Rating: 
Summary: Amazing biography of an amazing American
Review: I don't usually write reviews, but I was so moved and awed by this book that I had to add my two cents. This is by far one of the best biographies I've ever read, laying out in clear detail (but not so much that it amount to a catalog) why Theodore Roosevelt was one of the best leaders in the history of the United States, flaws and all. Morris is a great storyteller, making all 560-odd pages flow with ease, and putting important events in the context of the day. I even read the end-notes. Two thumbs up.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent overview of TR presidency
Review: As many other reviewers have pointed out, this is a book to be read specifically regarding Theodore Roosevel'ts presidency. Morris' "Rise" will give background prior to the Presidency. I hope a third volume will follow to describe TR's life after the White House. It would be impossible to give all the background some reviewers seem to desire. TR's relationship with his family would require an enormous volume itself. For an in-depth treatment of the events of TR's presidency, however, this is an excellent book. The major events, and TR's role and opinions, are all described in great detail, from the famous/infamous events leading up to the Panama Canal, the tragic events in Texas, the resolution of the coal strikes, "Trust Busting," the Russo-Japanese war, his conservation efforts, and the Great White Fleet. A truly fitting tribute to "The Strenuous Life" made real in the White House. The author obviously truly admires his subject, but does not hide perceived flaws or failings.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Writing-Great Subject- but quit w/ the FRENCH!
Review: This author is a writer of incredible talent, and this work is a spectacular chroncicle of the presidency of TR. But Edmund Morris uses WAY too many French phrases/words in his writing. It is highly annoying to come across some obscure French phrase or term used to describe some event or feeling. I don't buy books on American presidents to read French turns of phrase. French is a filthy language spoken by a cowardly, repulsive nation. TR would likely today be so disgusted w/ the behavior of this "country" that he would wrestle Chirac to the ground and grind his ugly chain-smoking face into the mud.
Please, Mr. Morris- NO MORE FRENCH!
Rating:
Summary: Why Can't You Be More Like Your Cousin?
Review: Each president, no matter how strong or weak on election day, grows into office. Theodore Roosevelt is no exception. The best aspect of this book for me was Morris' ability to showcase this transition from man of action to statesman and leader.
We will never again be as innocent or brash, as casually racist or inhumane, as we were when we had Teddy in the White House. But if you'd like to see that era come alive again, and see how we are now what Teddy forged for us then, read this book.
All that said, I have much more admiration for his four-term cousin, and wonder why we haven't carved him on Mount Rushmore yet. In his new memorial in Washington, he looks so alone there...
Rating:
Summary: A thorough and fascinating book about a great presidency.
Review: If you are looking for stories of Theodore Roosevelt (I consciously use "Theodore" rather than "Teddy" because of the account in this book of T.R.'s bewilderment that NOBODY he saw when traveling around America called out to him by full first name) charging up hills in Cuba with the Rough Riders or returning from African safari and forming his own third party, this is not the book for you. This book does not cover before or after his 7 years and 169 days as president.Theodore Rex examines the Roosevelt presidency, from William McKinley's assassination by an anarchist in September of 1901, to the swearing in of "Big Bill" Taft in a blizzard in March of 1909. If you want to read about Roosevelt before his presidency, I would recommend Edmund Morris' The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. It is similar, in that it is an immensely readable historical examination of one of America's greatest leaders. Theodore Rex, though, gives great insight into the life and times of Mr. Roosevelt, the way he changed the presidency, the way he changed America, and the way he changed the world. Roosevelt's (and America's) role in the Panamanian revolution and secession from Colombia, and the subsequent securing of the Panama Canal Treaty, is highly enlightening, and at times bordering on humorous. To briefly quote from the book (page 290): "...another cable from Panama City announced that a government gunboat had tossed five or six shells into the city, 'killing a Chinaman in Salsipuedes street and mortally wounding an ass.' If that was the extent of Colombia's rage so far, a tired President could get some sleep." The story of the kidnapping in Morocco of Ion Perdicaris, a wealthy, American-born expatriate who had given up his citizenship during the Civil War (unbeknownst to the U.S. at the time), and the pressure Roosevelt applied ("Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead"), during the 1904 Republican presidential nominating convention in Chicago, to secure Mr. Perdicaris' freedom, is another fascinating bit of American history. It is a prime example of America's rising stature in the world, and of Theodore Roosevelt's famous "big stick." Other parts, big and small, of Roosevelt's presidency are conveyed with a keen knack for detail and a high degree of objectivity: mediating an impasse between labor and capital on more than one occasion and in more than one context; negotiating a peace between Japan and Russia (which won Roosevelt the Nobel Prize); intervening in Cuba; managing the Philippines; dining with Booker T. Washington; commissioning and sending off of the "Great White Fleet" around the world; and even just moments with his family and friends. A look at a truly independent and forward-thinking individual, Theodore Rex is a joy to read and ponder. Any serious student of American history ought to read this book, but by no means should this book be limited to history buffs. Highly and excitedly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Little Facts only Prose
Review: Considering the length of this book, the reader should come away knowing a great deal about one of our greatest presidents. Unfortunately, Edmund Morris is writing in the same style as Michael and Jeff Shaara. The only difference is that the Shaaras lists their books as fiction. This book is filled with Morris' opinions and musings on what T.R. was thinking. This book was a waste of my time and should not be listed as a historical biography. If you want to read a book on T.R., then pick up Mornings on Horseback.
Rating: 
Summary: Lost in prose
Review: After reading McCullough's TRUMAN and Steven Ambrose EISENHOWER I looked to this book with interest in a facinating president. McCullough and Ambrose books are equal to Theodore Rex in academics but were more readable than Morris is. While it contains great detail about the life and times I did not get to know the man, Roosevelt, like I had Truman and Eisenhower in the other books. The book is more appropriate as an academic history than a readable book that anyone can pick up and read.
Rating: 
Summary: All detail -- no history!
Review: This was a scrupulously researched biography: but strangely, I've come away with no very clear sense either of Roosevelt's mentality, the times he lived in, the importance of his legacy, etc. Reading the book was like watching an extraordinarily detailed episode of A&E's "Biography" series: highly cinematic, much given to careful detail of what everyone looked like, but short on historical depth. One might compare it to -- just off the top of my head -- Tim Pat Coogan's biography of Michael Collins, at the end of which you will have a complete grasp not only of Collins the man, both in private and public capacities, but of the world he lived in (you can practically taste the Guinness), how and why he made his decisions, and the long- and short-term impact of these. "TR" doesn't really do any of that. There's simply too much detail -- it's as if Morris didn't want to omit any tidbit he'd come across (we don't need to know about every rabbit TR shot, or that his hat didn't fit at his first inauguration) in his enthusiasm to demonstrate how much research he'd done. And can I say -- it's horribly written. It gushes. Many of these reviews single out its wonderful prose and vivid portraits. I thought they were awful: almost purely visual, and so overwrought as to be almost embarrassing, as if one were listening to a fawning correspondent breathlessly describe a royal occasion. Here's one of my faves, describing John Hay: "The severe cut of his Savile Row clothes gave line to his five-foot-two-inch figure, while a slight fulness of silk under the winged collar focused attention on his unforgettable face. In youth, when merely mustached, Hay had looked almost mandarin, with his high cheekbones and Ming-smooth brow. Now the mustache floated over a magnificent whitened Vandyke, while the skin above was slashed with creases, two of the deepest plummeting in a frown so anguished that photographers felt obliged to retouch them." A mustache floating over a magnificent Vandyke! A Ming-smooth brow! All those moveable features -- he sounds like a grandee Mr. Potato-head. For chrissakes, he was elegant and looked grave -- I'd like to know what he was *like.*
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