Edgar Award-winning biographer and novelist William J. Mann (Tinseltown) acknowledges at the start of this captivating, ambitious and hefty biography that the feuding branches of the Roosevelt dynasty have become well-trod territory for historians. But Mann is a superb historian and researcher, rarely parroting previous tales without investigating their validity. This often leads him to revisionist perspectives on familiar subjects, and The Wars of the Roosevelts certainly gives fans of historical biographies a fresh look at Theodore Roosevelt's relationship with his alcoholic brother, Elliott (father of Eleanor, who later married her cousin Franklin Roosevelt), his three legitimate children (Alice, Ted Jr. and Kermit) and one illegitimate son (Elliott Roosevelt Mann--no relation to the author).
As expected in any biography covering the lives of two United States presidents, there is plenty of political intrigue, backstabbing and jockeying for power. But what makes Mann's nearly 650-page biography so mesmerizing is the personal drama of an expansive political family at war for nearly a century. Mann's fresh revelations come from new interviews with a number of the Roosevelt family descendants (including Elliott Mann's daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter). While Mann casts no one as a villain, this family portrait leaves no one unscathed or blameless.
The Wars of the Roosevelts is as meticulously researched as it is beautifully written and authoritatively intimate. It's also as juicy as a beach novel, with revelations of mistresses, gay affairs, numerous suicides, neglect, dysfunction and family grudges held until the grave. In short, it's the kind of history book that encourages new generations to become historians. -- Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant