William J. Mann - The Wars of the Roosevelts: The Ruthless Rise of Americas Greatest Political Family

The story of the Roosevelts is well-trod territory. Its various chapters have been masterfully chronicled by H. W. Brands, Ken Burns, Blanche Weisen Cook, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Joseph Lash, David McCullough, Edmund Morris, Geoffrey Ward, and many others. This is not an attempt to duplicate what these excellent historians have done. Rather, my goal is to tell a story that has been embedded, entwined, in some ways hidden in plain sight, within the larger Roosevelt narrative. I set forth the familys rise to power and prestige not as a record of politics and public policy, but rather as a series of personal contests (even, at times, as a blood sport) beginning with the rivalry between the brothers Theodore and Elliott Roosevelt and then passed down to the next generations. That the Wars of the Roosevelts, like the Wars of the Roses, was a dynastic struggle between two distant branches of a family has been documented before. Whats been less acknowledged is the fact that the battles went far deeper and were more personal than that, raging between parents, children, siblings, and spouses.

The rise of the Roosevelts is the story of a family at war, of survival of the fittest, where the strong devoured the weak and where the nonconformistsuch as Elliott; his illegitimate son, Elliott Roosevelt Mann; the renegade James (Taddy or Jimmie) Roosevelt; and the tragic Kermit Rooseveltwere brutally relegated to nonexistence.

In this book, I view these rebels through a new lens, corrected for class privilege and outmoded moral judgments, allowing for their so-called transgressions to be reconsidered and their familys responses reevaluated. And the most appropriate eyes through which to view this dynastic battlefield are those of Theodores niece Eleanor, as she was there from the beginning and, as much as any of them, experienced the personal costs of the Roosevelt ambition.

This is new information based on new research. For the first time, I tell the full account of the struggles of Elliott Roosevelt, including the unknown backstory of the shady lawyer appointed to deal with Elliotts mistress and illegitimate son. In most previous accounts, Theodore Roosevelts actions in 18911894, when he did his best to commit his brother to an asylum, even if that meant splitting up Elliotts family, have been presented as noble and inevitable. I take a somewhat different view. Also for the first time, I have fleshed out the life of Elliott Roosevelt Mann (no relation to my own family), who was as much a Roosevelt as any of the others, with the same ambition and skill, even if he was denied their surname and privilege of birth.

Likewise, the story of Franklins nephew Jimmie is told with many new details; my discovery that his wife, Sadie, was Jewish sheds fresh light on why the family was so opposed to her. I also reveal considerable new information about the lives of Kermit and Ted Roosevelt and the heretofore forgotten political scandals of Alice Roosevelt. Finally, I have attempted to bring a twenty-first-century understanding to Eleanors sexuality and her alternative, polyamorous marriage with Franklinsuccessful for the most part, although not without its challenges and difficulties.

I have not fictionalized these events. All scenes described come from primary sources: the thousands of letters written by the principals (which provide extraordinarily rich detail to recreate their worlds) as well as diaries, datebooks, telegrams, court records, FBI reports, contemporary newspaper accounts, maps, photographs, and daily weather bulletins. Nothing has been created simply for dramatic sake, and I do not venture carelessly into the minds of my subjects. If I write of inner thoughts or feelings, Im basing my descriptions on letters or memoirs written by the subject in question, wherein such emotions, attitudes, or motivations have been disclosed or can be deduced. Full citations and explanations can be found in the notes. Anything in quotation marks comes directly from a primary source.