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4.44 AVERAGE
4.44 AVERAGE
Now, I could write Roosevelt as a character with half my brain tied behind my hand. Sections of prose dump information while singing poetic. The interlude contains some of the most frightful imagery I've ever read. The political stuff is boring, personal distaste. Everything else is fascinating. Understanding the unique evil that is Theodore Roosevelt can't be done better than this book.
The great thing about reading Edmund Morris is two-fold: he presents extremely thorough research with a enjoyable reading style that makes one feel like they are reading fiction. As a friend put it, it’s like reading a novel, not a biography. It doesn’t hurt that Theodore Roosevelt lived a life that makes easy picking for any biographer.
The first in Edmund Morris’ three part biography of the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt lived a life full to the brim. Born sickly, he had overcome physical ailments and “built courage by ‘sheer dint of practicing fearlessness.’” Indeed, his life reads in a crescendo that leaves other men wanting:
Published author at 18, of “The Naval War of 1812,” a classic that would go on to find a place in the textbooks for both US and British naval academies.
Married at 22, father and widower at 25, husband again at 28.
Acclaimed historian and New York Assemblyman at 25.
North Dakota ranchman at 26
Candidate for New York City Mayor at 27
Civil Service Commissioner of the United States at 30
Police Commissioner of New York City at 36
Assistant Secretary of the Navy at 38 (and author of the plan that defeated the Spanish in Manila under Admiral Dewey)
Colonel of the First U.S. Cavalry, the “Rough Riders” and a war hero at 39 (yes, he left a near cabinet level position to ride in the cavalry)
Governor of New York two weeks short of his 40th birthday
Vice President at 42…
And that’s just in the first book. Making his living as a working writer, Roosevelt read over 20,000 books and writing fifteen of his own, not to mention speaking French and German, developing and maintaining relationships with numerous leaders in fields scientific, intellectual, and philosophical. His mind was a steel trap and his life steam engine, gaining speed and momentum.
He was a man who was a lifelong learner, knew no bounds to his interests or abilities, and never stopped trying to reach further. Although born to priviledge, Theodore took nothing for granted, and he took every advantage he could to work, read, exercise, challenge himself, and expand his reach. It’s an example that inspires me, and it’s one we could all use.
In a day where people talk a lot and actually do less, Roosevelt reminds us of the power of action, of doing, and that it is those who do that make a difference.
If you’re looking for a readable biography of one of our most colorful presidents, before he was president, pick up Edmund Morris’ “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.”
The first in Edmund Morris’ three part biography of the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt lived a life full to the brim. Born sickly, he had overcome physical ailments and “built courage by ‘sheer dint of practicing fearlessness.’” Indeed, his life reads in a crescendo that leaves other men wanting:
Published author at 18, of “The Naval War of 1812,” a classic that would go on to find a place in the textbooks for both US and British naval academies.
Married at 22, father and widower at 25, husband again at 28.
Acclaimed historian and New York Assemblyman at 25.
North Dakota ranchman at 26
Candidate for New York City Mayor at 27
Civil Service Commissioner of the United States at 30
Police Commissioner of New York City at 36
Assistant Secretary of the Navy at 38 (and author of the plan that defeated the Spanish in Manila under Admiral Dewey)
Colonel of the First U.S. Cavalry, the “Rough Riders” and a war hero at 39 (yes, he left a near cabinet level position to ride in the cavalry)
Governor of New York two weeks short of his 40th birthday
Vice President at 42…
And that’s just in the first book. Making his living as a working writer, Roosevelt read over 20,000 books and writing fifteen of his own, not to mention speaking French and German, developing and maintaining relationships with numerous leaders in fields scientific, intellectual, and philosophical. His mind was a steel trap and his life steam engine, gaining speed and momentum.
He was a man who was a lifelong learner, knew no bounds to his interests or abilities, and never stopped trying to reach further. Although born to priviledge, Theodore took nothing for granted, and he took every advantage he could to work, read, exercise, challenge himself, and expand his reach. It’s an example that inspires me, and it’s one we could all use.
