Good evening.

This is Inside the Cover and I am your fellow bibliophile and host Ted Ayres.

Tonight., I want to talk about yet another book loaned to me by my friend Randy.

The Old Lion, by Jeff Shaara.

I was reluctant at first, as I have read multiple books about our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt Jr.

But Randy was insisten and I am so pleased that he was.

It is now time to go inside the cover.

Jeff Shaara is a New York Times best selling author and a talented writer.

He is the author of one nonfiction book and 18 works of fiction.

We reviewed his book To Wake the Giant during the third season of Inside the Cover.

Let me read to you from Shaaras message to his readers at the beginning of this book.

“That being said, the best way to describe this book is perhaps to describe what it is not.

This is not a biography, and there are many.

Nor is it an academic examination of the man or his political policies.

And there are many of those.

What I have tried to d is create a story with Roosevelt as the center point, exploring his life from his perspective through the events as he creates them, as he marches, or sometimes struggles through them.” I really enjoyed the format of this book.

Shaara alternate between Roosevelt's final days in New York in December of 1918, as he speaks with the biographer and the various important aspects of Roosevelt's life, starting with his boyhood in New York City in March of 1868.

Roosevelt was certainly an accomplished man and significant figure in American history.

Shaara ranks him among our nation's top four or five presidents.

Roosevelt also loved his family.

And as Shaara makes clear early on, Teddy or “Teedy”, as he was called as a youth, was deeply influenced by his father, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. Theodore was also impacted by the almost simultaneous deaths of his mother and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Roosevelt, who died from an undiagnosed case of Brights Disease two days after the birth of thei first child, also named Alice.

Roosevelt subsequently married his childhood friend Edith Kermit Carow, who was with him at the time of his death.

Theodore was a fifth cousin of Franklin and an uncle of Eleanor.

He graduated from Harvard in 1880 and briefly attended Columbia Law School befor dropping out to enter politics.

During the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt organized the first US volunteer cavalry, and as Lieutenant Colonel, he led the charge u Kettle Hill in San Juan, Cuba.

These efforts brought hi national celebrity and acclaim.

Roosevelt was nominated for vice president in 1900, and he became president upon President McKinley's assassination.

He-- Roosevelt-- was elected to the presidency in 1904.

As president, he fought corruption in politics by big business.

He intervened in the 1902 coa strike on behalf of the public.

He helped to obtain passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, and he vigorously organized and championed conservation efforts and the creation of national parks.

He mediated peace between Russia and Japan in 1905, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

He abetted the 1903 revolutio in Panama that led to the U.S. acquisition of territory for the Panama Canal.

Roosevelt did not run for reelection in 1908.

Instead promoting his vic president, William Howard Taft.

Becoming dissatisfied with Taft's efforts, Roosevelt initiated a campaign in 1912 as the head of the Progressive Bull Moose Party.

However, his efforts probably split the Republican vote and led to the election of Woodrow Wilson, much to Roosevelt's chagrin, aggravation and irritation.

That's our show.

Tonight's book has been The Old Lion by Jeff Shaara.

I enjoyed this book and I think you will as well.

Good night and see you next time.