Theodore Roosevelt An Autobiography

by Roosevelt, Theodore

• ISBN13: 9780306802324
• ISBN10: 0306802325
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1985-03-22
• Publisher: Da Capo Press

Summary

Theodore Roosevelt's writing has the same verve, panache, and energy as the life he lived. Perhaps no president in U.S. historynot even Jeffersonhad so many opinions and intellectual interests, believed in so many causes, or worked so hard to translate his beliefs into action. A hard-headed idealist, an unabashed interventionist, a crusader on behalf of environmental preservation and against big business "trusts," he was also a writer of uncommon grace and passion with a gift for the memorable phrase. His autobiography, one of the two or three finest ever written by a U.S. president, abounds in exciting episodes of personal transformation and insights into the bitter politics of the day. Roosevelt was a sickly youth who steeled himself for a life of vigor, growing up surrounded by wealth in nineteenth-century Manhattan but vacationing in the West, where he rode with cowboys and learned to revere and study the natural world. His book describes his early failures in his political career and his ascent from the New York City police board to assistant secretary of the Navy where he advocated war with Spain, to his brief stint and public renown as a Rough Rider; and on to the governorship of New York, vice presidency under McKinley, and finally the presidency itself. Elting Morison's new introduction analyzes what Roosevelt has includedand not includedabout his many political conflicts, his role in the acquisition of the Panama Canal, and the deaths of his wife and his mother.As everywhere in his writing, the personality of T.R.alert, voluble, forceful, compassionateshines forth from this book, which remains a singular study of a dynamic and, in many respects, exemplary man who was also a key figure in the Age of Reform.

Author Biography

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909.

Table of Contents

I. BOYHOOD AND YOUTH	1	(28)
II. THE VIGOR OF LIFE	29	(26)
III. PRACTICAL POLITICS	55	(39)
IV. IN COWBOY LAND	94	(38)
V. APPLIED IDEALISM	132	(40)
VI. THE NEW YORK POLICE	172	(37)
VII. THE WAR OF AMERICA THE UNREADY	209	(70)
VIII. THE NEW YORK GOVERNORSHIP	279	(49)
IX. OUTDOORS AND INDOORS	328	(36)
X. THE PRESIDENCY; MAKING AN OLD PARTY PROGRESSIVE	364	(44)
XI. THE NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE NATION	408	(29)
XII. THE BIG STICK AND THE SQUARE DEAL	437	(39)
XIII. SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL JUSTICE	476	(40)
XIV. THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND THE PANAMA CANAL	516	(31)
XV. THE PEACE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS	547