Winner of the inaugural Theodore Roosevelt Association Book Prize
A captivating account of how Theodore Roosevelt's lifelong passion for
the natural world set the stage for America's wildlife conservation
movement and determined his legacy as a founding father of today's
museum naturalism.
No U.S. president is more popularly associated with nature and wildlife
than is Theodore Roosevelt--prodigious hunter, tireless adventurer, and
ardent conservationist. We think of him as a larger-than-life original,
yet in The Naturalist, Darrin Lunde has firmly situated Roosevelt's
indomitable curiosity about the natural world in the tradition of museum
naturalism.
As a child, Roosevelt actively modeled himself on the men (including
John James Audubon and Spencer F. Baird) who pioneered this key branch
of biology by developing a taxonomy of the natural world--basing their
work on the experiential study of nature. The impact that these
scientists and their trailblazing methods had on Roosevelt shaped not
only his audacious personality but his entire career, informing his work
as a statesman and ultimately affecting generations of Americans'
relationship to this country's wilderness.
Drawing on Roosevelt's diaries and travel journals as well as Lunde's
own role as a leading figure in museum naturalism today, The
Naturalist reads Roosevelt through the lens of his love for nature.
From his teenage collections of birds and small mammals to his time at
Harvard and political rise, Roosevelt's fascination with wildlife and
exploration culminated in his triumphant expedition to Africa, a trip
which he himself considered to be the apex of his varied life.
With narrative verve, Lunde brings his singular experience to bear on
our twenty-sixth president's life and constructs a perceptively
researched and insightful history that tracks Roosevelt's maturation
from exuberant boyhood hunter to vital champion of serious scientific
inquiry.
