A major reevaluation of the most masculine president

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Theodore Roosevelt carefully crafted his image of rugged manliness. The wealthy heir became a Badlands cowboy and a volunteer Rough Rider and war hero.

A populist and a reformer as president, Roosevelt enjoyed incredible popularity during his lifetime – and he nearly remade the American political system when, frustrated by the direction of the Republican Party after his presidency, he splintered off as a third-party candidate and nearly won election as a Progressive “Bull Moose” in 1912.

But that image is not complete, according to “The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women Who Created a President,” a new biography by Edward O’Keefe, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation, which is constructing a new Roosevelt library in the Badlands of North Dakota. O’Keefe is also a former colleague at CNN.

The book argues that the women in Roosevelt’s life do not get the historical attention they deserve, something O’Keefe proves with detailed research and engaging writing.

I talked to O’Keefe about the book and how Roosevelt and his definition of masculinity relate to today. Our conversation by phone, edited for length, is below:

Notoriously masculine, but the product of unsung women

WOLF: Your book is about the women behind the most notoriously masculine president. What were you trying to do here?

O’KEEFE: “The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt” argues that the most masculine president in the American memory is actually the product of unsung and extraordinary women.

Theodore Roosevelt is chiseled in marble on Mount Rushmore, and the