A tour de force on Roosevelt the Environmental Activist
I'm sure many of you are wondering whether we really need another biography of Theodore Roosevelt. After all, there has been a spate of other biographies on the man, from Edmund Morris' Theodore Rex to Kathleen Dalton's Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life. In short, the answer is YES, this is an essential TR biography. Even if you have read all of those other books (as I have), Douglas Brinkley's The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America is a vital addition to our understanding of TR as a man, a politician, and an environmental activist.
Brinkley's The Wilderness Warrior argues that Teddy Roosevelt was not simply a politician who cared about nature, but that his life as a naturalist permeated his entire outlook on life and use of political power. He goes further by arguing that TR was a committed preservationist who sought to protect nature forever, not just a "utilitarian" conservationist who sought to protect natural resources for later exploitation - despite his affinity for hunting.
The first part of the book documents TR's fascination with wildlife and the outdoors as a young child. Even by the age of 10, he had established a small "museum" of his favorite wildlife specimens (which he later donated to the Smithsonian and American Museum of Natural History). Brinkley portrays a young TR excitedly studying the radula (mouthparts) of small mollusks - hardly what one would imagine as the hobby of a future president. Brinkley also digs up some less appreciated influences on young TR. For example, he shines a light on Robert B. Roosevelt, TR's "black sheep" uncle who became a prominent advocate for fish conservation in New York and probably played a key role in encouraging TR's activism. Right up until college, Brinkley recalls how TR seemed destined for a career as a biologist. However, at Harvard, he became bored with lab biology and found another avocation - politics.
The next chapters show how TR continued his passion for nature even while pursuing a political career. Some of the stories - such as his trips to the Badlands after his mother and first wife Alice both died - are well known, but Brinkley fills them with rich detail. More interesting are the events that receive scant attention in most TR biographies. Even after spending years immersed in U.S. environmental history, I never realized that TR had founded the very first nationally effective environmental advocacy NGO (the Boone and Crocket Club). Brinkley brings this group to life by recalling the personalities in the group, such as naturalist George Bird Grinnell, and the groups publications. Throughout this, TR wrote acclaimed books about the American West, his hunting exploits, and endangered species. It is fascinating to see TR heatedly debating species classification with the government biologist C. Hart Merriam, while TR was serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (and many biologists now agree with TR's position no less!). In short, as Brinkley makes clear, even if he had never become president, TR would have been an important historical figure in raising awareness of the natural heritage of the American West.
However, of course TR was destined to play a much greater role as president. Much of the rest of the book shows how TR used the presidency to advance what Brinkley considers the most ambitious and meaningful conservationist agenda in U.S. history. At the stroke of a pen, TR would designate vast tracts of U.S. wilderness as National Refuges. When deciding to make Pelican Island, Florida, a Federal Bird Reservation, TR simply stated "I So Declare It"! In the end, Brinkley notes that TR not only protected some of our most important natural sites, such as the Grand Canyon, but also pushed for the laws and improvised the tools that would allow future presidents to follow in his footsteps.
One things I really love about this book is that it stays focused on TR the naturalist. With a personality as engaging as Teddy Roosevelt, there is material enough to fill several biographies (not that this book is short - it's over 800 pages!). Fortunately, Brinkley never meanders too far into other aspects of TR's life, which means the book remains fresh. Every page has a new and exciting anecdote that is probably unfamiliar to all but hardcore TR fans. Furthermore, by staying so close to his theme, Brinkley shows just how deeply conservationist philosophies pervaded TR's life. For example, TR fell in love with Darwin's theories of evolution at a young age and later used them to justify his foreign policy exploits. After reading this book, I came away with a renewed appreciation of TR as a politician and a man (could you ever imagine George Bush or Barack Obama "roughing it" out West?).
On the other hand, anybody interested in U.S. political history or environmentalism will find this book a treasure trove. Brinkley provides enough background on TR and U.S. history at the time so readers can follow along. Moreover, he writes well and makes every incident an adventure. The book has everything from hunting tales to political campaigning to battle skirmishes. Rather than feeling like 800 pages, you'll wish Brinkley had added another 400.
