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TR was a hyperactive, elitist reformer whose ideas of justice were purely patrician and had little grounding in Constitutional values. He was also a political opportunist of the first order, making him the heir of Burr, not Hamilton or Washington (dunno where to put Jefferson in that mix...).

TR’s 1st term was tempered by the need to follow McKinley's legacy, but once launched as his own president, he vigorously pursued an activist, statist government, checked only by a conservative Republican Congress. As his 2nd term progressed, he became more and more populist, especially with his attacks on the courts and the national system of checks and balances that stood in the way of his radicalization.

As ex-President he became downright pernicious, leading a near socialist/fascist agenda to the strongest 3rd party showing ever. Read the Progressive Party's platform and you will see; more revealing are his speeches which were ungrounded in any political philosophy but his own ego.

The word “great” is accurate for this man - he was larger than any other of his day, yet he did not always put his greatness to great pursuits, and in some cases he downright abused his power of personality for mischievous ends.

The bio I read, in two volumes, was very friendly to him. I guess that he thrust himself into a super-patriarchal role, which he thought in that era the people "needed"; his own father was by the bio-author's account, a really good man who had the intelligence and freedom to develop his company, was very thoughtful & generous when he became rich. Maybe Teddy tried to emulate him, but his mistake then was he treated the public sector more like private.

I need to take a look at those 2 books again.

All thru school, we were told TR, Woodrow Wilson, & FDR were great presidents. We know better now.

As for labor laws, something had to be done about child labor, starvation wages, etc.--yet even though laws were enacted, the union seized control by the '30s. The worst move of all was to allow civil "servants" to form labor unions, and now SEIU covers so many workers and has accumulated so much power, that these 2 threaten the country as much as 0 and his thugs--they go hand in hand.