My father-in-law was a calvary Colonel who commanded both tanks and helicopters. He reminds me a lot of my late father-in-law, who was probably born a century too late. Like everything he did, it was written with energy and machismo. I've been curious to read this memoir/history by TR. 'We knew not whither we were bound, nor what we were to do but we believed that the nearing future held for us many chances of death and hardship, of honor and renown.' The books in the Modern Library War series have been chosen by series editor Caleb Carr according to the significance of their subject matter, their contribution to the field of military history, and their literary merit. Robust in its style and mesmerizing in its account of battle, it is exhilarating, illuminating, and utterly essential reading for every armchair historian and at-home general. The Rough Riders was published to instant acclaim in 1899. Roosevelt kept a detailed diary from the time he left Washington until his triumphant return from Cuba later that year.

Over the course of the summer, Roosevelt's Rough Riders fought valiantly, and sometimes recklessly, in the Cuban foothills, incurring casualties at a far greater rate than the Spanish. This group of men, which became known as the Rough Riders, trained for four weeks in the Texas desert and then set sail for Cuba. In 1898, as the Spanish-American War was escalating, Theodore Roosevelt assembled an improbable regiment of Ivy Leaguers, cowboys, Native Americans, African-Americans, and Western Territory land speculators.

The Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt