tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post5509962959661526320..comments2024-02-25T16:56:47.627-05:00Comments on Magdalene's Egg: Holiday Book Review #2: "The River of Doubt"Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-1980647917615255012009-12-21T11:34:57.209-05:002009-12-21T11:34:57.209-05:00If he was, it was in a selective way. Roosevelt w...If he was, it was in a selective way. Roosevelt was profoundly gifted, not just with his magnetic personality but also intellectually. Millard makes a point of reminding us just how deep his scientific knowledge went, especially regarding birds. Edmund Morris describes his facility with languages, which was considerable.<br /><br />Of course, being smart doesn't equal being stable. And when I hear "magnetic personality" these days, I cringe and mutter "narcissistic personality disorder." <br /><br />But then again, maybe TR's "craziness" was simply the part of him that was a creature of his time -- the end of Romanticism, and the full-throttle rush of Euro-American imperialism. It may be that his thinking about war wasn't so different from the thinking of the millions who marched off to WWI. Or, more to the point, of the men who sent them to their deaths, in Ezra Pound's words, "all for an old bitch gone at the teeth," meaning just the sort of civilization men like Roosevelt thought they had created.<br /><br />If that's true, then, the "craziness" was simply TR being a man of his time, and what makes him stand out are the other things: the passion for justice, especially directed against "malefactors of great wealth;" the intellectual gifts; the drive to make and remake himself, not as the man he was born to be but as the man he desired to be.<br /><br />And crazy or not, when you take him as a package, there is one thing about TR that just keeps coming back: It is impossible to imagine any other American president combining his particular gifts.<br /><br />Oh, we've had some war genuine wear heroes -- Eisenhower, anybody? And neither intellectual wattage (Nixon, Clinton) nor a passion for justice (FDR, Carter, even LBJ) are unknown in the Oval Office. And Jefferson was a pretty fair naturalist.<br /><br />But all together? No. And given the narrow focus that today's statesmen seem to have -- policy, politics, and little more -- it is hard to imagine any future president breaking broncos or exploring an unknown river. They'll all be too busy raising money and giving speeches.Father Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-80844736441802778002009-12-21T07:49:22.482-05:002009-12-21T07:49:22.482-05:00I have always been fascinated by TR, (not the war-...I have always been fascinated by TR, (not the war-part though, the progressive part). He started the SEC; inheritance taxes; wanted to somehow mitigate the gap between rich and poor. He was rich, so was not so fascinated by the virtues of rich people. went up against corporations.<br /><br />So, in order to get a clearer picture, we'll have to read this one, too. Maybe he was insane.Diane M. Rothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07749136181846671327noreply@blogger.com