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TR's Last War: Theodore Roosevelt, The Great War, and a Journey of Triumph and Tragedy
A riveting new account of Theodore Roosevelt’s impassioned crusade for military preparedness as America fitfully stumbles into World War I, spectacularly punctuated by his unique tongue-lashings of the vacillating Woodrow Wilson, his rousing advocacy of a masculine, pro-Allied “Americanism,” a death-defying compulsion for personal front-line combat, a gingerly rapprochement with GOP power brokers—and, yes, perhaps, even another presidential campaign. Roosevelt is a towering Greek god of war. But Greek gods begat Greek tragedies. His own entreaties to don the uniform are rebuffed, and he remains stateside. But his four sons fight “over there” with heartbreaking consequences: two are wounded; his youngest and most loved child dies in aerial combat. Yet, though grieving and weary, TR may yet surmount everything with one monumentally odds-defying last triumph. Poised at the very brink of a final return to the White House, death stills his indomitable spirit.
In his lively, witty, blow-by-blow style, David Pietrusza captures, through the lens of the Bull Moose, the 1916 presidential campaign, America’s entry into the Great War in 1917, Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, and the last years of one of American history’s greatest men, who said on his death bed at the age of sixty, “I promised myself that I would work up to the hilt until I was sixty, and I have done it. I have kept my promise….” Pietrusza not only transports readers with his dramatic portraits of TR, his hated rival Wilson, and politics in wild flux but also poignantly chronicles the horrific price a family pays in war.
In his lively, witty, blow-by-blow style, David Pietrusza captures, through the lens of the Bull Moose, the 1916 presidential campaign, America’s entry into the Great War in 1917, Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, and the last years of one of American history’s greatest men, who said on his death bed at the age of sixty, “I promised myself that I would work up to the hilt until I was sixty, and I have done it. I have kept my promise….” Pietrusza not only transports readers with his dramatic portraits of TR, his hated rival Wilson, and politics in wild flux but also poignantly chronicles the horrific price a family pays in war.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2018
23 people are currently reading
228 people want to read
About the author
David Pietrusza
36 books31 followersDavid Pietrusza’s books include 1920: The Year of Six Presidents; Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series; 1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year that Transformed America's Role in the World; 1960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon: The Epic Campaign that Forged Three Presidencies; and 1932: The Rise of Hitler and FDR—Two Tales of Politics, Betrayal, and Unlikely Destiny. Rothstein was a finalist for an Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category, and 1920 was honored by Kirkus Reviews as among their "Books of the Year." Pietrusza has appeared on Good Morning America, Morning Joe, The Voice of America, The History Channel, ESPN, NPR, AMC, and C-SPAN. He has spoken at The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, The National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, the Harry S Truman library and Museum, and various universities and festivals. He lives in Scotia, New York. Visit davidpietrusza.com
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 9, 2020
I have read many books about TR over the years. In this book, Pietrusza focused approximately on the last five years of TR’s life.
The book was well written and researched. The author covers the battle between Woodrow Wilson and TR over military preparedness for the coming war. He also reviews the loss of sons TR suffered during WWI as well as those that came back wounded. The book was an interesting read.
I read this book as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is thirteen hours and nineteen minutes. Norman Dietz does a good job narrating the book. Dietz is an actor and well-known narrator of audiobooks.
The book was well written and researched. The author covers the battle between Woodrow Wilson and TR over military preparedness for the coming war. He also reviews the loss of sons TR suffered during WWI as well as those that came back wounded. The book was an interesting read.
I read this book as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is thirteen hours and nineteen minutes. Norman Dietz does a good job narrating the book. Dietz is an actor and well-known narrator of audiobooks.
October 12, 2018
I thought TR's Last War: Theodore Roosevelt, The Great War, and a Journey of Triumph and Tragedy by David Pietrusza was a great read. The author obviously did his research on this fascinating man in American history.
Five stars.
Five stars.
July 9, 2020
This is another great book by author David Pietrusza. This book focuses on a time in TR’s life that few authors explore. As TR was entering this stage of his life he was finding the old Bully attitude and action provided less successful results and as time passed got more difficult to present.
