"Theodore Roosevelt and the First World War": In-Person Badger Talk in Mukwonago, WI

This is a free, in-person talk hosted on October 1, 2026 at 1:00 PM by MASD Community Education in Mukwonago, WI. More to come on registration. There will be no virtual option for this talk.
When the Great War engulfed Europe in 1914, former president Theodore Roosevelt firmly believed it was America’s duty to join the conflict before the guns fell silent. Never one to shy away from conflict, he became the loudest voice for U.S. intervention—and demanded the right to enlist himself, certain he would not return alive. Denied that chance by the greatest political foe he had ever known, Roosevelt’s four sons, one daughter, a son-in-law, and a daughter-in-law stepped forward to uphold the family’s legacy. But when tragedy struck, TR was forced to reckon with the personal cost of war—and the part he may have played in it.
Calvin Watts is the academic advisor for social science majors at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. As an amateur historian, he studies how Theodore Roosevelt’s family relationships reveal the man behind his public personas.