Avery enjoyable and thorough exploration of Roosevelt’s role as a conservationist. It primarily deals with his time S president, but it does explore the early experiences and readings that shaped him into a “wilderness warrior.” Roosevelt is one of those complex characters who gets tarred by the brush of the person relating the stories. I think Brinkley managed to be fair, acknowledging the dual sides of Roosevelt’s nature. ( )

Very detailed (maybe a little too detailed) account of Theodore Roosevelt's passion for natural history, Darwinism, and creating frameworks for protecting American wilderness and its flora and fauna. Given how much minutia is packed into the book, the ending is rather abrupt; almost as if Brinkley just had enough of his topic.
[Audiobook note: The reader, Dennis Holland, was good. But I had to run it at 145% normal speed to make it tolerable.] ( )

3.25 stars

President Theodore Roosevelt was a bird lover, a lover of nature in general, and also a hunter. As president from 1901- 1909, he created numerous national parks and monuments and expanded more; he brought in laws protecting birds, as well as created hunting seasons and licensing. He admired Darwin and his theories. He did a lot for conservation in the United States in the early 20th century.

Sadly, I also felt he was very contradictory due to his joy of hunting (including trophy hunting!) Yes, he did a LOT for conservation, but that was dimmed (in my opinion) by his love of hunting, particularly big game, in many cases just to put the animal’s head on his wall. Even in some of his parks, he still allowed hunting, but only of predators, not prey. This was a very long book at just under 1000 pages, so there were times I lost interest. I did learn some interesting things, too – I didn’t know “teddy bears” were named after him (but he didn’t like being called “Teddy”, either). ( )

This book covered in meticulous detail the hunting and conservation activities of Theodore Roosevelt. It also covered his childhood activities that led into it. It was far more detail that I cared to read. I soon found that through the book there was a repeating pattern of meeting someone & working toward a common goal. And also a description of how much or how little their goals were in common.

The acquaintance and relationship with dozens of people who were like minded as hunters, ornithologists, or conservation minded were described. It made me wish I knew a little more about people on the other side. I also though about the contradiction between his outrage at other people killing animals and his continued hunting and killing of those same animals.

The book was worthwhile in that I came to appreciate some of the conflicts that caused people to oppose the conversation efforts. It seemed like the conflict between the elite wanting to make preserves for their own hunting pleasure vs the poor who hunt for subsistence wasn't covered. ( )

Bought it because of national parks and TR.
Felt like an overlong Publish or Perish, over 40 hours, or nearly 1000 pages, and drily academic in tone. Not well done, I was extremely disappointed.
The narrator was adequate. ( )