Of all the historical figures I have learned about in my life, I don't know if there are any who are more fascinating and interesting to me than Theodore Roosevelt. You may remember him as the President of the United States who had the small round glasses and the round face. Or you may remember hearing that "teddy" bears got their name after
You may also have once heard that he was an early proponent of national parks in the US. And you may remember him as the sickly old man who served as President during World War II. Of course, in this last case you would be wrong. That was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But in any case, the other things are all true. Yet, they don't even scratch the surface of the man who is Teddy Roosevelt. Interested? Let me tell you a little more...Although he was born into an established, well-to-do family, Teddy had a physically-challenging childhood where he suffered from, among other things, a debilitating asthma condition. From this meek beginning, he rose to overcome his physical trials, and pretty much any other trial that stood in his way. By the time he was my age, he had accomplished an unbelievable list of things, including: became a self-taught biologist and naturalist (writing a paper on the history of insects before he was 10!), became well-versed in hunting and taxidermy, graduated from Harvard, married and had his first child, became a widower (2 days after the birth of his daughter), studied law at Columbia, lost both parents to death, became an influential New York State assemblyman, investing in and built a cattle ranch in the Badlands of North Dakota, published a naval history of the
war of 1812 to great acclaim (he would go on to publish many books), and many other remarkable things. And remember, this was all before he was 30 years old. It makes me wonder what I have wasted all my time doing thus far. From there, he was to serve on the unpopular but important US Civil Service Commission, president of the New York City police commissioner board, and assistant secretary of the navy, all before he gained further fame by successfully leading the "Rough Riders" during the Spanish-American war. During all of this, he found time to marry for a second time, have several more children, and publish extensively on an incredible variety of topics (government reform, hunting expeditions, historical essays, biology and conservation, to name a few). Let me remind you that all of this was before he was to become vice president and then, following the assassination of President McKinley, President of the United States at the young age of 42 (still the record for youngest president).
Later in life, after he was out of politics, he was to explore Africa on an extensive expedition where he and his comrades killed and collected over 11,000 animals. What? Is that right, you ask? Yes. And that's not the end of it. He also completed an incredible exploratory expedition through the Amazon jungle of South America to chart the previously unexplored course of the River of Doubt (later renamed the Rio Roosevelt in his honor). During this journey alone the ex-president faced hostile indian groups, deadly river rapids, unknown diseases, insufficient food, murderous crew members, and the fear of the
unknown course that lay ahead of them. Ultimately he made a narrow escape from death and returned to his wife and family in the US. Whew...I'm tired just thinking about this man. And I haven't even mentioned a single thing from his presidency. Do you know why? Because I don't know anything about his presidency. Not yet at least. So far I have read three books on Teddy Roosevelt and not one of them has covered a single day of his presidency. There is enough interesting stuff about this guy to write a whole library of books, even without the presidency. The books I have read so far are:Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, A Vanquished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt - by David McCullough. If you've read my first post on this blog, you know that McCullough is one of my favorites. And this book won the National Book Award. It covers Roosevelt's early childhood up until his mid-twenties. I enjoyed this book very much. However, I must say that I enjoyed the following book even more:
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt - by Edmund Morris. This book won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award when it was published in 1980. It covers Roosevelt from birth up until the moment when he hears about McKinley's assassination. This was a fantastic book and I enjoyed it very much. I would highly recommend this to anyone. The third book I read about Roosevelt is:
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey - by Candice Millard. While this book didn't receive the accolades of the previous two, it was also a very fascinating, well-written book. This book recounts the remarkable journey through South America that I mentioned. This is a quick read that I would recommend to anyone who wants to know more about Teddy's search for adventure.
There are many other books on Teddy Roosevelt out there (such an interesting subject matter is sure to attract a lot of attention). I am anxious to read Edmund Morris' 2nd volume in his planned trilogy of Roosevelt titled Theodore Rex (it's sitting on my shelf). I'm also anxious to hear from any of you who have read other interesting books about Teddy Roosevelt. So, if you have a good one to add to the list, please add a comment to this post, or email it to me so that I can add it.
So. in conclusion, I think that there are few people as accomplished, interesting, and captivating as Theodore Roosevelt. So if you haven't yet read anything by or about him, I highly recommend you Buy (one of) these Books!
