Leonard Wood: Rough Rider, Surgeon, Architect of American Imperialism

by Jack McCallum

One of the most fascinating but least remembered figures in modern American history, Major General Leonard Wood (1860-1927) was, with his close friend Theodore Roosevelt, an icon of U.S. imperialism as the nation evolved into a global power at the dawn of the twentieth century. The myriad of roles that Wood played in his extraordinary career offer a mirror image of the country's expansion from the urban Northeast to the western frontier to Latin America and the Far East. Boston surgeon, Indian fighter, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Medal of Honor winner, commander of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, Governor General of the Philippines, and presidential candidate, Wood was one of a select cadre of men that transformed the American military at the turn of the century, turning it into a modern fighting force and the nation into a world power.
Throughout his life, Wood tested the division between military and civilian power to its very limits. His 1920 presidential campaign and his conflicts with civilian politicians were harbingers of the struggles that Generals Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D. Eisenhower would face as they moved from the battlefield to Washington following World War II.
Jack McCallum has mined Wood's extensive personal records—including diaries, correspondence, and photographs—to create a vivid portrait of a complex man and the legacy he left on U.S. imperialism. America's rapid conquest of Cuba and the Philippines and the subsequent political and economic reconstruction it imposed under Wood's military supervision in these regions have important parallels to current U.S. involvement in the Middle East, both in its successes and its failures.

Genres: Biography

357 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2005

Reviews

[Patrick J. Baier · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Litney of valuable information

The author did an outstanding job getting
the information on Lenard Wood. A person the contributed all his life to America.
Perhaps the could had included some maps in the book

[Frank Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and mostly forgotten major figure of American foreign policy in the early 1900's, Wood was commander of the Rough Riders (Teddy Roosevelt served under him), a doctor, an Indian fighter, governor of post-Spanish American War Cuba and later, governor of the Phillipines (where he ruthlessly put down the insurrectionists). McCallum offer a well-written and well-researched biography of this extraordinary man of history -- a man who in many ways did more to foster American expansionism (or, Imperialism, as commonly charged) abroad than any other man of his time. I inadvertantly found this is an important book to read at this moment in our nation's history as we grapple with two wars and how to deal with a deadly insurgency in Afghanistan and other places around the world. Wood was a trail blazer in successfully "nation building" -- and should be studied more as a result.