Theodore Roosevelt in the Field: Notebooks of an Adventurous Man

Canfield, a Harvard academic and editor of Field Notes on Science and Nature, mines Theodore Roosevelt's writings to provide a well-written and engaging perspective on the 26th U.S. president. Canfield's focus is on Roosevelt's hunting and collecting expeditions, but he also provides important details of Roosevelt's personal life, contextualizing his passion for hunting and exploring. Politics, except as they relate to Roosevelt's legacy of preserving large portions of wilderness, generally remain in the background. Effectively quoting Roosevelt's notes, Canfield sufficiently demonstrates his naturalist talents without unduly straying into uninteresting detail. Roosevelt's life was an adventurous one, and his death-defying exploits%E2%80%94the defining charge at San Juan Hill, and his less well-known confrontations with American Indians, thieves, and the big game he hunted%E2%80%94make for interesting tales. By today's standards, his hunting was excessive and likely will be offensive to many 21st century readers%E2%80%94he hunts cougars with dogs in the American West, and kills hippopotamuses, white rhinos, and lions in Africa%E2%80%94but Canfield levies no judgments on him. Roosevelt's "River of Doubt" exploration in the Amazon basin, marred by murder, illness, and accidental death, is the books dramatic highlight. Canfield spotlights Roosevelt's non-political life to show how it contributed to his sense of self and lifestyle. (Nov.)