Considering his lifetime of achievement and the ability to overcome almost any obstacle placed in his path this had to be a most frustrating period.
The tragedy of losing a son in war and other sons being permanently affected by a war that he had vigorously supported weighed heavily upon him.
Abandonment by former political allies and the endless disagreement with Woodrow Wilson over just about everything added a new level of stress to his life. Still, he carried on with a vision and energy only TR could muster.
The epilogue provides some interesting speculation concerning his death with which the reader may agree or disagree, but it will certainly cause one to think.
Considering his lifetime of achievement and the ability to overcome almost any obstacle placed in his path this had to be a most frustrating period.
The tragedy of losing a son in war and other sons being permanently affected by a war that he had vigorously supported weighed heavily upon him.
Abandonment by former political allies and the endless disagreement with Woodrow Wilson over just about everything added a new level of stress to his life. Still, he carried on with a vision and energy only TR could muster.
The epilogue provides some interesting speculation concerning his death with which the reader may agree or disagree, but it will certainly cause one to think.
October 21, 2018
A Fascinating and Melancholy Portrait
Theodore Roosevelt remains one of the most enduringly fascinating figures in American history. This book is another instalment in a recent trend - writing biographies of an era of the life of a figure who is already covered by so many numerous recent and comprehensive works that a new such work is probably futile. However, such works are valuable in that they break out and focus on eras - often difficult and melancholy ones - that occupy less space in conventional works.
This book focuses on TR’s efforts to prepare America for the Great War and to return to the Presidential office. But, more than that, it is a story of a certain kind of heroism, that of an old man struggling against the clock with so much yet undone and so much impossible to do. This goes into greater detail - conveyed in a readable way - about Roosevelt’s doomed efforts for the 1916 nomination and to raise formations for service at the front in the Great War than any other work on the man then I’ve ever read. Strongly recommended.
Theodore Roosevelt remains one of the most enduringly fascinating figures in American history. This book is another instalment in a recent trend - writing biographies of an era of the life of a figure who is already covered by so many numerous recent and comprehensive works that a new such work is probably futile. However, such works are valuable in that they break out and focus on eras - often difficult and melancholy ones - that occupy less space in conventional works.
This book focuses on TR’s efforts to prepare America for the Great War and to return to the Presidential office. But, more than that, it is a story of a certain kind of heroism, that of an old man struggling against the clock with so much yet undone and so much impossible to do. This goes into greater detail - conveyed in a readable way - about Roosevelt’s doomed efforts for the 1916 nomination and to raise formations for service at the front in the Great War than any other work on the man then I’ve ever read. Strongly recommended.
May 9, 2019
The timing of this book could not be better. It is about an ex-president who believed he could not retire from history. Too much was a stake in an America ill prepared for a war TR knew was coming, and with a President Wilson, who was “too proud to fight” and who did little to prepare the country for global conflict. Times were different then, of course, since TR could actually run for the highest office again. His own ambition colored everything he said and did. This vociferous man, unafraid or imprudent—depending on your political position—did not want to play the part of elder statesman. And he saw no virtue in remaining silent, even though his increasingly virulent attacks on Wilson aroused recurring questions about Roosevelt’s own mental health.
The Roosevelt revival was quite extraordinary, considering he had split his party in 1912, making Wilson’s election possible with only a 40% plurality. Hard feelings persisted, but such was the fervor of TR’s followers that it seemed entirely possible he could capture the 1916 nomination. Why he did not do so is a puzzle—one that no one has quite been able to solve. David Pietrusza stands back and lets TR have at it, which is to say the biographer does not judge his subject, he allows Roosevelt to reveal himself. While his followers called on TR to assert control of his party—eager to win even if that meant forgiving the former president’s perfidy in dividing their loyalties in the last presidential contest—TR awaited for the Republican Convention to call on him. His passivity in this respect is remarkable. Heretofore, never one to shun a fight, he was, in effect, too proud to fight. He wanted, like Adlai Stevenson, to win a third run with the acclamation of his party.
