The State of the Field (2025-2026) was presented by the Theodore Roosevelt Association’s Public Historian Dr. Michael Cullinane at the TRA’s 107th Annual Meeting in Medora, North Dakota on Saturday, October 10, 2026. It included a reading of relevant scholarship – the major publications, conferences, events, and media productions that foreground Theodore Roosevelt or the Roosevelt family. Dr. Cullinane has provided an annotated list:
- Paul Schullery, Roosevelt’s Wilderness Writings. A collection of Roosevelt’s writings, it includes adventures in Africa, the Amazon, and throughout the United States along with hunting and naturalist stories told by Roosevelt.
- Darrin Lunde, Palace of Deception: Museum Men and the Rise of Scientific Racism. Covers the early history of the American Museum of Natural History and the leading figures who drove field studies.
Michael F. Moran, When Coins Were King: The Coins, Power Struggles, and Personalities that Defined a Nation. History of monetary economics at the turn of the century that explains how abundance in precious metals and industrialization transformed the United States.
- David Brown, In the Arena: Theodore Roosevelt in War, Peace, and Revolution. Straightforward biography of Theodore Roosevelt that concludes he was the first modern president.
- Michael Patrick Cullinane, Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet. Study of Roosevelt’s inner circle, responsible for the administration’s political direction and policies.
- Sergio Luzzatto, The First Fascist: The Life and Legacy of the Marquis de Morès. A biography of the French aristocrat who founded Medora and knew Theodore Roosevelt. Fascinating historical take on how the Badlands had global consequence.
- Marc Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back. A wonderful example of how history informs contemporary life, this book explains how the Progressive Era was a highwater mark for political efficiency. Roosevelt appears as both Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian.
- Josephine Marsh, Ted Heads: Inside the Enduring Cult of Theodore Roosevelt. An curious book with little evidence of its assertions, full of inaccuracies and sweeping generalizations that will frustrate readers.
- William N. Tilchin (ed.), Spotlighting TR, Volume II. This second volume includes selections from the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal from 2015 to 2022 and captures some of the best scholarship on Roosevelt from this period.
- Jim Blase, Theodore Roosevelt’s Brotherhood of America. Builds on the authors series of books covering TR’s tours of America by taking a first-person tour of the same trips.
- Fritz and Sandy Gordner, Postcards Talk of Theodore Roosevelt. The result of decades of postcard collecting, the Gordners tell the stories they have learned about TR’s political and personal life.
- Steven Siry, Transforming America in 1903: A Landmark Year in the History of the United States.
- Chris Epting, Theodore Roosevelt in California.
- Duane Jundt, “Revisiting Ranching with Roosevelt,” Wild West History Association Journal 19 (September 2026): 38-46.
- Chris Landino, The First Step: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. at Utah Beach.