was pregnant (p. 142)."
"For all his restless hankering after new adventures, Roosevelt experienced something akin to panic at every moment of personal change in his life. Time and again, his reaction to change was the same: run not to the church but instead to the cathedral of nature. With fatherhood pending, Roosevelt lit out for Dakota. When Alice and Mittie died, Roosevelt returned to the Badlands (p. 144)."
"Theodore discussed politics and policy with Alice, and he also discussed how best to make a living. He understood that politics alone would not support a family (p. 147)."
"His political ambitions were real. He also wanted to continue writing (p. 148)."
"In... the last known communication between Alice and Theodore Roosevelt, she expresses concern for others, not herself (p. 149)."
"Alice Lee and Mittie both took turns for the worse (p. 151)."
"All the Roosevelt children were gathered around their mother's deathbed in the very room in which Theodore Roosevelt Sr. had died six years earlier (p. 152)."
"On... February 14, 1884, [he] wrote a single sentence: 'The light has gone out of my life' (p. 153)."
"Teddy Roosevelt was shattered. And it was his sister who reassembled the pieces, as she always would (p. 156)."
"Stacy A. Cordery, Alice Roosevelt Longworth's principal biographer, observes that it was 'as though Theodore could not claim her' (p. 160)."
"Theodore Roosevelt preserved a lock of his sweet wife's hair, which he--or someone else--cut at the time of her death (p. 161)."
"Theodore could not bear the thought of returning to live alone in that house (p. 163)."
"She would not allow her brother to flail or fail. With Bamie's urging, Theodore pressed ahead with building the Oyster Bay home... No one more than Bamie encouraged her brother to throw himself into his work (p. 163)."
"Had Alice been alive, it is easy to imagine that Theodore would have written and talked with her about this moral dilemma (p. 168)."
"It was not just the nature of the American West that healed TR but also the people he spent time with out there (p. 172)."
"On November 13, shortly after the general election in which Cleveland defeated Blaine by prevailing in the swing state of New York by just 1,047 votes, Roosevelt again headed west, still struggling to decide whether his life would be in the East or West or both (p. 174)."
"It was sometime in early October... that Edith Kermit Carow descended the staircase from Bamie's parlor at 422 Madison Avenue a spinster, never expecting to find her childhood sweetheart, not a widower turned gentleman cowboy, standing--right there, before her--in the hallway (p. 182)."
"Bamie was determined that her younger brother live up to his potential (p. 182)."
"'She never really forgave him his first marriage' (Alice Roosevelt Longworth on her stepmother, p. 183)."
"Those intimate with the Roosevelt-Carow circle were likely surprised that Teedie and Edie split up, for it was taken virtually for granted that the two were childhood sweethearts destined for one another (p. 185)."
"Theodore and Edith knew one another, intimately. There is a familiarity in first love (p. 189)."
"As for Edith, it seems that no one ever elicited from her the intensity of feeling she reserved for Thee (p. 191)."
"Clearly, he felt the need to justify to both sisters this second marriage, especially marriage to Edie (p. 198)."
"Edith hoped TR would love her as much as he loved the Badlands, he loved nature, and perhaps though it went unsaid, as much as he loved Alice, too (p. 199)."
"Bamie and Conie were keen to see their brother get on with his life and return to politics (p. 201)."
"On their honeymoon, which began directly after the wedding, Theodore gave Edith something he had never given Alice--his undivided attention (p. 203)."
"Consigned to spinsterhood by all who knew her, Edith was not on her way to becoming one of the august matriarchs of modern American history (p. 203)."
"TR permitted Edith to exert power over him--it was she who insisted on creating a blended family and personally managing the family's finances. The love between them was born of passion and respect. Theirs would be a marriage of equals. It was a power he never fully granted to Alice or Bamie or Conie--perhaps because Edith was the only one who demanded it (p. 205)."
"The first quarter century of their lives had taught Edith and Theodore that the future was anything but certain (p. 208)."
"'Whenever I go against [Edith's] judgment I regret it' (Theodore Roosevelt, p. 211)."
"Roosevelt plunged into his next book, a biography of Gouverneur Morris, an early senator from New York and... signatory of both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, to which he authored the Preamble (p. 213)."
"She was indeed becoming a quietly formidable presence in Washington... An astute political wife served as another set of eyes and ears for her husband (p. 214)."
