Roosevelt the Explorer: Teddy Roosevelt's Amazing Adventures As a Naturalist, Conservationist, and Explorer Book

I picked this up thinking it would a nice focus on Roosevelt's exploratory expeditions. In that vein, Roosevelt the Explorer is a disappointment. The text reads like the author can't decide whether or not he wants to discuss Roosevelt as a nature enthusiast and conservationist, Roosevelt as a hunter, or Roosevelt in general. Some parts of the text are very repetitive, to the point where the author seems to have just copy/pasted previous passages, and some parts are so pared down as to leave the reader little idea what is happening if they don't come to this with an understanding of background information. For example, during one passage about the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition down the River of Doubt, the author mentions that Roosevelt called for three cheers for Rondon, the Brazilian Army, and the Telegraph Commission. If a reader doesn't come to Roosevelt the Explorer knowing that Rondon was the head of the Telegraph Commission and that he and his men had been effectively exploring uncharted areas of Brazil while laying telegraph line they would have no idea why this is mentioned or why it was important enough for Roosevelt to call out by name. With this in mind, I give Roosevelt the Explorer two stars for being somewhat bad but not absolutely terrible. If you are interested in learning about Theodore Roosevelt in this way, I highly suggest The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt and his Adventures in the Wilderness by Darrin Lunde, an excellent book about Roosevelt's fascination with and love of nature throughout his life. That book also addresses Roosevelt's apparently contradictory love of hunting in the context of his time period and his personality. If you are interested in learning about the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition, I highly recommend The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard, a book about that very trip that addresses the expedition in detail, but in a way more reminiscent of a adventure novel than a dry recitation of facts. Her novel captures the voices of the explorers by drawing heavily on the journals and diaries of those who were there, and she also does an excellent job of explaining background information and context that twenty-first century reader might not know about a 1914 expedition. Both are absolutely amazing books.