“Laurence Jurdem shrewdly illuminates not only a fascinating personal relationship, but the making of modern politics and government at the dawn of the American century.”
—T.J. STILES, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Custer's Trials and The First Tycoon
About Laurence
Laurence Jurdem, Ph.D., is currently a visiting assistant professor of history at Fairfield University. Mr. Jurdem is also the author of Paving the Way for Reagan: The Influence of Conservative Media on U.S. Foreign Policy. A frequent writer on American politics, his articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle. His newest book is scheduled for September 2025 release, 41: George H.W. Bush and the American Establishment, published by Post Hill Press. He lives in Connecticut.
About The Rough Rider and the Professor
Evoking the political intrigue of the Gilded Age, The Rough Rider and the Professor chronicles the extraordinary thirty-five-year friendship between President Theodore Roosevelt and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts.
Theodore Roosevelt was a uniquely gifted figure. A man of great intellect and physicality, the New York patrician captured the imagination of the American people with his engaging personality and determination to give all citizens regardless of race, color, or creed the opportunity to achieve the American dream.
Praise for Laurence’s Work
The author sheds new light on the intricacies of the Roosevelt-Lodge friendship.
—Kirkus Reviews
With The Rough Rider and the Professor, Laurence Jurdem shines a bright light on a forgotten figure who shaped Theodore Roosevelt, and, therefore, modern America as well.
—Amity Shlaes, New York Times Bestselling Author of Coolidge
…insightful and highly enjoyable book…Highly recommended!
—Steve Gillon, author of America's Reluctant Prince: The Life of John F Kennedy Jr.
Paving the Way for Reagan will make a lasting contribution to our understanding of the evolution of the modern conservative movement.
The volume is a welcome addition to scholarship on Reagan's career and on the conservative movement that catapulted him to the
White House.
Laurence Jurdem has done an outstanding job of documenting a unique, symbiotic relationship that not only made history, but changed it for the better.
—Washington Times
Also by Laurence
Paving the Way for Reagan
From 1964 to 1980, the United States was buffeted by a variety of international crises, including the nation's defeat in Vietnam, the growing aggression of the Soviet Union, and Washington's inability to free the fifty two American hostages held by Islamic extremists in Iran. Through this period and in the decades that followed, Commentary, Human Events, and National Review magazines were critical in supporting the development of GOP conservative positions on key issues that shaped events at home and abroad. These publications and the politicians they influenced pursued a fundamental realignment of US foreign policy that culminated in the election of Ronald Reagan.