"Despite the danger or perhaps because of it, Edith suddenly understood her husband's attraction to North Dakota (p. 216)."
"Bamie soon became a familiar and sought-after figure in London diplomatic society (p. 226)."
"Theodore strategized with Bamie where he could be most helpful to McKinley (p. 229)."
"The Spanish-American War offered the United States the first opportunity since the Civil War for Blue and Gray to fight as red, white, and blue again... Together, these men would manifest the destiny of the United States as a global power (p. 237)."
"Richard Harding Davis transformed 'Teddy' Roosevelt into the Cuban conflict's single most potent avatar. There is no question that his performance at San Juan Heights was heroic (p. 243)."
"The faith the Rough Riders inspired in him and the support they gave was similar to what Conie, Bamie, and Edith provided back home (p. 244)."
"Edith, Bamie, and Conie would enthusiastically support his campaign. Mayors might not become presidents, but governors certainly did (p. 246)."
"On November 8, 1898, Theodore Roosevelt defeated Democratic gubernatorial candidate Augustus Van Wyck (p. 249)."
"Political pressure to tap Theodore Roosevelt as the next vice presidential candidate mounted. Edith continued to counsel against her husband's acceptance. Although Roosevelt himself felt that the vice presidency might be a very platform from which to launch a 1904 White House bid, he was also aware that it would take him out of much of the political action during the intervening years (P. 256)."
"On Election Day, November 6, the McKinley-Roosevelt ticket handily defeated William Jennings Bryan and Adlai E. Stevenson (p. 261)."
"He did not sleep long. Just before midnight, a messenger delivered a telegram with the news that McKinley's condition had suddenly become grave. Early in the morning of September 14, a second telegram was sent announcing his death (p. 265)."
"Theodore Roosevelt was duly sworn in as the twenty-sixth president of the United States... at age forty-two... the youngest president in history (p. 266)."
"Edith was an adept and unapologetic 'political operator' throughout her husband's administration (p. 272)."
"Neither Edith nor Bamie ever boasted of their importance to the administration (p. 272)."
"'The President brought guests to Bamie's house when he wanted to escape press surveillance' (p. 275)."
"The formative experience of Theodore Roosevelt's youth was the Civil War (p. 282)."
"As Morgan and Harriman were battling her 'trust-busting' brother, Bamie ostentatiously took the president's side (p. 283)."
"Edith's objective was to transform the White House into a building adequate to the needs and befitting the dignity of a great government... She wanted to create a separation between home and office life (p. 284)."
"Edith Roosevelt kindles the creation of the modern White House--less a mansion than the seat of the executive branch of the American government (p. 285)."
"Alice blossomed during these years in the White House (p. 294)."
"'It seemed to him a crucial moment in his life, when, on his own merit, he was judge fit or unfit to be his own successor' (p. 297)."
"Theodore Roosevelt had achieved greatness. The problem was that once he realized it, he began to act impulsively, and often without the advice of those he most trusted... The 1904 election was a Roosevelt landslide (p. 298)."
"The pace of Roosevelt's second term matched and sometimes even exceeded his first (p. 302)."
"Despite all the strong women in the family, the Roosevelts had complicated and contradictory ideas about women's suffrage (p. 303)."
"TR devoted his presidency to creating a personal and direct bond with the American people (p. 305)."
"In the United States, popular endorsement of the Panama Canal project was nearly unanimous. What qualms Congress had, Roosevelt handled by taking action (p. 309)."
"'We were at absolute peace, and there was no nation in the world whom we had wronged, or from whom we had anything to fear' (p. 310)."
"There is little reason to doubt that Theodore Roosevelt would have won a third term in 1908 had he not acted on apparent impulse in 1904 with a pledge that he would not run again. He seems to have regretted the pledge almost as soon as he made it, but in 1908, he resisted what has been characterized as a public 'outpouring of support' (p. 310)."
"'I have enjoyed every moment of this o-called arduous and exacting task' (p. 313)."
"TR could not shake the feeling that his legacy would slip into irrelevance, that, under the lackluster, passive Taft, the progressive momentum would be lost forever (p. 314)."
"'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena... marred by dust and sweat and blood' (p. 315)."
"On October 30, sixteen days after being shot a quarter inch from his heart, Theodore Roosevelt delivered the speech at a gargantuan Progressive Party rally at Madison Square Garden. His audience spilled out onto the street. Before he uttered a word, applause and shouts erupted, delaying the beginning of his address by forty-one minutes (p. 331)."
