Introduction

Abstract

In the 1950s, the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association began an oral history project that interviewed family, friends, and contemporaries of the former president. Led by Hermann Hagedorn and his daughter Mary, the project collected over a dozen recordings. While few of the recordings survived, those that did have never been heard. The introduction explains the importance of the recordings for the study of Roosevelt and the practice of oral history. It also contextualizes the wider project within the Cold War years, at a time when Roosevelt’s contemporaries looked back to the early twentieth century. Finally, the introduction presents the individuals who recorded their memories, including those excluded from the book. The author makes the case for the edits, omissions, and curation of the project so the reader can understand how the book came together, and where the surviving sources can be found.