In fact, my only criticism of the book is that Brinkley should have kept on writing. I know the poor guy had to finish the book somewhere. The book ends when TR leaves the presidency in 1908, but the adventures didn't stop there. TR took trips to East Africa and the Amazon River in Brazil on hunting and scientific expeditions. Surely these influenced TR's views of nature. Fortunately, Candice Millard's The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey and TR's own African Game Trails: An Account of the African Wanderings of an American Hunter-Natrualist cover these exploits. However, I would have been interested in learning more about TR's 1912 campaign as the Bull Moose candidate from The Wilderness Warrior's conservationist perspective. Hopefully, Brinkley can add some commentary in a revised edition on these episodes and how they influenced TR's views on conservation.
In short, I can't recommend this book enough. It is something rare in biographies of famous politicians - it is both well-written and original. However, don't take my word - check out this brief excerpt from Vanity Fair earlier this summer: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/05/teddy-roosevelt-excerpt200905. In addition, if you like this book, you might also want to read Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism (Pioneers of Conservation), about TR's righthand man in the U.S. Forest Service.
TR: Conservationist, environmentalist and the first "Green" President
Theodore Roosevelt's life was packed so full with so many interests it's easy for an author to focus on one aspect of it rather than writing a sprawling biography. Brinkley opts to focus on Teddy the conservationist and environmentalist for "The Wilderness Warrior" and there is no shortage of material to draw from as Roosevelt was drawn to nature from the time he was a child. The subject of Roosevelt's interest in nature has been touched on in other sprawling biographies by Nathan Miller, Edmund Morris and others, but few have focused as specifically on Roosevelt's environmentalism quite as well or as in-depth as Brinkley does here. Like many Victorians, Roosevelt was typically eclectic, collecting and preserving specimens of a wide variety of animals which he prominently displayed in his homes, jokingly calling it the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History." He also kept a wide variety of unusual pets and this interest in the biodiversity of the environment around him was likely spurred by what he was reading as much as by the rapidly changing world around him. But that eclectic interest changed to serious ambition when Roosevelt ventured to the Dakotas in the late 1880s.
There is a tendency to think that Roosevelt's interest in conservationism lay dormant from his time in the Dakotas until he became President, but in reality nothing could be further from the truth; which ultimately is part of why Brinkley wrote this book. Rather than compartmentalizing conservationism, it was an essential part of Roosevelt's core being and beliefs, something Brinkley makes quite clear. Freed of having to tell the whole story of Roosevelt's life Brinkley is able to focus on how conservationism was always near and dear to Roosevelt's heart and informed much of his life. And while Roosevelt's early interest in nature and travels to the Dakotas have been told countless times before, there is a freshness here that is found in Brinkley's other books. Brinkley is able to explore Roosevelt's fascination with nature in far greater detail than other authors would have dared that allows readers to see Roosevelt as though for the first time. Brinkley is also freed to focus on Roosevelt's activism once he becomes President without having to wade into covering all the other aspects of his presidency. Perhaps the strangest part is that Brinkley largely ends with Roosevelt's presidency. This is so strange especially since Roosevelt's ill-fated trip down the Amazon would have been a rather fitting coda for this story. Perhaps Brinkley felt "River of Doubt" covered that sufficiently and wanted Roosevelt to go out on a high note. It certainly doesn't detract from the book and it's rare that I would ever say 800+ pages left me wanting more, but that is indeed the case here. "The Wilderness Warrior" reads like the adventure that it is. There is more detail crammed in here then I ever imagined and yet it is one of the best biographies on Roosevelt I've ever read, despite narrowly focusing on one aspect of his very exciting and action packed life. If anything it will make readers wish for another environmentalist like Theodore Roosevelt to come along; what we've had since then have by and large been pale imitators.