It is hard to imagine a TR who dithered, sending mixed messages to his confidants, but that seems to be the truth. As harsh as TR was on Wilson, the ex-president seemed wary of challenging an incumbent, one who had passed a good deal of the progressive legislation that built on earlier Roosevelt reforms. Not that TR had even a grudging respect for Wilson, who seemed all too professorial and passive, rebuffing Roosevelt’s desire to go to war with his own volunteer regiment of warriors. Next to Wilson, TR’s martial spirit seemed out of another age, even though he understood the horrors of modern warfare and dreaded that his four sons would be caught up in grinding machinery of big power conflicts.
For TR, Woodrow Wilson’s dereliction of duty came down to lack of preparedness. The best way to avoid war was also the best way to wage war: have the best military organization in the world. Otherwise, the United States would become increasingly irrelevant. Woodrow Wilson was a man of words but not of action. When the United States did declare war—after a close election that Wilson almost lost—TR scoffed at slogans about making the world safe for democracy and then repudiated Wilson’s post war push to join the League of Nations.
Heading into the years just before the 1920 election, TR looked like the favorite to win the Republican nomination and restore Republican hegemony in Congress. But the amazon adventure which almost cost him his life, and other physical ailments, exacerbated by obesity, began to weaken a man who nevertheless could seem, on the platform, the picture of ruddy health. Roosevelt was game but also grief stricken over the death of his son, the dashing Quentin, shot down by German airplanes. TR seemed to age quickly in these postwar years, alternately realizing his powers were waning and yet ready to do battle once again.
As much biography as history, David Pietrusza book reveals the man and his world in meticulous and scrupulous complexity. Pietrusza presents a flawed man from that man’s own point of view and from that of his friends, sometimes too willing to overlook their chief’s weaknesses in their desire to believe in a savior. For all his histrionic courage—taking San Juan Hill and continuing a speech after he was shot—TR understood his mortality and perhaps even staved off depression by pursuing such a vigorous life. Pietrusza’s account is suggestive while never psychoanalyzing TR, never claiming to know the man beyond what the evidence can yield.
What makes this book stand out is the dramatic moment-by-moment interplay of personalities and events and unexpected developments—when TR, for example, puts forward his friend, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge as a presidential nominee for 1916 when TR’s own forces cannot put him over. To many Republicans, Lodge was the anti-progressive and ought to have been anathema to TR. Pietrusza might have said a little more about the reasons for Roosevelt’s late in the day touting of Lodge. They were friends, Pietrusza notes, but he does not make clear enough perhaps, how Lodge had carefully nurtured and looked out for TR in the early stages of TR’s career. It was the man, the friend, not his policies, that TR wanted to promote when his own ambitions came to nought. In short, without psychoanlyzing TR, Pietrusza might nevertheless have explored the psychology of TR’s choice at that crucial moment in the Republican Convention.
Such quibbles aside, this is a riveting narrative that does full justice to the triumphs and the sorrows of Theodore Roosevelt’s life. Pietrusza creates a modern man carrying with him the martial valor of an earlier age even as he sought to wrest the country away from a president who seemed ill prepared to deal with an imploding Europe. Not having understood what was at stake on the European continent as the war began, Woodrow Wilson, in TR’s estimation, could not possibly establish the postwar peace. Another kind of statesmanship was wanted, another understanding of big power mentalities was needed. Pietrusza does not make such an argument, but he leads us to it and to this question: What would the world have looked like if TR had not died in January 1919 and lived to manage the aftermath of a war that Woodrow Wilson so manifestly misunderstood?
The Roosevelt revival was quite extraordinary, considering he had split his party in 1912, making Wilson’s election possible with only a 40% plurality. Hard feelings persisted, but such was the fervor of TR’s followers that it seemed entirely possible he could capture the 1916 nomination. Why he did not do so is a puzzle—one that no one has quite been able to solve. David Pietrusza stands back and lets TR have at it, which is to say the biographer does not judge his subject, he allows Roosevelt to reveal himself. While his followers called on TR to assert control of his party—eager to win even if that meant forgiving the former president’s perfidy in dividing their loyalties in the last presidential contest—TR awaited for the Republican Convention to call on him. His passivity in this respect is remarkable. Heretofore, never one to shun a fight, he was, in effect, too proud to fight. He wanted, like Adlai Stevenson, to win a third run with the acclamation of his party.
It is hard to imagine a TR who dithered, sending mixed messages to his confidants, but that seems to be the truth. As harsh as TR was on Wilson, the ex-president seemed wary of challenging an incumbent, one who had passed a good deal of the progressive legislation that built on earlier Roosevelt reforms. Not that TR had even a grudging respect for Wilson, who seemed all too professorial and passive, rebuffing Roosevelt’s desire to go to war with his own volunteer regiment of warriors. Next to Wilson, TR’s martial spirit seemed out of another age, even though he understood the horrors of modern warfare and dreaded that his four sons would be caught up in grinding machinery of big power conflicts.
For TR, Woodrow Wilson’s dereliction of duty came down to lack of preparedness. The best way to avoid war was also the best way to wage war: have the best military organization in the world. Otherwise, the United States would become increasingly irrelevant. Woodrow Wilson was a man of words but not of action. When the United States did declare war—after a close election that Wilson almost lost—TR scoffed at slogans about making the world safe for democracy and then repudiated Wilson’s post war push to join the League of Nations.
Heading into the years just before the 1920 election, TR looked like the favorite to win the Republican nomination and restore Republican hegemony in Congress. But the amazon adventure which almost cost him his life, and other physical ailments, exacerbated by obesity, began to weaken a man who nevertheless could seem, on the platform, the picture of ruddy health. Roosevelt was game but also grief stricken over the death of his son, the dashing Quentin, shot down by German airplanes. TR seemed to age quickly in these postwar years, alternately realizing his powers were waning and yet ready to do battle once again.
As much biography as history, David Pietrusza book reveals the man and his world in meticulous and scrupulous complexity. Pietrusza presents a flawed man from that man’s own point of view and from that of his friends, sometimes too willing to overlook their chief’s weaknesses in their desire to believe in a savior. For all his histrionic courage—taking San Juan Hill and continuing a speech after he was shot—TR understood his mortality and perhaps even staved off depression by pursuing such a vigorous life. Pietrusza’s account is suggestive while never psychoanalyzing TR, never claiming to know the man beyond what the evidence can yield.
What makes this book stand out is the dramatic moment-by-moment interplay of personalities and events and unexpected developments—when TR, for example, puts forward his friend, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge as a presidential nominee for 1916 when TR’s own forces cannot put him over. To many Republicans, Lodge was the anti-progressive and ought to have been anathema to TR. Pietrusza might have said a little more about the reasons for Roosevelt’s late in the day touting of Lodge. They were friends, Pietrusza notes, but he does not make clear enough perhaps, how Lodge had carefully nurtured and looked out for TR in the early stages of TR’s career. It was the man, the friend, not his policies, that TR wanted to promote when his own ambitions came to nought. In short, without psychoanlyzing TR, Pietrusza might nevertheless have explored the psychology of TR’s choice at that crucial moment in the Republican Convention.
Such quibbles aside, this is a riveting narrative that does full justice to the triumphs and the sorrows of Theodore Roosevelt’s life. Pietrusza creates a modern man carrying with him the martial valor of an earlier age even as he sought to wrest the country away from a president who seemed ill prepared to deal with an imploding Europe. Not having understood what was at stake on the European continent as the war began, Woodrow Wilson, in TR’s estimation, could not possibly establish the postwar peace. Another kind of statesmanship was wanted, another understanding of big power mentalities was needed. Pietrusza does not make such an argument, but he leads us to it and to this question: What would the world have looked like if TR had not died in January 1919 and lived to manage the aftermath of a war that Woodrow Wilson so manifestly misunderstood?
October 16, 2024
TR’S Last War: Theodore Roosevelt, The Great War, and a Journey of Triumph and Tragedy by David Pietrusza
.
.