"Most political observers believe had the GOP nominated Roosevelt, he would have been president... TR's run as a Bull Moose Progressive was... the most successful third-party candidacy in the history of the United States (p. 333)."
"TR put on a brave face in public after his 1912 defeat, but was privately devastated (p. 335)."
"He lit out for the territory... a South American lecture tour to be followed by an expedition deep into the jungle to explore the Paraguay River (p. 336)."
"Although greatly weakened, prematurely aged, and destined never fully to recover his vigor, Roosevelt set to work on a new book (p. 340)."
"Quentin Roosevelt is the only child of a United States president to die in combat (p. 346)."
"The day before the 1918 election--on November 2--TR made his last public appearance (p. 348)."
"The old lion was dead, but the women in the arena had many years of making history left in them. Conie took the most visible role. Theodore Roosevelt had been the leading candidate for president in 1920, but... Corinne Roosevelt Robinson became the first woman in U.S. history to address one of the two major party conventions (p. 353)."
"On September 30, 1948, Edith Kermit Roosevelt died peacefully at home at the age of eighty-seven. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, her brother and sister-in-law, and three of her five children. She was the last of her generation (p. 359)."
"I was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and I often like to joke that at birth in North Dakota you are given a choice of idols: Peggy Lee, Lawrence Welk, Roger Maris, or Theodore Roosevelt... Phil Jackson... Josh Duhamel... Louis L'Amour or Chuck Klosterman (p. xi)."
"Theodore Roosevelt was not the impossibly hardy, self-made man of myth and lore. Far from it. The most masculine president in the American memory was, in fact, the product of largely unsung and certainty extraordinary women (p. xiii)."
"This book celebrates five of the extraordinary women who surrounded TR: Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, Anna Roosevelt Cowles, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, and Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt... mother, two sisters, and two wives--women to whom he owed an inestimable debt of gratitude (p. xv)."
"From the beginning, the survival of Theodore Roosevelt was very much in doubt... Childhood asthma... Chronic congenital diarrhea... frail frame... high fevers and racking coughs... Yet he endured (p. 3)."
"It is no surprise that young Theodore idolized his father, which may have compounded this problem (p. 4)."
"The Roosevelt fortune was founded on the hardware business begun in 1797 by Theodore Roosevelt's great-grandfather, James Jacobus Roosevelt in lower Manhattan (p. 5)."
"Mittie Bulloch was a sharp-witted romantic, later rumored to be the inspiration for Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (p. 7)."
"Mitte and Thee's 'unity of feeling' would be tested during the Civil War, which erupted eight years and three children into their marriage. Theodore Sr. was a Northerner and Unionist, whereas Mittie, born in Hartford, Connecticut, but raised in Georgia, was, in her son's words, 'a sweet, gracious, beautiful Southern woman, a delightful companion and beloved by everybody' but 'entirely 'unreconstructed' to the day of her death' (p. 11)."
"Throughout the Civil War, the Roosevelts lived in a house divided in a nation divided (p. 13)."
"In an era when medical science was often at a loss, travel, especially distant travel that required an ocean voyage, was seized upon as a sovereign curative for all manner of vague disease and even vaguer malaise. All Mittie really wanted was to satisfy her longing to visit England... Thee vastly expanded the trip into a Grand Tour of Europe (p. 19)."
"Mittie spent countless hours tending to her son. She took Teedie to Russian baths and massaged his aching chest and neck. 'Mama's love and attention were magic' (p. 24)."
"Conie was aligned with her brother in recognizing not just that pain and suffering were inevitable, they were useful and necessary (p. 28)."
"'I Love Thee.
I love thee, and my heart will hear
The seal which thou hast set forever;
Truth weaves the silken chain I wear
That death, and death alone will sever.'
No doubt a wordsmith as skilled as Edith appreciated the double entrendre. 'Thee' was one of the many per names Edith had for Theodore (p. 44)."
"Theodore Roosevelt had never been an emotionally steady young man (p. 45)."
"If Edith Carow was the bonus sister of the Roosevelt family, Bamie qualified as its bonus mother (p. 46)."
"Theodore used his sister as a messenger rather than communicating directly, and, despite his emphatic underscores, he did not mention Edith in his diary for the whole summer (p. 51)."
"Why had Theodore not come home sooner? Did he fear acknowledging the impending awful finality? Or could it have been that Elliott had failed to convey urgency until their father's final day (p. 53)?"
