Today we visited the home of one of my favorite Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt. My Uncle Bob first got me started by reading The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex both by Edmund Morris. The first biography deals with perhaps the most interesting part of T.D. Roosevelt’s life, the years leading up to his presidency. I was amazed at exactly how much Roosevelt had accomplished and yet was such a young man (age 42) when he assumed the presidency. In fact The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt ends right as Theodore hears about the assassination of President McKinley. Theodore Rex then tells about his seven plus years as president, and while interesting, the book does not come close to Morris’s first in terms of action or compelling story. Morris was to do a third part of the biography dealing with Roosevelt’s last part of his life, but it has yet to be developed.
I purchased another book highly recommended by my uncle, Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey: the River of Doubt by Candice Millard. The book is about Theodore’s exploration of the Amazon River and its tributaries in 1913-1914 after being defeated by Woodrow Wilson for a third term as president. It is highly recommended and we all know Jonathan is a genius and he highly recommends it as well.
I admire how Theodore was so sickly in his youth and basically just applied mind over matter to will himself into shape and lead a very vigorous lifestyle with African safaris and various adventures out west. He was probably one of our best read presidents. He used to devour about a book a night except during his presidency. However, he still read a great deal during that time almost averaging a book a night. Through the reading one and the tour one comes away with the impression that Theodore was a natural leader of men who actually enjoyed the limelight and pressures that come with being a leader. In fact, he seemed to thrive on the lifestyle.
I am also impressed with how Theodore had the attitude towards Congress and politicians that you are not gong to outsmart me. He kept digging the Panama Canal knowing that the Congress would continue to debate the merits of the project ,a he said that while the debate continues so does the digging. He had a touch with the common man and had a way of speaking that was less flowery for the times but spoke directly to the people. His distant cousin would also adopt this straight talk and use it to help communicate to America during WWII.
I’m with you Mark, he didn’t make excuses when he was a sickly child. He has always been my favorite president, mostly because of creating the National Park system.
Howard