Rough Rider redux

Once the United States entered World War I, Roosevelt personally asked Wilson for permission to raise two divisions of volunteers. Wilson, after years of withering criticism from Roosevelt, declined the request, claiming that the American forces would all be drawn from the regular Army. "This is a very exclusive war," said Roosevelt, "and I have been blackballed by the committee on admissions."

But all four of his sons saw action. Two were seriously wounded and the youngest, Quentin, died in a dogfight in June 1918. Roosevelt - brokenhearted that Quentin had made the ultimate sacrifice while he had been unable to serve - died just six months later.

Ultimately, this is a story of coping with the loss of political power. At one level, Roosevelt did very badly: He broke the Republican Party in two, delivered the White House to the Democrats, and never found the meaningful public role that he so desperately sought.

But in a far more important way, he triumphed. The progressive vision that drove him altered American politics, quickly and forever. During the 1912 campaign, he proposed such radical ideas as judicial recall, financial aid to workers injured on the job, abolition of child labor and the seven-day workweek, a living wage for workers, expanded access to credit for farmers, more protection for forests, and a broad program of social insurance for those unable to work.

Because Roosevelt was a visible and popular figure even out of power, the political parties had to address these ideas. Within a few years, the federal government would enact them all. O'Toole writes that "Roosevelt's rewards [for his activism] were defeat, blame and a painful case of envy, but the Progressive Party died triumphant."

O'Toole draws from a number of firsthand sources that have been largely overlooked and presents much new information. Her graceful prose richly brings the aging Rough Rider to life: plainspoken, idealistic, genial, energetic, and disciplined but, at the same time, headstrong, envious, egotistic, and averse to self-reflection.

She is simultaneously sympathetic to Roosevelt's unquenchable desire to contribute in the public arena and critical of his inability to understand the extent to which his personal ambition and ego needs drove his actions. Indeed, if there is a central theme to this rich and complex portrait, it is the extent to which the inability to reflect and to understand personal motivation can undermine even the most able political leaders.

Roosevelt was, above all, "a man of action." He prized deeds, not thoughtful contemplation. Such individuals may well fail to achieve their lofty goals, but at least they have the satisfaction of, in Roosevelt's words, "daring greatly." And Roosevelt, she concludes, "dared to be great to the last.... Great triumphs eluded him after the White House, but to say that he failed would be to miss the point of the man."

• Terry W. Hartle is a senior vice president with the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C.

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