Discount The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America

Okay, to preface this review: This is a good book, it suffers from some errors, and it is not for everyone.

Here's an explanation of each point;




- This is a very good text regarding a very specific subject matter, the conservationist leanings and policies of Theodore Roosevelt, as well as the circumstances that crafted those leanings and policies, and the individuals and events behind those circumstances, and....you get my point. This is a topical biography, so it is dense with detail, names and dates. If you are looking for something more generic and less topic specific, Edmund Morris' biographies of Roosevelt are the cream of the crop.
Still, this particular text sets out to do a specific task, and it does it well; the explanation of the conservationist and naturalist feelings of our 26th President. There is no other text on Roosevelt that offers the wealth of information or insight that this book does, save perhaps the books written by the man himself.

-For the last two points, this book does suffer from some minor errors of fact and some bad editing. It is definitely not the worst edited book I've ever seen but a substandard job was obviously done on it. Examples have already been made in several reviews already so I feel no need to rehash them here. Where they do occur are glaring and annoying. In short, the editing is bad, but not so bad as to ruin the book.
Secondly, this book is not for everyone. It is hefty, ringing in at 817 pages plus of text, not including notes, appendices, and bibliography. This is not an issue for me personally, but I can see how it might be so for others. This book could be a difficult result for some but the completion of it is worth the effort. It is detail oriented and the topical nature of the subject matter may discourage some readers, especially those who are looking for something along the lines of pop history. Unfortunately, Harper Collins began marketing this book as pop history, which it is most definitely not. It is niche history, and this book would be best served as a companion text to more comprehensive biographies, such as Roosevelt's own autobiography, or the works of Edmund Morris. It would be my recommendation to read this book after those, and not to use this as a primary biography, which it is not.


On the whole I am awarding this book 4 stars out of 5. I believe despite that some of the issues this book suffers from it is on the whole a worthy effort by Mr. Brinkley, and I believe it would be a welcome addition to the library of any TR enthusiast.Get more detail about The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America.