When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House - Hardcover

O'Toole, Patricia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684864770 ISBN 13: 9780684864778

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2005

Synopsis

An analysis of the final ten years of Theodore Roosevelt's life describes how he went on safari after leaving the White House, unsuccessfully strived for another presidential term, worked to support Liberty bonds when the U.S. entered World War I, and lost his son on Bastille Day. 60,000 first printing.

About this title

Review

Chronicles of the post-presidential years of America's chief executives aren't generally scintillating reads. With a few exceptions--Jimmy Carter and Herbert Hoover come to mind--the period after presidents vacate the White House tends to be abbreviated, idle, and a little sad. Patricia O'Toole's absorbing account of Theodore Roosevelt's final decade carries some of this pathos, but she also vividly captures the spark and sometimes reckless vigor of the most vibrant of presidents. Possessed of an irrepressible self-confidence and insatiable appetite for power, Roosevelt made an unconvincing show of stepping out of the spotlight when he declined to seek reelection in 1909, bequeathing the presidency to loyal foot soldier William Howard Taft. Over the course of Taft's one rather lackluster term, Roosevelt embarked on an extended African safari (where the trailblazing conservationist slaughtered hundreds of animals), but upon his return he became embroiled in a battle with Taft for the heart of the Republican Party. When he lost that struggle, he turned to the budding Progressive Party. Under their banner, Roosevelt bested Taft in the 1912 election, but Woodrow Wilson, of course, beat them both. Roosevelt's bursting-at-the-seams life has been thoroughly chronicled, but O'Toole wisely focuses on a period when the never-retiring giant of American politics was wounded (both figuratively and literally--he was shot while campaigning and insisted on giving a speech before going to a hospital), but wouldn't, or couldn't, give up the fight. --Steven Stolder

About the Author

Patricia O'Toole is also the author of Money and Morals in America: A History and The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She teaches writing at Columbia University and lives in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0684864770
• ISBN 13: 9780684864778
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512