Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt's American Wilderness by David Gessner My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is a great book. I found his interpretation of Teddy Roosevelt’s life inspiring. Roosevelt had many flaws: he loved killing things, his enthusiasm for American expansion and military adventures, and his attitude toward and treatment of Native Americans. But he also did quite a bit of good when it comes to conservation: he declared 230,000,000 acres of American land off-limits to industry and development. TR was quite progressive, not only for his time, but he would be considered progressive now – which speaks to how little progress we have made. This section from the book is about TR’s platform in the 1912 election (which he lost): “The progressive platform was stunning in its modernity: a social insurance system for the elderly, unemployed, and disabled; strict campaign finance restrictions; women’s suffrage; an eight-hour workday; a minimum wage for women