In a day where people talk a lot and actually do less, Roosevelt reminds us of the power of action, of doing, and that it is those who do that make a difference.
If you’re looking for a readable biography of one of our most colorful presidents, before he was president, pick up Edmund Morris’ “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.”
Young Teddy Roosevelt’s life reads like a novel. Born into a well off family in New York just before the Civil War, his father instilled him with a solid core of virtues. Hard work, perseverance, and a thirst for life were Teddy’s driving forces.
Edmund Morris has made the complex and fascinating life of young Teddy very accessible. You can sense the admiration flowing from the page, but he is not slow to criticize decisions and actions of the ambitious man. He was quick to anger, did not do well with compromise, and may have been a bit too rigidly righteous for his own good.
This first of three volumes of President Roosevelt’s was utterly captivating. From birth to inauguration, Teddy Roosevelt: served in the New York House, then became the leader of a Republican faction in that house, ran a cattle ranch in the badlands of South Dakota, ran for Mayor of New York, was police commissioner of New York, was elected Governor of New York, served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, traveled through Europe twice, fought in Cuba with the rough riders, wrote several books including The Naval War of 1812 which was a seminal work in its field, and on and on.
This volume ends with his successful election to the office of Vice President under McKinley, McKinley assassination, and his appointment to President. I cannot wait to start into Theodore Rex, and see what this man does to be regarded and the best peacetime President ever.
Edmund Morris has made the complex and fascinating life of young Teddy very accessible. You can sense the admiration flowing from the page, but he is not slow to criticize decisions and actions of the ambitious man. He was quick to anger, did not do well with compromise, and may have been a bit too rigidly righteous for his own good.
This first of three volumes of President Roosevelt’s was utterly captivating. From birth to inauguration, Teddy Roosevelt: served in the New York House, then became the leader of a Republican faction in that house, ran a cattle ranch in the badlands of South Dakota, ran for Mayor of New York, was police commissioner of New York, was elected Governor of New York, served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, traveled through Europe twice, fought in Cuba with the rough riders, wrote several books including The Naval War of 1812 which was a seminal work in its field, and on and on.
This volume ends with his successful election to the office of Vice President under McKinley, McKinley assassination, and his appointment to President. I cannot wait to start into Theodore Rex, and see what this man does to be regarded and the best peacetime President ever.
My dad would probably rate this 5 stars, though he says the second one is even better. I knew TR fit in insane amount of activity into one lifetime so I knew what to expect, to an extent. I can't help but think of that HIMYM episode where Ted and 2 others spend the whole night one-upping each other on TR's madcap exploits. I don't often dip into the world of biography. The research was exhaustive and sometimes the concise cleverness of the diction wowed me. But the whole second half seemed to drag on; I kept wondering how I was making so little progress rather than being wrapped up in the tale. I'd have liked to be more inside his head, or at least see more of his family. Perhaps that's all coming in the second book, but I confess I wouldn't bother to pick it up if it weren't for my dad.
This was a mixed success for me. Morris is a great writer - absorbing, insightful, meticulous - and the subject is certainly a fascinating one, and yet I found myself drifting a lot while reading this.
It starts out strong, with a scene from Roosevelt's eventual presidency that we won't revisit until the book that follows this one. (Kind of a tease, right?) But his own story is interesting from the start, too. I tend to gravitate towards the bigger, more 'famous' aspects of someone's life; it's why I read so few biographies, which are often built up around the minutiae of someone's early & home life. Yet oddly, this book grabbed me in the earliest chapters.
However, around the midpoint it began to lose me, and never quite got me back. His family recedes into the background, and the details we get of his quickly evolving career don't congeal into any larger, meaningful driving narrative. I found myself impatient for McKinley to... well, you know.
The energy picks up again towards the end, which makes me torn about reading the next one. His presidency was the draw for me all along - but now I'm a little worn out. I might have fared better by skipping this one, and cutting to the chase by starting with Theodore Rex. Hesitant non-fiction readers may be advised to do the same.
It starts out strong, with a scene from Roosevelt's eventual presidency that we won't revisit until the book that follows this one. (Kind of a tease, right?) But his own story is interesting from the start, too. I tend to gravitate towards the bigger, more 'famous' aspects of someone's life; it's why I read so few biographies, which are often built up around the minutiae of someone's early & home life. Yet oddly, this book grabbed me in the earliest chapters.
However, around the midpoint it began to lose me, and never quite got me back. His family recedes into the background, and the details we get of his quickly evolving career don't congeal into any larger, meaningful driving narrative. I found myself impatient for McKinley to... well, you know.
The energy picks up again towards the end, which makes me torn about reading the next one. His presidency was the draw for me all along - but now I'm a little worn out. I might have fared better by skipping this one, and cutting to the chase by starting with Theodore Rex. Hesitant non-fiction readers may be advised to do the same.
After accidentally reading the third book in this trilogy and wondering why it only covered his life after the presidency, I am finally getting around to actually reading the other two books in the series!
A very interesting biography on a very interesting man.
A very interesting biography on a very interesting man.
An excellent biography of a model man. Roosevelt has wit, candor, intelligence, and a physical presence that leaves people floored. Morris does a wonderful job of detailing the childhood, adolescence, and early maturity of such a complex figure.
I repeatedly rearranged my schedule in order to make more time for this book. It's easy to become obsessed with the image of Roosevelt, as many of his supporters did even while he was alive. In the end, it was a pleasure to come to understand the man's character a bit better and learn from his actions.
I repeatedly rearranged my schedule in order to make more time for this book. It's easy to become obsessed with the image of Roosevelt, as many of his supporters did even while he was alive. In the end, it was a pleasure to come to understand the man's character a bit better and learn from his actions.
The life of Theodore Roosevelt couldn’t possiblty be covered in one book. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is the first part of a trilogy by Edmund Morris and covers his life before his presidency.
A sickly child, Roosevelt had to work twice as hard as anyone else to build his physical and mental strength. His weakness grew into a determination so large it would overcome any opposition. The early ridicule of his classmates, the rejection of Alice (his would be first wife), and even the resistence from the New York Political Machine seem insurmountable, but his persistence and tenacity leads him to victory. The early death of his father due to political corruption further plants a seed that would end the Guilded Age in America and begin the Progressive era. His anti-corruption campaign in the New York Assembly and the Federal Civil Service Commission, as well as his hawkish political views would provide a foreshadowing of his presidency.
The first hundred pages of this biography are awfully dry. Morris has harvested information from Roosevelt’s family, but also from a diary he started when he was nine. Morris masters the diary finding a pattern in Roosevelt's behavior. At times there is constant chatter on a topic, but there is mysteriously little of it afterward. It’s a sign that the event did not go well. He didn’t want to remember it, but also knew that his correspondence and diary may be public at some point. When Roosevelt met failure, whether his inability to make a good impression on Alice (his eventual first wife), or his entry into the New York State Assembly (where he was viewed as a country bumpkin), Morris cracks the code and fleshes it out here, providing deeper analysis into his personality.
For me, the book didn’t get interesting until his political fights against corruption. Partly his own ambition and partly revenge for his father he becomes a force to be reckoned with passing reform bill after reform bill. This section is also cast against his trips west to the Dakotas and his cattle ranch there. Morris demonstrates how much Roosevelt reflects his time. It’s amazing to read how much of the country can be reflected in one man, from political fighting in the east to cattle ranching in the west.
Morris documents his literary achievements from his examination of the Naval History of the War of 1812 to his famous Winning of the West. A true renaissance man always looking forward, Morris deftly compares him to Henry Adams. Adams, eventually made famous by his The Education of Henry Adams, reveals a fear of the future, while Roosevelt seems to be made for it.
The last quarter of the book is certainly the most exciting, covering Roosevelt’s rise to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, bullying his way to improvement of U.S. Naval forces. His aggressive expansionist stance is an extension of his love of Manifest Destiny, eventually resulting in the Spanish-American War. His fame in the war leads him to nomination for Vice-Presidency and with the assassination of President McKinley, the presidency.
