The King and the Cowboy: Theodore Roosevelt and Edward the Seventh, Secret Partners
In this problematic book, Boston University professor Fromkin (A Peace to End All Peace) asserts a personal strategic relationship between president Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII during the Algeciras Conference of 1906. The gathering was to mediate the future of Morocco; France, backed by other European powers, argued for protectorate status, while Germany, wanting to end French dominance in Morocco, argued for independence. The bulk of the book recounts the lives of Edward VII, his tempestuous nephew Kaiser Wilhelm II, and of TR prior to Algeciras. In emphasizing a collaboration between Roosevelt and Edward, neither of whom attended the conference, Fromkin seems to discount the roles of lead mediator Henry White, and his capable assistant Samuel R. Gunnmere, in orchestrating the results, which were largely unfavorable to Germany. Fromkin likewise discounts the machinations of the British Foreign Office, which outweighed any influence the monarch might have had. Only one direct communiqué—secret or otherwise—between TR and Edward, dispatched after the conference, is cited, making Fromkin's assertion of a close secret partnership a reach. Overall, Fromkin's volume is without a raison d'être. Illus.(Sept. 5)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.