The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women Who Created a President

The women in Theodore Roosevelt’s life strongly influenced his political career, historian O’Keefe argues in his elegant debut study. Roosevelt’s mother, sisters, and first wife Alice all had a guiding hand in his early political ambitions, according to O’Keefe; moreover, the 1884 deaths (on nearly the same day) of Alice and his mother were such a blow that he left politics altogether, spending the next 15 months on his cattle ranches in the Dakota territory. An unexpected 1885 run-in with his childhood sweetheart Edith drew him back east, and his involvement with the Republican Party renewed, in O’Keefe’s telling, thanks to prompting from Edith, who as his wife went on to steer Roosevelt through his rapid ascent to the White House. Calling Edith “the first modern first lady,” O’Keefe contends that she defined the role with her careful management of her husband’s career and, after his death, his legacy. O’Keefe’s frequent quotations from diaries and letters provide a charmingly intimate view of his subjects. (Describing how Roosevelt addresses Alice in correspondence, he writes: “ ‘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.’ ”) Roosevelt admirers and readers interested in women’s exercise of political power will enjoy this one. (May)