In Command: Theodore Roosevelt and the American Military

Theodore Roosevelt is one of the most popular presidents in U.S. history. His career straddled the pivotal decades (1900-1920) and attempted to bridge the gap by injecting nineteenth-century Victorian values into modern organizations to ensure the maintenance of America’s morals. Though he was not a wartime president, he took his role as commander in chief very seriously. In Command: Theodore Roosevelt and the American Military explores Roosevelt’s efforts to modernize the American Military before, during, and after his presidency. Matthew Oyos examines the evolution of Roosevelt’s ideas about military force in the age of industry and explores his drive to promote new institutions of command, technological innovations, militia reform, and international military missions. In Command places these developments into the broader themes of Progressive Era reform, civil-military tensions, and Roosevelt’s ideas of national cultural vitality and civic duty. Though much has been written on Roosevelt’s personal and presidential life, Oyos delivers a book that pays tribute to Roosevelt’s career-long commitment to transforming the military institutions of the United States. Roosevelt’s promotion of innovative military technologies, his desire to inject the officer corps with fresh vigor, and his role in building new institutions for military command (such as the naval base at Pearl Harbor), changed the landscape of American military strategy and recognition. His attempts to modernize the military while struggling with the changing nature of warfare during his time lends particular resonance with and insight into today’s rapidly changing military state.