A man of vicious energy, intellect, humour, and moral character, I would read a book about Roosevelt in the post of street sweeper.

He was a man of fascinating contradiction. A performer and a serious intellect. Ambitious but not at the expense of character. Sensitive to criticism, but from nobody so much as himself. Traditional & forward thinking. A fierce fighter and a fiercer collaborator.

Read today, there is a lot of the populist in him. He liked simplifications, manliness, expansionism. Yet his simplifications and popular appeal were not a mask for scapegoating, corruption or superficiality. In fact the opposite. He was more obsessed with detail than any of his duller, more serious colleagues. As police commissioner he would walk the streets all night, checking that his officers were patrolling as expected, and setting an example of unrelenting commitment.

Though largely liked for being a personality, he worked insanely hard, cared deeply, and took to heart every one of his positions and duties. From investigating judges as a New York State Assemblyman, to Civil Service standards as its commissioner, Police commissioner and NYPD board president, to Assistant Secretary to the Navy, as a Rough Rider Colonel in Cuba, then as mayor of New York: he gave everything every time.

He was openly ambitious, and much like Eisenhower relied on his friends to put in a good word to accelerate his rise. Yet he was never unscrupulous. Even when it was easy, when it would have helped him, even when the country might have benefited. When locked in a battle with a deliberately obstructive commissioner colleague at the NYPD, who seemed determined to bring Roosevelt down without cause, Roosevelt refused to play dirty. When brought intelligence that this rival could be found a regular visitor to a local brothel, and therefore captured in a raid, Teddy refused: “I don’t fight that way”.

At the then high-point in his career, as Assistant Secretary to the Navy, and as an expert in Naval warfare, his decision to quit that job to fight in Cuba, a retaliation to an attack on a US Naval ship, was thought crazy to just about everyone. He put his ambition to one side, for honour, and perhaps a little publicity too.

He held many traditional views, and yet not afraid to change his perspective, as he did on hunting, and even forward thinking. He predicted the rise of the Japanese Navy, the Russian revolution, and the rising impact of corporatism in politics, decades before they came to fruit, and challenged them openly.

A fierce fighter and often quick to quarrel, he usually did his best work in compromise with his enemies. Working with Platt in New York, he was able to push through change that seemed to please both sides.

Theodore Roosevelt was a puzzling, thrilling, impossible-to-dislike combination of ego and unbreakable moral character, with a singular mix of care for what people thought of him, and a greater care for what he thought of himself.

The book takes you up to the moment that McKinley dies and Roosevelt becomes President. For someone so willing to confront head on, it must have felt a little like cheating to get in by the side door.

None of this is to say anything for his array of other passions, most notably his legacy as a naturalist and explorer, his time as a western rancher, his prolific authorship, or his personal life as a husband and father.

What a man.