"Had he proposed and been rejected (p. 59)?"
"In the sweep of seven months, Theodore lost his father and the woman he may have expected to marry. As he made plans to return to Harvard, he would do so without his best friend as well. On August 23, one day after Theodore and Edith hiked Tranquility to their ill-fated rendezvous, Henry Davis Minot self-committed to a sanitarium (p. 60)."
"He was happy, for Theodore Roosevelt had just met Alice Hathaway Lee, the woman who would help recenter his life (p. 61)."
"Theodore Roosevelt was in darkness, and he sought out new light (p. 65)."
"Judging from Theodore's relationship to her and the passion of the letters that passed between them, 'Sunshine' embodied the sheer vibrance of her presence. She glowed with life (p. 72)."
"TR's strategy to win Alice, not surprising given his later and more celebrated efforts to charge up San Juan Heights, bust a trust, or run as a third-party independent, was simple: direct and sustained advance (p. 77)."
"It was Alice whom he now pursued most relentlessly (p. 78)."
"Word of Theodore's drunken exploits traveled back to the Roosevelt family in New York... Theodore was aware of his brother Elliott's alcoholism and the downfall of Charles Carow. He ought to have known he was careening in a dangerous direction (p. 97)."
"Theodore was redeemed once again by the good graces and charm of the Roosevelt women (p. 99)."
"Alice significantly altered his trajectory and, therefore, history itself (p. 101)."
"Young Theodore Roosevelt longed to be his father (p. 103)."
"Roosevelt realized that holding on to Alice demanded a change of career. He needed a first-class ticket to ride in Alice's world, and science was issuing no tickets in that class (p. 104)."
"Alice by his side, Theodore Roosevelt prepared to embark on the rest of his life (p. 105)."
"Theodore Roosevelt was in love (p. 106)."
"'I think there can be no question that women should have equal rights with men' (p. 107)."
"On October 13, 1880, Edith Carow gave a dinner party for the man everyone in their circle once believed she would marry (p. 113)."
"Between Alice and Edith there was no demonstrative hostility, but neither was there any chemistry (p. 115)."
"Alice, the relative newcomer in his life, had been the object of a lustful pursuit (p. 115)."
"He continued to pursue the law (p. 119)."
"On August 3, Theodore--unaccompanied by Alice--set out with two guides to ascend the infamous Matterhorn (p. 125)."
"Roosevelt's political rise has been compared to the ascension of a rocket (p. 130)."
"Now only the physics of gravity, as undeniable and inevitable as fate, could alter Theodore Roosevelt's trajectory (p. 131)."
"Alice Lee transformed the life of Theodore Roosevelt (p. 135)."
"'Winning' Alice turned him toward politics (p. 136)."
"While he made a strong first impression, it's not clear the New York State Assembly made much of an immediate impression on him (p. 137)."
"While TR vaulted from one political triumph to another, Alice Lee, who gave him everything, seemed--perhaps--incapable of giving him a child (p. 139)."
"At last, in the spring of 1883, Alice announced that she was pregnant (p. 142)."
"For all his restless hankering after new adventures, Roosevelt experienced something akin to panic at every moment of personal change in his life. Time and again, his reaction to change was the same: run not to the church but instead to the cathedral of nature. With fatherhood pending, Roosevelt lit out for Dakota. When Alice and Mittie died, Roosevelt returned to the Badlands (p. 144)."
"Theodore discussed politics and policy with Alice, and he also discussed how best to make a living. He understood that politics alone would not support a family (p. 147)."
"His political ambitions were real. He also wanted to continue writing (p. 148)."
"In... the last known communication between Alice and Theodore Roosevelt, she expresses concern for others, not herself (p. 149)."
"Alice Lee and Mittie both took turns for the worse (p. 151)."
"All the Roosevelt children were gathered around their mother's deathbed in the very room in which Theodore Roosevelt Sr. had died six years earlier (p. 152)."
"On... February 14, 1884, [he] wrote a single sentence: 'The light has gone out of my life' (p. 153)."
"Teddy Roosevelt was shattered. And it was his sister who reassembled the pieces, as she always would (p. 156)."
"Stacy A. Cordery, Alice Roosevelt Longworth's principal biographer, observes that it was 'as though Theodore could not claim her' (p. 160)."
