About the Event

One Book, One ND book event with author Edward F. O’Keefe

One Book One North Dakota is a statewide book club that features best-selling authors in a 60-minute webinar. Attendees are encouraged to participate in a Q&A with the author.

Sunday, May 5

4-5pm CT

About the book:

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. Older sister Bamie would soon become her brother’s key political strategist and advisor; journalists called her Washington, DC, home “the little White House.” Younger sister Conie served as her brother’s press secretary before the role existed, slipping stories of his heroics in Cuba and his rambunctious home life to reporters to create the legend of the Rough Rider we remember today. And Edith—Theodore’s childhood playmate and second wife—would elevate the role of presidential spouse to an American institution, curating both the White House and her husband’s legacy.

A dazzling and lyrical look at one America’s most significant presidents as we’ve never seen him before, The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt celebrates five extraordinary yet unsung women who opened the door to the American Century and pushed Theodore Roosevelt through it.

Edward F. O’Keefe is the CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation. He previously spent two decades in broadcast and digital media, during which time he received a Primetime Emmy Award for his work with Anthony Bourdain, two Webby Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and a George Foster Peabody Award for ABC News coverage of 9/11. A former fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, he graduated with honors from Georgetown University. He was born in North Dakota and lives in New York with his wife, daughter, and son.

Moderator:

Joe Wiegand is the world's premiere Theodore Roosevelt reprisor. As an actor and historian, his portrayals of Theodore Roosevelt have been enjoyed by audiences in all fifty states and internationally.

Joe Wiegand is a political science graduate of The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.  Twice elected to head Sewanee’s student government, Joe had earlier been elected Governor of the American Legion Illinois Boys State and President of the American Legion Boys Nation programs.   Joe served as a graduate assistant at the Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, before launching his own business as a political campaign consultant and public policy expert.   Joe has been named a Wilkins Scholar, a Harry S. Truman Scholar, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellow.  Joe served six years as a member of the DeKalb County, Illinois Board of Commissioners, and was working in public policy and running election campaigns when he began performing as Theodore Roosevelt in 2002.

In 2008, Joe, his wife, Jenny, daughter, Sam, and golden retriever, Faith, traveled across America in celebration of Theodore Roosevelt's 150th birthday and the final centennial year of TR's historic presidency. Performances at the White House and TR's New York City birthplace highlighted the fifty state adventure.  Joe has been featured as President Roosevelt in “The Men Who Built America” on the History Channel, served as the model for the newest TR sculpture at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and has a feature role in “National Parks Adventure” an IMAX film about our national parks narrated by Robert Redford.

Today, the Wiegands live in Medora, North Dakota, where Joe works for the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation. Joe is a thirty-two year member of Rotary International and a member of the National Association for Interpretation. Joe’s annual performance tour is highlighted by appearances June through early September in Medora, North Dakota, gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and future home of Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.  Visit www.teddyrooseveltshow.com and www.medora.com

One Book, One ND events are sponsored by the Paris Family Foundation and Prairie Public 

HND Value Statement

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or Humanities North Dakota. However, in an increasingly polarized world, we at Humanities North Dakota believe that being open-minded is necessary to thinking critically and rationally. Therefore, our programs and classes reflect our own open-mindedness in the inquiry, seeking, and acquiring of scholars to speak at our events and teach classes for our Public University. To that end, we encourage our participants to join us in stepping outside our comfort zones and considering other perspectives and ideas by being open-minded while attending HND events featuring scholars who hold a variety of opinions, some being opposite of our own held beliefs.

Humanities North Dakota classes and events are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities