The Golden Lad: The Haunting Story of Quentin and Theodore Roosevelt (Thorndike Biography) - Hardcover

Burns, Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 141049005X ISBN 13: 9781410490056

Publisher: Thorndike Press Large Print, 2016

Synopsis

More than a century has passed since Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, but he still continues to fascinate. Never has a more exuberant man been our nation's leader. He became a war hero, reformed the NYPD, busted the largest railroad and oil trusts, passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, created national parks and forests, won the Nobel Peace Prize, and built the Panama Canal to name just a few.

Yet it was the cause he championed the hardest America's entry in to WWI that would ultimately divide and destroy him. His youngest son, Quentin, his favorite, would die in an air fight. How does looking at Theodore's relationship with his son, and understanding him as a father, tell us something new about this larger-than-life-man? Does it reveal a more human side? A more hypocritical side? Or simply, if tragically, a nature so surprisingly sensitive, despite the bluster, that he would die of a broken heart?

Roosevelt's own history of boyhood illnesses made him so aware of was like to be a child in pain, that he could not bear the thought of his own children suffering. The Roosevelts were a family of pillow-fights, pranks, and "scary bear." And it was the baby, Quentin the frailest who worried his father the most. Yet in the end, it was he who would display, in his brief life, the most intellect and courage of all."

About this title

About the Author

Eric Burns is a former correspondent for NBC News and the TODAY Show. For ten years he was the host of the top-rated “Fox News Watch,” and he has won an Emmy for media criticism. He is the author of The Golden Lad: The Haunting Story of Quentin and Theodore Roosevelt, 1920: The Year that Made the Decade Roar, a Kirkus "Best Book of the Year," Infamous Scribblers, The Spirits of America, and The Smoke of the Gods, and the latter two were named “Best of the Best” by the American Library Association. Eric lives in Westport, Connecticut.

Review

Burns delivers history with flair and vividness. "

An entertaining and informative look at a pivotal period. Downright fascinating.

Burns delivers history with flair and vividness.

A work of genuine historical research, colorful personality, intellectual sophistication, heft, and durable interest."

A fascinating work about a remarkable year. Delightfully readable.

Burns s vigorous narrative is rich in genuinely engaging anecdote. He so clearly appreciates history s sweep."

Piercing the larger-than-life Teddy Roosevelt myth, Burns (1920), a former correspondent for NBC News and Today, explores the personal side of the energetic, rambunctious war hero and politician and his doting relationship with his youngest child, Quentin. Burns s unique, stirring account of America s most colorful president allows Teddy Roosevelt, the man and father, to step off the page."

Burns finds special meaning and resonance in the father-son relationship. A fine homage [and a] solid, very well-written contribution to the vast literature surrounding Teddy Roosevelt."

Edition details

• Publisher: Thorndike Press Large Print
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 141049005X
• ISBN 13: 9781410490056
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 388