Morris uses one of Roosevelt’s favorite stories, that of King Olaf, to lead each chapter, mirroring Roosevelt’s meteoric rise to that of the mythical King. It provides a lyrical quality, especially at the end. I loved the ending. He paints this picture of Roosevelt reflecting on all of his accomplishments while he sits in the mists. Will this as far as he rises, to the Vice-Presidency? Has his chance slipped away? Then he sees a man with a telegraph running toward him, out of the mists.
A sickly child, Roosevelt had to work twice as hard as anyone else to build his physical and mental strength. His weakness grew into a determination so large it would overcome any opposition. The early ridicule of his classmates, the rejection of Alice (his would be first wife), and even the resistence from the New York Political Machine seem insurmountable, but his persistence and tenacity leads him to victory. The early death of his father due to political corruption further plants a seed that would end the Guilded Age in America and begin the Progressive era. His anti-corruption campaign in the New York Assembly and the Federal Civil Service Commission, as well as his hawkish political views would provide a foreshadowing of his presidency.
The first hundred pages of this biography are awfully dry. Morris has harvested information from Roosevelt’s family, but also from a diary he started when he was nine. Morris masters the diary finding a pattern in Roosevelt's behavior. At times there is constant chatter on a topic, but there is mysteriously little of it afterward. It’s a sign that the event did not go well. He didn’t want to remember it, but also knew that his correspondence and diary may be public at some point. When Roosevelt met failure, whether his inability to make a good impression on Alice (his eventual first wife), or his entry into the New York State Assembly (where he was viewed as a country bumpkin), Morris cracks the code and fleshes it out here, providing deeper analysis into his personality.
For me, the book didn’t get interesting until his political fights against corruption. Partly his own ambition and partly revenge for his father he becomes a force to be reckoned with passing reform bill after reform bill. This section is also cast against his trips west to the Dakotas and his cattle ranch there. Morris demonstrates how much Roosevelt reflects his time. It’s amazing to read how much of the country can be reflected in one man, from political fighting in the east to cattle ranching in the west.
Morris documents his literary achievements from his examination of the Naval History of the War of 1812 to his famous Winning of the West. A true renaissance man always looking forward, Morris deftly compares him to Henry Adams. Adams, eventually made famous by his The Education of Henry Adams, reveals a fear of the future, while Roosevelt seems to be made for it.
The last quarter of the book is certainly the most exciting, covering Roosevelt’s rise to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, bullying his way to improvement of U.S. Naval forces. His aggressive expansionist stance is an extension of his love of Manifest Destiny, eventually resulting in the Spanish-American War. His fame in the war leads him to nomination for Vice-Presidency and with the assassination of President McKinley, the presidency.
Morris uses one of Roosevelt’s favorite stories, that of King Olaf, to lead each chapter, mirroring Roosevelt’s meteoric rise to that of the mythical King. It provides a lyrical quality, especially at the end. I loved the ending. He paints this picture of Roosevelt reflecting on all of his accomplishments while he sits in the mists. Will this as far as he rises, to the Vice-Presidency? Has his chance slipped away? Then he sees a man with a telegraph running toward him, out of the mists.
This was such an engaging read. It is hard to separate the subject from the book but I do believe the author did an excellent job of bringing Teddy Roosevelt to life.
This book was absolutely amazing. I'm usually pretty bad about writing reviews, but this one really deserves at least a few words.
Morris has done so much meticulous research from so many sources that it's truly impressive. I've studied history, so I truly understand the amount of effort put into this, but even without that background, it's obvious to see that he knows his subject incredibly well. Morris also has a way of writing all these details into a compelling and detailed narrative.
I was engrossed in this book and completely in awe of how well-written and well-researched it is. I would recommend this to anyone.
Morris has done so much meticulous research from so many sources that it's truly impressive. I've studied history, so I truly understand the amount of effort put into this, but even without that background, it's obvious to see that he knows his subject incredibly well. Morris also has a way of writing all these details into a compelling and detailed narrative.
I was engrossed in this book and completely in awe of how well-written and well-researched it is. I would recommend this to anyone.