The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, A Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History

<p><b>The surprising story of our &quot;naturalist president&quot; Theodore Roosevelt and how his lifelong passion for the natural world set the stage for America's wildlife conservation movement</b><br> <br>No United States president is more popularly associated with nature and wildlife than Theodore Roosevelt - prodigious hunter, tireless adventurer, and ardent conservationist. We think of him as a larger-than-life original, yet in <i>The Naturalist</i>, Darrin Lunde has located Roosevelt in the proud tradition of museum naturalism. From his earliest days, Roosevelt actively modeled himself on the men who pioneered a key branch of biology through the collection of animal specimens and by developing a taxonomy of the natural world. The influence they would have on Roosevelt shaped not only his audacious personality but his career, informing his work as a statesman and ultimately affecting generations of Americans' relationship to this country's wilderness. <br> <br>Drawing on Roosevelt's diaries and expedition journals and pulling from his own experience as a leading figure in today's museum naturalism, Lunde constructs a thoughtfully researched, singularly insightful history that tracks Roosevelt's maturation from exuberant boyhood hunter to vital champion of serious scientific inquiry.</p>