x, 301, [1] pages. Map. Illustrations. Sources. Bibliography. Index. H. Paul

x, 301, [1] pages. Map. Illustrations. Sources. Bibliography. Index. H. Paul Jeffers (1934-2009) was an established military historian and author of seventy books. He worked as an editor and producer at ABC, CBS and NBC, and is the only person to have been news director of both of New York City's all-news radio stations. He taught journalism at New York University, Syracuse University, and Boston University. His books include the novels A Grand Night for Murder and What Mommy Said, and the nonfiction Marshall: Lessons in Leadership with Alan Axelrod. Harry Paul Jeffers, born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, in 1934, and died in New York in 2009, is an American journalist, historian and writer of western and detective novels. He signs his publications H. Paul Jeffers or pseudonyms Mr. T. Jefferson and Harry Paul Longsdale. He did his graduate studies in journalism at Temple University. He is a time reporter before becoming successively head of the desk of all the radio stations of information of New York. He has also been a publisher and producer for ABC, CBS and NBC. He taught journalism at the universities of New York, Syracuse and Boston. In 1970, he wrote a documentary work on the CIA. Ten years later, he signed the biographies of right-wing politician James Brady and New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. He then published other biographies and books on key moments in American history and the military. Derived from a Kirkus review: An account of an important period in Theodore Roosevelt's career, when he first entered the national stage as a statesman, helped transform the US into a world power, and distinguished himself as a hero of the Spanish-American war. Jeffers focuses on Roosevelt's experiences just before and during the war. He argues that Roosevelt, as assistant secretary of the navy, anticipated the problems of armed and aggressive nationalism that would lead to two world wars. As a result, he energetically pursued the creation of an alert, efficient navy, despite America's general lack of concern about threats from abroad. Relentless pressure from Roosevelt eventually resulted in the building of a large and efficient navy, which kept powerful European fleets from threatening US security and other nations from expanding into the Western hemisphere. T.R. wasn't just a strategist: When war with Spain broke out, he took an active part. Drawing from Roosevelt's voluminous letters, diaries, and memoirs, as well as government records and secondary sources, Jeffers amply covers Colonel Roosevelt's heroics in Cuba with his Rough Riders and his emergence as a leader and national figure. The rise of Theodore Roosevelt parallels the rise of the US as a world power. Jeffers is convincing in asserting that T.R. was highly instrumental both in bringing attention to the problem of foreign powers operating near our shores and along our Pacific frontier, and in strengthening American resolve and national defenses.