As America is slowly pushed into the fray of Word War I, the reader follows Theodore Roosevelt climbing back to political relevance after his ill fated third party run in 1912 for president. In a much weakened state physically from his expedition to the Amazon in Brazil, TR uses the last of his abilities to help the USA enter the worldwide conflict in his final battle. Blind in one eye, very overweight and battling crippling bouts of rheumatism, Teddy takes on the administration of Woodrow Wilson for not preparing America for its eventual entrance to the war. The US military was grossly underprepared for the coming battle and Roosevelt and his cohorts sought to whip America into a battle ready status but President Wilson refused to acknowledge the severity of the situation and ran on the platform “he kept us out of war” during his second term. TR lobbied the president and secretary of war to raise a regiment or two of fighting men for him to lead overseas in battle against Germany; Wilson and his cabinet refused. Instead TR’s sons (Ted Jr, Kermit, Archie, Quentin) would all serve in France, as well as his daughter Ethel as a nurse and son in law Richard Derby as a doctor. All of his sons would be wounded in battle and his youngest son Quentin would die in battle flying his plane in combat against the enemy. This would crush TR mentally and exacerbated his downturn physically as well. TR was the favored GOP candidate for the 1920 election and most likely would have won if he had lived. He suffered a heart attack at the age of 60 in 1919 and shocked the world with his passing at his home in Oyster Bay; Sagamore Hill. A very enjoyable read from Mr. Pietrusza as are his many other historical works.
.
.
#oysterbay #theodoreroosevelt #worldwar1 #history #usa #teddyroosevelt #president #presidentialgravesite
@theodoresbooks @sagamorehillnhs @friendsofsagamorehill @davidpietrusza
.
.
As America is slowly pushed into the fray of Word War I, the reader follows Theodore Roosevelt climbing back to political relevance after his ill fated third party run in 1912 for president. In a much weakened state physically from his expedition to the Amazon in Brazil, TR uses the last of his abilities to help the USA enter the worldwide conflict in his final battle. Blind in one eye, very overweight and battling crippling bouts of rheumatism, Teddy takes on the administration of Woodrow Wilson for not preparing America for its eventual entrance to the war. The US military was grossly underprepared for the coming battle and Roosevelt and his cohorts sought to whip America into a battle ready status but President Wilson refused to acknowledge the severity of the situation and ran on the platform “he kept us out of war” during his second term. TR lobbied the president and secretary of war to raise a regiment or two of fighting men for him to lead overseas in battle against Germany; Wilson and his cabinet refused. Instead TR’s sons (Ted Jr, Kermit, Archie, Quentin) would all serve in France, as well as his daughter Ethel as a nurse and son in law Richard Derby as a doctor. All of his sons would be wounded in battle and his youngest son Quentin would die in battle flying his plane in combat against the enemy. This would crush TR mentally and exacerbated his downturn physically as well. TR was the favored GOP candidate for the 1920 election and most likely would have won if he had lived. He suffered a heart attack at the age of 60 in 1919 and shocked the world with his passing at his home in Oyster Bay; Sagamore Hill. A very enjoyable read from Mr. Pietrusza as are his many other historical works.
.
.
#oysterbay #theodoreroosevelt #worldwar1 #history #usa #teddyroosevelt #president #presidentialgravesite
@theodoresbooks @sagamorehillnhs @friendsofsagamorehill @davidpietrusza
November 30, 2021
Teddy is my favorite president. He had so many great personal qualities and, politically, had no problem going against party lines. It’s like he knew a 2-party system was bad for America. However, he was not perfect. And this book highlights that. His final fight was for America’s “preparedness” for World War I. His desire to see our country prepared for war was to a fault and it set the foundation for our industrial military complex. As a Christian, I struggle back and forth with this notion and I have yet to settle on a final conviction. That being said, regardless of Teddy being right or wrong on being prepared for war, his consistency on the issue was full of integrity as he was willing to put his sons and himself on the western front when it came to it.
Final rating: borrow it
Final rating: borrow it
September 12, 2022
I enjoyed learning about TR’s post-presidency. It’s a really interesting period of history (1908-1919), but I never knew his continued role in that era.
