Theodore Rex.

• Author: Kahn, Jonathan
• Position: Book Review

Theodore Rex By Edmund Morris. (1) Random House, 2001. Pp. 864. $35.00

Last fall, while reading Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris's impressive second installment of his multi-volume biography of Theodore Roosevelt, I happened upon an article in The New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell titled "The Talent Myth: Are Smart People Overrated?" (3) Gladwell describes the "talent mind-set" that has become "new orthodoxy" of American management. As promoted by McKinsey & Company, the country's largest and most prestigious management-consulting firm, the "War for Talent" involves sorting employees in A, B, and C groups in a process known as "rank and yank." The A's are identified as the stars, they have "talent" and so must be challenged and disproportionately rewarded (a la mega-bonuses and stock options). The B's are competent. They need to be encouraged and affirmed. The C's need to shape up or ship out. The arche-typical "talent" company of the 1990s was Enron, one of McKinsey's prime clients and whose CEO, Ken Lay, was a former McKinsey partner. Enron aggressively sought out people it considered to have special talents, freely raiding other corporations and promising huge windfall bonuses to this elite group. The underlying principle was that structure and organization count for far less in promoting corporate success than do the inspired efforts of a few special individuals.

Gladwell wrote the article, of course, in the aftermath of Enron's collapse and the ensuing corporate scandals at Arthur Andersen, Tyco, Global Crossing, Worldcom, etc. Morris's biograph of Theodore Roosevelt, however, came out in 2001 and presumably he wrote it while these corporations were still flying high--or at least were airborne. It struck me, therefore, as I was reading the two pieces together, that what Morris has presented us with is a Theodore Roosevelt for the 1990s--a McKinsey & Company Group A president who rules by force of personality and deserves all the indulgence we can bestow upon him. In contrast to Halberstam's idea of the "best and the brightest" (4) of the Kennedy era, Morris's Group A T.R. is not an elitist know-it-all who presumes his superior intellect entitles him to make decisions for the rest of us. Rather, he is a force of nature, his strength lies not simply in his intellect or social position but in his distinctive array of talent, energy, and enthusiasm that wins over (or overwhelms) all comers: As Harvard President Charles William Eliot said after Roosevelt spoke at Harvard's commencement in 1902, "he has genius, force, originality;" (118) and as Morris concludes, "legislation ... was not his forte. Public leadership was." (118). This T.R. is no mere manager bogged down in the details of daily governance. He is a charismatic giant among men, leading by force of will.

There is much to be said for this presentation of Roosevelt. It certainly makes for an engaging and well-paced work. (Much needed in a 500+ page biography that covers only eight years). In many respects Roosevelt's colorful personality and voluminous writings make him a biographer's dream subject. Morris has seized on these attributes with a vengeance and demonstrated a remarkable mastery of a wide array of primary sources to paint a vivid portrait of the man. Enron, however, collapsed, and in the end, so too does Morris's biography of Roosevelt. One reason, I believe, is that both relentlessly focused on the individual in the moment--on the exigencies of the here-and-now--and failed to step back to get a larger sense of perspective on their respective situations. This is perhaps understandable, but not forgivable, in the case of Enron and its wild ride during the go-go 90s. It is less understandable, but perhaps more forgivable in Morris, who himself seems a bit overwhelmed by Roosevelt's personal appeal. He has written, however, not only a biography but also a work of history that demands a broader sense of perspective on its subject.

The first decade of the previous century was a period of grand transition in America. At the heart of what is commonly known as the Progressive Era, these years witnessed the emergence of the United States as a modern, urban, industrial nation and a world power. A new national state was being erected on the ruined foundations of Reconstruction. (5) Theodore Roosevelt, the first of what historian John Morton Blum has called "the Progressive Presidents" (6) presided over and gave a distinctive character to this transition.

Two Supreme Court cases from 1896 may be seen as neatly setting the stage for this transition, one symbolically, the other with biting immediacy. In United States v. Gettysburg Electric Railway Company, (7) the Court upheld federal action to condemn land to enhance the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial as a constitutionally valid takings pursuant to a...