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A spirited and poignant family love story, revealing how an icon of rugged American masculinity was profoundly shaped by the women in his life, especially his mother, sisters, and wives. Theodore Roosevelt wrote in his senior thesis for Harvard in 1880 that women ought to be paid equal to men and have the option of keeping their maiden names upon marriage. It's little surprise he'd be a feminist, given the women he grew up with. His mother, Mittie, was witty and decisive, a Southern belle raising four young children in New York while her husband spent long stretches away with the Union Army. Theodore's college sweetheart and first wife, Alice - so vivacious she was known as Sunshine - steered her beau away from science (he'd roam campus with taxidermy specimen in his pockets) and towards politics.