THE ROUGH RIDER AND THE PROFESSOR

A tale of two U.S. politicians and their struggles to obtain and keep power.

Jurdem, author of Paving the Way for Reagan, documents the decadeslong relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge, offering glimpses of both men at their best and worst as they made decisions that impacted American domestic and foreign policy. The author reveals the significant ways in which Lodge maneuvered behind the scenes and spoke out to enable Roosevelt’s political ascension as well as how Roosevelt publicly and privately acknowledged Lodge’s role in his success. Upon Roosevelt’s 1897 appointment as assistant secretary of the Navy, Roosevelt noted, “Of course, it was Lodge who engineered it, at the end as at the beginning.” This is the throughline for most of the book, until tensions over Roosevelt’s 1912 presidential run as an independent candidate for the “Bull Moose Party” caused a disruption in—but not an end to—their friendship and political partnership. Jurdem notes that he relied on previous biographers to fill in aspects of both men’s lives even as he delved deeper into their extensive correspondence. By moving beyond previously published and highly edited versions of the correspondence, the author sheds new light on the intricacies of the Roosevelt-Lodge friendship. At times, this laser focus results in a neglect of necessary historical context. For instance, Jurdem references the press coverage of “atrocities” that U.S. troops committed in the Philippines, but he never provides details about those atrocities for readers who may not be familiar with the controversy that erupted in 1902 when “a classified report detailing the behavior was released.” While the author keeps the narrative moving at a brisk pace, he sacrifices depth for breadth, leaving readers wanting more detail about these men and their times as well as further analysis of their lasting impact on American politics.

A fast-paced but uneven account of a significant personal and political friendship.