Fit as a Bull Moose

"Morris recounts his battle first to wrest control of his party from Taft and the conservatives and, when that failed (only because of 'naked robbery' by 'the forces of reaction,' Roosevelt insisted), to lead a third-party campaign he understood to be doomed almost from the start. Roosevelt’s courage cannot be questioned. Who else would have insisted on delivering an 80-minute speech with a would-be assassin’s bullet freshly lodged in his chest? And the Progressive platform on which he ran was a bold, even visionary document: it recognized labor’s right to organize and promised to curtail campaign spending, promote conservation and provide federal insurance for the elderly, the jobless and the sick. But the evangelistic fervor with which he campaigned probably alienated more voters than it attracted. He had the satisfaction of swamping Taft on Election Day, but the victory went to Wilson, giving the Democrats the White House for the first time in a quarter of a century."

Geoffrey C. Ward reviews Edmund Morris's Colonel Roosevelt in The New York Times.