"Theodore Roosevelt preserved a lock of his sweet wife's hair, which he--or someone else--cut at the time of her death (p. 161)."
"Theodore could not bear the thought of returning to live alone in that house (p. 163)."
"She would not allow her brother to flail or fail. With Bamie's urging, Theodore pressed ahead with building the Oyster Bay home... No one more than Bamie encouraged her brother to throw himself into his work (p. 163)."
"Had Alice been alive, it is easy to imagine that Theodore would have written and talked with her about this moral dilemma (p. 168)."
"It was not just the nature of the American West that healed TR but also the people he spent time with out there (p. 172)."
"On November 13, shortly after the general election in which Cleveland defeated Blaine by prevailing in the swing state of New York by just 1,047 votes, Roosevelt again headed west, still struggling to decide whether his life would be in the East or West or both (p. 174)."
"It was sometime in early October... that Edith Kermit Carow descended the staircase from Bamie's parlor at 422 Madison Avenue a spinster, never expecting to find her childhood sweetheart, not a widower turned gentleman cowboy, standing--right there, before her--in the hallway (p. 182)."
"Bamie was determined that her younger brother live up to his potential (p. 182)."
"'She never really forgave him his first marriage' (Alice Roosevelt Longworth on her stepmother, p. 183)."
"Those intimate with the Roosevelt-Carow circle were likely surprised that Teedie and Edie split up, for it was taken virtually for granted that the two were childhood sweethearts destined for one another (p. 185)."
"Theodore and Edith knew one another, intimately. There is a familiarity in first love (p. 189)."
"As for Edith, it seems that no one ever elicited from her the intensity of feeling she reserved for Thee (p. 191)."
"Clearly, he felt the need to justify to both sisters this second marriage, especially marriage to Edie (p. 198)."
"Edith hoped TR would love her as much as he loved the Badlands, he loved nature, and perhaps though it went unsaid, as much as he loved Alice, too (p. 199)."
"Bamie and Conie were keen to see their brother get on with his life and return to politics (p. 201)."
"On their honeymoon, which began directly after the wedding, Theodore gave Edith something he had never given Alice--his undivided attention (p. 203)."
"Consigned to spinsterhood by all who knew her, Edith was not on her way to becoming one of the august matriarchs of modern American history (p. 203)."
"TR permitted Edith to exert power over him--it was she who insisted on creating a blended family and personally managing the family's finances. The love between them was born of passion and respect. Theirs would be a marriage of equals. It was a power he never fully granted to Alice or Bamie or Conie--perhaps because Edith was the only one who demanded it (p. 205)."
"The first quarter century of their lives had taught Edith and Theodore that the future was anything but certain (p. 208)."
"'Whenever I go against [Edith's] judgment I regret it' (Theodore Roosevelt, p. 211)."
"Roosevelt plunged into his next book, a biography of Gouverneur Morris, an early senator from New York and... signatory of both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, to which he authored the Preamble (p. 213)."
"She was indeed becoming a quietly formidable presence in Washington... An astute political wife served as another set of eyes and ears for her husband (p. 214)."
"Despite the danger or perhaps because of it, Edith suddenly understood her husband's attraction to North Dakota (p. 216)."
"Bamie soon became a familiar and sought-after figure in London diplomatic society (p. 226)."
"Theodore strategized with Bamie where he could be most helpful to McKinley (p. 229)."
"The Spanish-American War offered the United States the first opportunity since the Civil War for Blue and Gray to fight as red, white, and blue again... Together, these men would manifest the destiny of the United States as a global power (p. 237)."
"Richard Harding Davis transformed 'Teddy' Roosevelt into the Cuban conflict's single most potent avatar. There is no question that his performance at San Juan Heights was heroic (p. 243)."
"The faith the Rough Riders inspired in him and the support they gave was similar to what Conie, Bamie, and Edith provided back home (p. 244)."
"Edith, Bamie, and Conie would enthusiastically support his campaign. Mayors might not become presidents, but governors certainly did (p. 246)."
"On November 8, 1898, Theodore Roosevelt defeated Democratic gubernatorial candidate Augustus Van Wyck (p. 249)."
"Political pressure to tap Theodore Roosevelt as the next vice presidential candidate mounted. Edith continued to counsel against her husband's acceptance. Although Roosevelt himself felt that the vice presidency might be a very platform from which to launch a 1904 White House bid, he was also aware that it would take him out of much of the political action during the intervening years (P. 256)."