I think overall the biography is written very fairly. At times, I admire TR, but at other times I am sad for him, and sometimes I disdained him. I think the range of feelings I have towards him is an indicator that the author took a comprehensive approach to TR, rather than “selling” a certain side of him.
I think overall the biography is written very fairly. At times, I admire TR, but at other times I am sad for him, and sometimes I disdained him. I think the range of feelings I have towards him is an indicator that the author took a comprehensive approach to TR, rather than “selling” a certain side of him.
November 24, 2018
David Pietrusza has written a vivid account of Teddy Roosevelt’s post -presidential political involvement from his 1912 Bull Moose candidacy to his obsessive critique of Wilson through the end of WWI. TR’s Last War is a social and political history that reminds one of Kearns’ Bully Pulpit. In the end TR is more a tragic figure than triumphant warrior.
July 14, 2024
I always liked Teddy from his years as president and his basic desire to better America. But this book outlines his last efforts to derail Wilson and gain another term as president. He went about it so badly, made enemies of old friends and allies, worked to aid those opposed to him and overall mismanaged his campaign to gain the 1916 nomination so badly that his memory is now tarnished.
July 4, 2022
I would recommend reading another history of wwi along with this if you're looking for a book on WWI. This book pairs nicely with Thomas Fleming's The Illusion of Victory (which puts more of a focus on Woodrow Wilson and the war itself)
December 4, 2018
So.Much.Detail.
August 3, 2019
Nothing will top 1920, but this was a good look into TR's legacy and decline after the1912 election.
November 20, 2025
TR'S last years.
February 26, 2021
An extremely interesting book charting the involvement of Theodore Roosevelt in World War One and his final years. This culminates in a theory about TR's death which may seem controversial.
I really enjoyed this book as I hadn't really studied TR's involment in the Great War or his final years, so this book filled in the gaps of my knowledge.
I really enjoyed this book as I hadn't really studied TR's involment in the Great War or his final years, so this book filled in the gaps of my knowledge.
July 6, 2019
A book on Teddy Roosevelt's last years, it gives one much to ponder even about current politics. It focuses primarily on the run-up to America's entry into World War I, with TR wanting the U.S. to at least be militarily prepared to be able to fight a war, even if we did not enter the European conflict. It shows the 1916 presidential election, as well as the congressional elections of 1914 and 1918. Many of the names, prominent in politics back then, are forgotten now... which should give you some perspective on what people 100 years from now will remember about politics in our time. Even things that loomed large back then (tariffs - but this was more for our raw material, like cotton, not manufactured goods like today) keep coming back, and some have fallen by the wayside.
You may find TR's rants about "hyphenated Americans" interesting. especially when you realize he was specifically referring to German-Americans and Irish-Americans, groups that are uncontroversial now because they're many generations into being regular old American-Americans who don't have any connections to Germany or Ireland anymore and whose interest is primarily genealogical curiosity.
The only problem with the book is sometimes it jumps around in time, and I had to get a hold of that thread. A key theme is TR's political enmities (Wilson figuring largest, but others, such as Elihu Root and William Howard Taft, go up and down), and it is really important to know, if TR is remarking on somebody (or vice versa), if particular elections had already occurred.
You may find TR's rants about "hyphenated Americans" interesting. especially when you realize he was specifically referring to German-Americans and Irish-Americans, groups that are uncontroversial now because they're many generations into being regular old American-Americans who don't have any connections to Germany or Ireland anymore and whose interest is primarily genealogical curiosity.
The only problem with the book is sometimes it jumps around in time, and I had to get a hold of that thread. A key theme is TR's political enmities (Wilson figuring largest, but others, such as Elihu Root and William Howard Taft, go up and down), and it is really important to know, if TR is remarking on somebody (or vice versa), if particular elections had already occurred.
April 27, 2020
Excellent read and extremely well written. No man has faults, no man can match the persona wit and drive that made Teddy Roosevelt displayed. He was a human who lived his life accordingly with a strong devotion to his country.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews