BEYOND the BOOKS
With Mature Perspective, Fascination with Wars & Heroes Returns
H
By Dr. John Van Atta
ERE IS A STRANGE confession for
Afterward, I quickly devel-
someone who has been for most
oped a teenage obsession with
of the past 40 years a historian
Roosevelt that did not abate
of the early American republic: I
until about halfway through
have been fascinated by Theodore
college, where some of my favorite
Roosevelt and his times since the
professors (in the early 1970s) let
age of 15.
me know that an unquestioning
That year, as a 10th grader, I
admiration for such an imperi-
happened to find in my parents’
alist president did not fit with the
collection a book by Hermann
anti-Vietnam mood on campus.
Hagedorn, entitled The Roosevelt Family of Sagamore Hill. This
So, I learned my lesson and conformed. Later, after
book portrayed TR
becoming a
as a man of such
teacher myself, a
energy, wide-
keen interest in
ranging intelligence,
Roosevelt — a sense
and self-confidence
that somehow I could
that I could not resist
understand him —
him.
came back, though of
course in a more balanced way
culture and society, as well as the
than it had occurred years before.
more common considerations of
In addition to that, I had never entirely lost my childhood interest in wars and war heroes. As an
weapons, strategy, leadership, and national interest. Further, the image of
adult, the issue became more
Roosevelt’s famous First Volunteer
one of why we choose the heroes
Cavalry Regiment — the Rough
that we do and how it is that war
Riders — related much more
influences that choice.
closely to questions of nation- or
This question naturally led
empire-building than one might
to some of the themes in my
think. Certainly, that image
book Charging Up San Juan
made the crucial difference in TR’s
Hill: Theodore Roosevelt and the
career.
Making of Imperial America.
His successful military experi-
I argue that as a story of
ence in Cuba confirmed Roosevelt
American military history, that
as a popular force in American
of TR, the Rough Riders, and
life before he became so much a
the so-called Battle of “San Juan
political one.
Hill” reflected broader dictates of
Without it, he would never have reached a position to become president and would most likely have
Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders (above) play a key role in Dr. John Van Atta’s new book about the making of imperial America.
gone down as just a minor figure in American history, one whose name few would recognize today.
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