To Rescue the American Spirit

As Bret Baier shows in this wonderfully readable biography, Theodore Roosevelt has many lessons for today. In his New Nationalism, he combined patriotism with a sense of stewardship, both of our land and institutions. And he embraced the challenge of having the U.S. speak softly but be in service to the world. Like all of Baier’s biographies, he makes our great presidents relevant to the present.Walter Isaacson, Bestselling Author and Biographer and Professor of American History and Values

Bret Baier’s To Rescue the American Spirit is a riveting biographical portrait of Theodore Roosevelt in full. Our 26th U.S. president’s maverick instincts, multi-sided intellect and political acumen gallop across these fast-paced pages with bravado for the ages. Expertly researched and colorfully written, this is the story of true American leadership, brave, brilliant and mythic. Never pulling a punch, Baier leads readers to conclude that TR — our cowboy president — truly belongs enshrined on Mount Rushmore. Highly recommended!Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair of Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University and author of The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America.

With To Rescue the American Spirit: Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of a Superpower, Bret Baier adds yet another terrific volume to his now-extraordinary series of six books written about key moments of transition in American politics and history. As with his other books, Bret Baier combines the journalist's instinct for narrative with a real flair for identifying critical passages in American history and the people who guided America through those passages. As a journalist, Baier is interested in the way America’s history illuminates the present; as an historian, Baier observes Kipling’s maxim “if history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” The result -- this book-- is the fascinating and unforgettable portrait of one of America’s greatest presidents which is also an assessment of America’s rise to superpower status in the decades after the civil culminating with TR’s presidency. Baier stresses the story of TR’s boyhood, and his development as a politician and thinker, of his personal, military, intellectual and political exploits as TR exuberantly engaged with his times and pursued the sheer “joy .. of living.” To Rescue the American Spirit illuminates the big question of TR’s time: what was required of citizens—of leaders—to reach for and achieve national greatness? By so doing this timely book also illuminates the big question of our day: what is required today of citizens- of leaders— to recover national greatness?David Eisenhower, Author, IPS Director, Annenberg School, UPenn.

Bret Baier has done it again, bringing another giant of American history to life. Many Americans think they know “T.R.” but Teddy Roosevelt has sometimes defeated even earnest biographers because of the vast nature of his life an achievements. Bret brings the whole story to these pages, including some of the chapters about the “Bull Moose” T.R. that few know it understand: Why did Roosevelt split with his hand-picked successor, President Taft? Turns out that as T.R. watched Taft, first from far off Africa and then during a long progress through Europe, Roosevelt’s famous temper and even more famous enthusiasm grew and grew and burst back on to the American political scene. That’s just one of many examples of Bret’s deft handling of a man of indomitable will and courage. But the joy T.R. brought to life, Bret Baier brings to these pages. Enjoy the ride!Hugh Hewitt, lawyer, law professor, author and broadcast journalist whose nationally syndicated radio show is heard across the US.