"On Election Day, November 6, the McKinley-Roosevelt ticket handily defeated William Jennings Bryan and Adlai E. Stevenson (p. 261)."
"He did not sleep long. Just before midnight, a messenger delivered a telegram with the news that McKinley's condition had suddenly become grave. Early in the morning of September 14, a second telegram was sent announcing his death (p. 265)."
"Theodore Roosevelt was duly sworn in as the twenty-sixth president of the United States... at age forty-two... the youngest president in history (p. 266)."
"Edith was an adept and unapologetic 'political operator' throughout her husband's administration (p. 272)."
"Neither Edith nor Bamie ever boasted of their importance to the administration (p. 272)."
"'The President brought guests to Bamie's house when he wanted to escape press surveillance' (p. 275)."
"The formative experience of Theodore Roosevelt's youth was the Civil War (p. 282)."
"As Morgan and Harriman were battling her 'trust-busting' brother, Bamie ostentatiously took the president's side (p. 283)."
"Edith's objective was to transform the White House into a building adequate to the needs and befitting the dignity of a great government... She wanted to create a separation between home and office life (p. 284)."
"Edith Roosevelt kindles the creation of the modern White House--less a mansion than the seat of the executive branch of the American government (p. 285)."
"Alice blossomed during these years in the White House (p. 294)."
"'It seemed to him a crucial moment in his life, when, on his own merit, he was judge fit or unfit to be his own successor' (p. 297)."
"Theodore Roosevelt had achieved greatness. The problem was that once he realized it, he began to act impulsively, and often without the advice of those he most trusted... The 1904 election was a Roosevelt landslide (p. 298)."
"The pace of Roosevelt's second term matched and sometimes even exceeded his first (p. 302)."
"Despite all the strong women in the family, the Roosevelts had complicated and contradictory ideas about women's suffrage (p. 303)."
"TR devoted his presidency to creating a personal and direct bond with the American people (p. 305)."
"In the United States, popular endorsement of the Panama Canal project was nearly unanimous. What qualms Congress had, Roosevelt handled by taking action (p. 309)."
"'We were at absolute peace, and there was no nation in the world whom we had wronged, or from whom we had anything to fear' (p. 310)."
"There is little reason to doubt that Theodore Roosevelt would have won a third term in 1908 had he not acted on apparent impulse in 1904 with a pledge that he would not run again. He seems to have regretted the pledge almost as soon as he made it, but in 1908, he resisted what has been characterized as a public 'outpouring of support' (p. 310)."
"'I have enjoyed every moment of this o-called arduous and exacting task' (p. 313)."
"TR could not shake the feeling that his legacy would slip into irrelevance, that, under the lackluster, passive Taft, the progressive momentum would be lost forever (p. 314)."
"'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena... marred by dust and sweat and blood' (p. 315)."
"On October 30, sixteen days after being shot a quarter inch from his heart, Theodore Roosevelt delivered the speech at a gargantuan Progressive Party rally at Madison Square Garden. His audience spilled out onto the street. Before he uttered a word, applause and shouts erupted, delaying the beginning of his address by forty-one minutes (p. 331)."
"Most political observers believe had the GOP nominated Roosevelt, he would have been president... TR's run as a Bull Moose Progressive was... the most successful third-party candidacy in the history of the United States (p. 333)."
"TR put on a brave face in public after his 1912 defeat, but was privately devastated (p. 335)."
"He lit out for the territory... a South American lecture tour to be followed by an expedition deep into the jungle to explore the Paraguay River (p. 336)."
"Although greatly weakened, prematurely aged, and destined never fully to recover his vigor, Roosevelt set to work on a new book (p. 340)."
"Quentin Roosevelt is the only child of a United States president to die in combat (p. 346)."
"The day before the 1918 election--on November 2--TR made his last public appearance (p. 348)."
"The old lion was dead, but the women in the arena had many years of making history left in them. Conie took the most visible role. Theodore Roosevelt had been the leading candidate for president in 1920, but... Corinne Roosevelt Robinson became the first woman in U.S. history to address one of the two major party conventions (p. 353)."
"On September 30, 1948, Edith Kermit Roosevelt died peacefully at home at the age of eighty-seven. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, her brother and sister-in-law, and three of her five children. She was the last of her generation (p. 359)."
