In the Arena: Theodore Roosevelt in War, Peace and Revolution

America’s 26th president forged himself by pitching headlong into conflict, according to this perceptive biography. Historian Brown (A Hell of a Storm) recaps Roosevelt’s combative life starting with his boyhood as an asthmatic rich kid who felt compelled to embrace an ethos of aggressive manliness, taking up boxing and wrestling, and, after moving to the Dakota Territory, hunting, ranching, and other generally armed frontier exploits. His career as a Republican politician likewise thrived on showy belligerence, Brown contends, culminating in his Rough Riders’ charge up Cuba’s San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War (a conflict that he fomented as assistant secretary of the Navy). Roosevelt broke the pattern somewhat during his presidency, brokering peace in the Russo-Japanese War and in bitter coal-mine strikes, but returned to belligerence in his post-presidency, when he shattered the Republican Party by running again on the anti-monopoly Progressive ticket. Brown shows how all this push and shove positioned Roosevelt as a pivotal figure in America’s development; he linked the country’s corporate, industrial future with its past ideals of self-reliance, while also pioneering a new, powerful model of the presidency that overshadowed Congress, intervened in the economy, and pursued military adventurism abroad—setting the stage for everything from the New Deal and the Vietnam War to Donald Trump. It adds up to an elegant and immersive reevaluation of Roosevelt as kickstarter of the American Century. (Dec.)