Renehan draws on first-person accounts of people who
knew TR and his children to paint vivid, vibrant pictures of a prominent American family in peace
and war. There are unforgettable vignettes of veteran Rough Riders visiting TR long after the
Spanish-American War, of soldiers who served with TR's sons in WWI, and of TR's "war" with Woodrow
Wilson about America's role in WWI.

The deaths of 3 of TR's sons can legitimately be seen as
metaphors for America in the 20th century. One died in combat, one died of a coronary, and a
third, an alcoholic, died by his own hand. All were successful in various ways, but one wonders if
they ever really escaped the shadow of their father.

Renehan omitted my favorite TR story. TR,
his wife, and a friend were on a back porch somewhere, rocking and talking on a warm summer
evening. The quiet was broken by TR, who slammed his fist down on the arm of the chair. His wife,
who knew him well, asked calmly, "What is it, dear?" "A mosquito," TR replied. His wife replied,
"He killed mosquitoes as if they were lions, and lions as if they were mosquitoes." (Apologies if
I have the wording and setting a skosh wrong).

Finally, compare TR with today's politicians, and
anyone who has been in the White House in the lifetime of the vast majority of us. Do any compare
to TR? I don't think so.

This story of a famous American family deserves an honored place among
the best of bios about TR. It is history at its most compelling: the interweaving of the lives of
one group of individuals in the great events of the previous century.

Still,
this is an interesting book. For TR devotees, they will find this book a summary focusing on the
last ten years of his life. It is a time when TR, still vigorous, is launching his children into
the larger world and beginning to focus on their efforts and activities to shoulder the family's
unique burden of service to the country.

The book takes this period and investigates how TR's
larger than life example to and relationships with his four sons shaped their destinies, most
immediately by their preparation for and service during World War I.

TR molded the family in his
image. His code is their code as they constantly are movtivated by living up to his ideals and
frequently take action according to what father would do. This is a portrait of a strong family,
wedded to a single world and life view, abiding by commonly held standards that they all
internalized and lived by.

This portrait of the family as the core of the Roosevelt existence is
touching and provides a good study of the fountain from which TR drank constantly to replenish his
soul and steel himself for the public battles that define the statesman.

I would have liked to
have had more of a focus on how TR built the family. It would have been interesting to know more
of their childhoods -- much the way Edmund Morris plumbed TR's own childhood experiences in "The
Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" -- to better understand how this family developed into the close knit
reflection of TR's will.

But it is a relatively short book and does an intersting job on the
material it covers. You get a good feel for the Roosevelt family bonds during the period of their
children's young adulthoods against the backdrop of the war in Europe and TR's tireless campaigns
to shape America as he saw it should be.