March 1, 2024
The subtitle of the book describes the contents. I have read several biographies of Theodore Roosevelt covering his entire life or specific events such as Mexican American War, Amazon River, his lifelong interest in Conservation, etc. This is the first that has focused on the women in his life versus them playing a smaller role in other biographies. The author presents a well written and researched history of the role that his mother, wives and sisters played in his life and the development of his character. This is well worth the read especially for those interested in the live of Theodore Roosevelt.
I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook page.
I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook page.
November 16, 2024
Beautifully researched and full of so much information of Theodore Roosevelt, his mother, wives, sisters and daughter. The main focuses are the women in his life so and how they influenced TR.
March 3, 2024
Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I've read a LOT about the Roosevelt family, and I'm happy to say that more attention is being paid to the women in Theodore's life, who helped shape him. First, there was his mother, Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt, who is said to have been the inspiration for Scarlett O'Hara. It's also been said that TR was more a Bulloch than a Roosevelt.
Then there are his strong-willed sisters, Bamie and Corinne. Many who met her said Bamie could have been President. Both sisters would prove to be good sounding boards as Theodore rose in the ranks of political positions. Their influence is finally being looked at because TR was quite progressive for his time.
Both of Roosevelt's wives' effect on his life are explored. I'm glad more attention is being paid to Alice, his first wife, who died tragically after giving birth to her namesake. Most biographers gloss over the relationship and focus on her death. As for Edith, Teddy's lifelong love, she does not come across all too well, implying that she kept Theodore from his sisters and their influence.
This is not the first book I've read that revisits Roosevelt's history and takes a closer look at the women in his life and is an admirable work to add to the Roosevelt library.
I've read a LOT about the Roosevelt family, and I'm happy to say that more attention is being paid to the women in Theodore's life, who helped shape him. First, there was his mother, Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt, who is said to have been the inspiration for Scarlett O'Hara. It's also been said that TR was more a Bulloch than a Roosevelt.
Then there are his strong-willed sisters, Bamie and Corinne. Many who met her said Bamie could have been President. Both sisters would prove to be good sounding boards as Theodore rose in the ranks of political positions. Their influence is finally being looked at because TR was quite progressive for his time.
Both of Roosevelt's wives' effect on his life are explored. I'm glad more attention is being paid to Alice, his first wife, who died tragically after giving birth to her namesake. Most biographers gloss over the relationship and focus on her death. As for Edith, Teddy's lifelong love, she does not come across all too well, implying that she kept Theodore from his sisters and their influence.
This is not the first book I've read that revisits Roosevelt's history and takes a closer look at the women in his life and is an admirable work to add to the Roosevelt library.
May 24, 2025
My favorite president gets a fresh look in this engaging book from Edward F. O'Keefe who gamely (and successfully) narrates the audiobook.
He argues, quite reasonably, that his sisters, Bamie and Connie, and his second wife, Edith, did more to shape the man than other books depict. Looming over them all is Alice, his first wife, who died at 23 and was clearly influential as he began his political career in the New York legislature. The other, later influence is his daughter Alice, who became a trusted voice in his later years.
O'Keefe has researched deeply, and while he uncovers little brand new, he synthesizes the sources and analysis into a well-done defense of the premise.
If you like TR or the era, this is a fine read.
He argues, quite reasonably, that his sisters, Bamie and Connie, and his second wife, Edith, did more to shape the man than other books depict. Looming over them all is Alice, his first wife, who died at 23 and was clearly influential as he began his political career in the New York legislature. The other, later influence is his daughter Alice, who became a trusted voice in his later years.
O'Keefe has researched deeply, and while he uncovers little brand new, he synthesizes the sources and analysis into a well-done defense of the premise.
If you like TR or the era, this is a fine read.
July 3, 2024
This is a fantastic story told from the viewpoint of the many women behind the man. Wonderfully researched and flows so well. I could not stop listening! The author narrates and has a wonderful voice. (We all know that narrated books live and die with the speaker!) Love reading Presidential biographies and while I have only read the McCullough book on TR, this one has me intrigued to read more. The Roosevelt recordings at the end were a fabulous bonus. Highly recommend!
July 20, 2025
An extremely insightful book on Theodore Roosevelt who is known to be this alpha male - and yet, welcomed support, advice, and criticism from the women in his life (his mother, two sisters, and two wives). He believed in women’s rights, the need for conservation of national parks, that presidential terms required limits to avoid dictatorship, and was quoted later in life to say: “This country will never really demonstrate that it is a democracy in the full reach and range of that conception until we have had both a Negro and a Jewish president of the United States.”
