Heir to the Empire City: New York and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780465024292)

Theodore Roosevelt is best remembered as America's prototypical "cowboy" president-a Rough Rider who derived his political wisdom from a youth spent in the untamed American West. But while the great outdoors certainly shaped Roosevelt's identity, historian Edward P. Kohn argues that it was his hometown of New York that made him the progressive president we celebrate today. During his early political career, Roosevelt took on local Republican factions and Tammany Hall Democrats alike, proving his commitment to reform at all costs. He combated the city's rampant corruption, and helped to guide New York through the perils of rabid urbanization and the challenges of accommodating an influx of immigrants-experiences that would serve him well as president of the United States.

A riveting account of a man and a city on the brink of greatness, Heir to the Empire City reveals that Roosevelt's true education took place not in the West but on the mean streets of nineteenth-century New York.

Author: Edward P. Kohn
ISBN-10: 0465024297
ISBN-13: 9780465024292
Publisher: Basic Books
Language: English
Published: 12/10/2013
Pages: 272
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 09/30/2013
Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2013
Library Journal 12/01/2013 pg. 112
New York Times Book Review 03/16/2014 pg. 30
Choice 05/01/2014