Theodore Roosevelt was a man of many talents. He was, as Ben Stiller summarizes in that great masterpiece of 21st-century cinema, Night at the Museum 2: “26th President of the United States, Roughrider, Founder of the National Parks, and a whole bunch of other stuff.”
Among that “whole bunch of other stuff”, he was a writer, and one of his works is this biography of Oliver Cromwell: “Lord Protector of England, Puritan, born in 1599 and died in 1658, September.”🎶 (Once you hear the Monty Python song about him, you can never un-hear it.)
I love reading one famous historical figure writing about another. The gold standard for this is, of course, Napoleon’s commentaries on the wars of Julius Caesar, but this one is right up there. T.R.’s writing is efficient, to the point, and very opinionated. He’s making no attempt at neutrality, but arguing strenuously that Oliver Cromwell was awesome, and that the Stuart monarchy he temporarily deposed were, basically, a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came.
But Teddy had a problem, in that Cromwell’s reign was, by basically any measure, just a tyrannous as was that of Charles I, if not more so. To his credit, he doesn’t deny this. He admits that Cromwell did some nasty stuff. He even puts together a tiered ranking of “guys who took over their countries after a revolution.” Top tier: George Washington. Next tier: Cromwell. Bottom tier: Napoleon. (Too bad he didn’t write this after 1917.)
He makes a lot of excuses for Cromwell, basically all of which amount to, “he meant well.” Yeah, yeah, Ted; that’s what they all say.
Nevertheless, the biographical sketch is quite interesting, and it’s kind of nice to read a politician who is unafraid to take an unequivocal stance on a relatively controversial topic. Not to mention that the idea of a politician taking the trouble to learn something about a distant period of history is rather amazing by modern standards.
Is it the best book ever written on Cromwell? Probably not. Is it objective? Definitely not. But is it the best book we’re ever likely to get about Cromwell written by an American politician? For at least the foreseeable future, yes.
Oliver’s army is here to stay. 😉
Also, TR’s PoV is exactly what I expect from someone who carries a big stick – or baseball bat in Al Capone’s case.
Come to think of it… a baseball bat basically IS a big stick, right? 😀
TR would naturally side with Cromwell, Puritans stick together.
Quite so!
‘He meant well’ is an awful epitaph, and yet, I fear it says more about Homo Sapiens in general than it does about particular men. We lurch from one extreme to another, but sometimes what emerges after all the bloodletting is a better society for all. Not saying that was the case with Cromwell, but I suspect Britain’s path towards a more democratic, humane society would have taken a lot longer if Cromwell had never existed. Now I’m going to go wash my mouth out with soap. 🙁
Well said!
Sorry I’m late here (usually am in WP), but as a Brit couldn’t let anything about Oliver Cromwell (I’ll come back to song later) go by.
Firstly it was interesting to read that Teddy Roosevelt had written a biography about him, I daresay a whole cart load of the snobbish sort of British Historians would have and still would huff-puff-and snort over an American ‘ daring to write about any British historical personage’ (There is a subliminal body of thought in these isles that still doesn’t forgive The Colonists for daring to rebel against The Crown- and worse throwing all that tea away!).
Still titled The English Civil War, these days historians in the UK are giving the Scots, Irish and Welsh equal billing and tend to sub-head it as the British Civil Wars. The recent histories I read left me with the impression that the isles at those times were populated by large numbers of opinionated, narrow minded, argumentative folk and wars were inevitable. It seems that Cromwell and his grouping were the better organised, more focused of the lot (but not in a nice way) and knocked everyone else’s heads into submission (but not in a nice way).
After Cromwell died the whole lot fell apart and in typical British fashion we had another king. (hoorah!)
Aside that he liked killing lots of wild animals and as usual for leaders thinking war was a good way of solving international problems, Teddy Roosevelt wasn’t a bad president, at least he kicked the butts of the Vested Interests.
And back to The Song: First broadcast on the radio 1966 (about) via the precursor of Monty Python… ‘I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again’- John Cleese was in that team, he sang in solo more basso profundo with a stronger piano background- that version end with the sniggering of Oliver Cromwell…. I’m been singing it to myself ever since…Thanks for the insight into the Monty Python version
I like your takes on both Cromwell and TR.
Recommended reading on British History:
‘1066 and All That’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1066_and_All_That