The King and the Cowboy: Theodore Roosevelt and Edward the Seventh, Secret Partners

I found this book to be a most interesting piece of history, a glimpse into the minds and actions of two underrated personages, telling both the good and the bad about them. When reading the book in a dentist's reception room, I was a little taken aback by a fellow paient, upon seeing the title, commented: "Oh, I didn't know they were gay!" Go figure.

I agree with the previous reviewer that the book was a bit superficial. However, I picked up the book knowing almost nothing about TR and Edward VII and therefore enjoyed it immensely. The book is an easy, fascinating read. I have a much better understanding of the politics and personalities that led to WWI.

I wholeheartedly recommend the fascinating The King and The Cowboy, which is about the largely unknown partnership and friendship between King Edward the Seventh of England and Teddy Roosevelt . One, a hard drinking playboy, the other a drinking cowboy, they had very little in common. But through David Fromkin's engaging and hard to put down chapters, we find that what the two men did share was their own unique rebellion against how they were raised. Through their rebellions they were each able, at a crucial stage of world politics, to create a partnership of diplomacy that was able to avert, at least for a little while, all-out world war. Edward VII used his knowledge of and personal relationships with everyone who was anyone in European politics (he'd parties hard with them all and talked and most importantly, listened to them all) to use diplomacy, instead of royal marriages, to push liberal constitutional monarchy through Europe. Teddy broke out of the isolationism of United States politics to take a strong and reasoned (this from the man of Kettle Hill!) approach as mediator and deal maker between Germany and France over territorial tensions in North Africa (and underlying Europe). There are more chapters in the book about the English side of things during the 1800s and into the twentieth century. I found each and every one fascinating. Fromkin writes easily and well about the tenacity of young Victoria to reach and hold onto her royal power, her love for Albert and her eventual sharing of power with him, their plan to spread constitutional monarchy throughout Europe by virtue of marrying their strictly educated offspring to other royals. Their plan did not work out but that is where Edward VII ("Bertie" for most of his life until Victoria died and he finally became King of England) stepped in. The chapters about Bertie's ill-suited education and his break-out from Victorian conventions into quite a wild life, are absolute page-turners. In fact, I only stopped to examine (scratching my head) the photo of the specially designed and upholstered chair for effective commingling with one or two women at once, built to accommodate Bertie's growing girth and libido. Then I continued on, reading gluttonously through the chapters.. Teddy Roosevelt' s upbringing is also explored, most of it well-known but interesting nonetheless. His initial love of war and his belief that to be a real man one had to do combat fell away after the Spanish American war . He matured into a more reasoned (for him) approach to political tensions at home and abroad. The disparities between the two men were huge. Edward had mistresses literally throughout the world (and the dessert crepes suzette we owe to just one of them) whereas Teddy was a firm believer in "marriage, family, and monogamy." The King and the Cowboy presents the interesting story of how these two reached a partnership and forged a friendship not just between themselves but most impo