October 24, 2025
I have a new favorite book about TR.
This book displays the kind of insight into TR's life and his support system that I have been craving; it takes the information that we know on the surface and digs deeper, making connections and examining the impacts of each event in stunning detail. Extremely well-researched, fairly objective, and deliciously thoughtful, this book is an essential for anyone interested in understanding our 26th President better.
This book displays the kind of insight into TR's life and his support system that I have been craving; it takes the information that we know on the surface and digs deeper, making connections and examining the impacts of each event in stunning detail. Extremely well-researched, fairly objective, and deliciously thoughtful, this book is an essential for anyone interested in understanding our 26th President better.
August 4, 2024
What a fascinating and much needed book! There are endless TR books, but none have the thesis that it was the women in his life that most helped shaped the man, the president. While the book predominantly focuses on TR, the author does a good job (admittedly, the author could have tied TR’s life to one of these 5 women’s little more often, but I acknowledge that he had limited primary sources to get his info from) connecting Teddy Roosevelt’s actions and thoughts to one or more of the most influential women in his life. Makes me proud to be a woman, and proud to have named my son after such an amazing man!
September 4, 2024
This is how research is done, kids. It helps that the author is the CEO of the TR Presidential Library Foundation. I have a reason to visit North Dakota (where it’s being built). This family experienced so many tragic losses; but while Teddy escaped the “black care” after a loss, the Roosevelt women kept the family going. I also had no idea that Theodore was so good looking in his youth.
April 7, 2025
This is my 3rd book about Teddy Roosevelt and my least favorite. Thus said it was a well researched biography that was a little slow in the telling. It’s hard to beat David McCullough and Timothy Egan’s books.
June 19, 2024
Not me learning while reading! In my historical BAG rn
July 16, 2024
This was a very interesting book about the woman in Teddy Roosevelt's life that helped him become who he was.
August 1, 2024
Bamie was my fave.
June 23, 2025
TR has been my favorite president for ages. Learning more about him is 👌🏼🖤
January 1, 2025
I really enjoyed this book! Having recently read The River of Doubt by Candice Millard, I knew some of Theodore's history, and this book filled in many of the gaps nicely! It was so amazing to hear how much Alice, Edith, Conie, Bamie, Mittie had on his decisions. And to learn how much of a feminist he was, not just when he got married, but even in college!
"If you haven't got anything good to say about anyone, come and sit by me." -Alice
"No person is self-made. Perhaps especially the great ones."
"...but perhaps siblings are the real, underappreciated secret to success."
"If you haven't got anything good to say about anyone, come and sit by me." -Alice
"No person is self-made. Perhaps especially the great ones."
"...but perhaps siblings are the real, underappreciated secret to success."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 22, 2025
Endearing and enjoyable look at the relationships Teddy Roosevelt had with the women closest to him throughout his life: his mother, his two wives, and his sisters! I understand more about TR because of it.
November 23, 2025
This history was my first in-depth exploration of Theodore Roosevelt, so it was an informative and interesting exploration of that famous man. However, the focus of this book was also on the women who were most influential to Roosevelt: his mother and his two wives. They were each interesting and intelligent women and I especially appreciated the strength of character of Edith, his second wife. This book was well written and worth exploring.
December 21, 2025
I love history and women in history. Some women stand in front and some are just as strong supporting others. Great book.
April 18, 2024
Contrary to the impression given by the title, "The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt," this is not a book about TR's love affairs and romances. It's about the women in his life that helped him in his political life. Obviously, his wives and sisters were more to him than political operatives, but this book zeroes in on the critical roles they played in his rise to the presidency and his accomplishments while in the White House. His first wife was very ambitious for him, but she died young, after giving birth to their first child, Alice. His second wife, less ambitious, was a reluctant advisor, but once she accepted TR's political aspirations, was extremely helpful in obvious ways (First Lady duties), and less obvious ways (charming information out of potential allies and adversaries). TR's sisters Corinne and Bamie were even more helpful, especially Bamie, who in addition to helping to raise Alice, was even more politically-minded than TR. It can be argued that she set the path to the Presidency and TR followed it. This is a readable and well-researched book that focuses on a less-studied aspect of the Roosevelt Presidency, and high time, too! (Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for a digital review copy.)
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