Simply the BEST book on Teddy Roosevelt !!!!!
WOW. Its rare I get a book and sit and leaf thru it in complete awe. This is a book I have wanted for so so long.In fact I plan on buying extra copies for my county library system, since we here in the Sierras in Mark Twain country, so appreciate top books with such wonderful research and information that is so well written that you literally do NOT want to put the book down. And its a book that you will read and re read and re read and get something new from each time you read it.
Having grown up in a wild west, environmentalist mined family where when we backpacked we got daily lectures on leaving an area so that it looked like we have never been there, Theodore Roosevelt was akin to my families favorite relative, university professor, religious advisor and common sense favorite friend. And this book shows we were right on.
Douglas Brinkley is an A+ author and one can only imagine the hours, days, months and years he put into researching Theodore Roosevelt, because the book covers ALL areas of the United States and even international areas that the President lived and fought for. And reading the book you get the sense you are there, listening to the President demand we care for the earth and the open spaces this great country offers.
Especially interesting to me is how during the past election we heard candidates from different political parties evoke the name of Teddy Roosevelt, yet in reading the book one wonders just how much did or do these folks even know of the man. And I so hope the book will light a fire under people to demand that we always fun the open spaces we have as parks and natural preserves. And I didn't even know West Virginia had a state of the art naturalist center for the Fish and Wildlife folks under the Department of the Interior.
And the books is honest in pointing up the few mistakes Teddy Roosevelt made, while also noting he was probably the last or even one of the few totally honest Presidents we have had. He was known to have never lied. And while he did hunt and fish, as my family does, he also understood well the role of herd management in a responsible and humane manner.
As a walk the talk conservative I remind people that conserve and conservation go hand in hand with me being a conservative.
About The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America detail
- Amazon Sales Rank: #577 in Books
- Published on: 2009-07-28
- Released on: 2009-07-28
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 960 pages
Features
The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America Description
In this groundbreaking epic biography, Douglas Brinkley draws on never-before-published materials to examine the life and achievements of our "naturalist president." By setting aside more than 230 million acres of wild America for posterity between 1901 and 1909, Theodore Roosevelt made conservation a universal endeavor. This crusade for the American wilderness was perhaps the greatest U.S. presidential initiative between the Civil War and World War I. Roosevelt's most important legacies led to the creation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906. His executive orders saved such treasures as Devils Tower, the Grand Canyon, and the Petrified Forest.
Tracing the role that nature played in Roosevelt's storied career, Brinkley brilliantly analyzes the influence that the works of John James Audubon and Charles Darwin had on the young man who would become our twenty-sixth president. With descriptive flair, the author illuminates Roosevelt's bird watching in the Adirondacks, wildlife obsession in Yellowstone, hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains, ranching in the Dakota Territory, hunting in the Big Horn Mountains, and outdoor romps through Idaho and Wyoming. He also profiles Roosevelt's incredible circle of naturalist friends, including the Catskills poet John Burroughs, Boone and Crockett Club cofounder George Bird Grinnell, forestry zealot Gifford Pinchot, buffalo breeder William Hornaday, Sierra Club founder John Muir, U.S. Biological Survey wizard C. Hart Merriam, Oregon Audubon Society founder William L. Finley, and pelican protector Paul Kroegel, among many others. He brings to life hilarious anecdotes of wild-pig hunting in Texas and badger saving in Kansas, wolf catching in Oklahoma and grouse flushing in Iowa. Even the story of the teddy bear gets its definitive treatment.
Destined to become a classic, this extraordinary and timeless biography offers a penetrating and colorful look at Roosevelt's naturalist achievements, a legacy now more important than ever. Raising a Paul Revereย–like alarm about American wildlife in peril—including buffalo, manatees, antelope, egrets, and elk—Roosevelt saved entire species from probable extinction. As we face the problems of global warming, overpopulation, and sustainable land management, this imposing leader's stout resolution to protect our environment is an inspiration and a contemporary call to arms for us all.
