Arthur G. Sharp - The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book: The extraordinary life of an American icon

THE

THEODORE

ROOSEVELT

BOOK

The Extraordinary Life of an American Icon

Arthur G. Sharp, MA
Foreword by Dr. William N. Tilchin,
Editor of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Dear Reader,

I met Theodore Roosevelt several years ago in a college classroom. Well, I didnt meet him in the true sense of the word. TR was the subject of the class, not a member. But, after the semester ended, I vowed to learn more about his life because he was such a fascinating character. Doing the research for this book gave me the chance to do that and pass some of what I learned on to you.

The course was The Politics of Theodore Roosevelt. As the title implies, the emphasis was on his political philosophies and methodologies. There was not much about his personal life included. That is a drawback when you are trying to learn about the total person. So I learned more about his private life to create a more complete profile of the man and his personality, rather than a string of dates and facts, which is the bane of most readers.

Now, several years after the course ended, I have completed that project. I share it with you. Hopefully, you will be as happy as I am to meet TR and gain an insight into his life and legacy.

These handy, accessible books give you all you need to tackle a difficult project, gain a new hobby, comprehend a fascinating topic, prepare for an exam, or even brush up on something you learned back in school but have since forgotten.

You can choose to read an Everything book from cover to cover or just pick out the information you want from our four useful boxes: e-questions, e-facts, e-quotes, and e-ssentials.

We give you everything you need to know on the subject, but throw in a lot of fun stuff along the way, too.

We now have more than 400 Everything books in print, spanning such wide-ranging categories as weddings, pregnancy, cooking, music instruction, foreign language, crafts, pets, New Age, and so much more. When youre done reading them all, you can finally say you know Everything!

PUBLISHER Karen Cooper

DIRECTOR OF ACQUISITIONS AND INNOVATION Paula Munier

MANAGING EDITOR, EVERYTHING SERIES Lisa Laing

COPY CHIEF Casey Ebert

ASSISTANT PRODUCTION EDITOR Jacob Erickson

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Visit the entire Everything series at www.everything.com

To the Roosevelt family, whose public service
over the centuries has made the United States
a better place in which to livesometimes.

Copyright 2011 by F+W Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Published by Adams Media, a division of F+W Media, Inc.
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ISBN 10: 1-4405-2729-6
ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-2729-6
eISBN 10: 1-4405-2765-2
eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-2765-4

Printed in the United States of America.

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There is a plethora of information about TRs life available through a variety of online sources, published books, his own writings, etc. These sources are available in a one-stop format now. Thanks are due to the people who have assembled them all in one place and facilitated the research process.

. TR had dogs that climbed trees to hunt cougars and lynxes on his ranch in the Dakotas. He was fond of revealing stories about such animals to his children.

. It was not unusual for TR to carry guns for protection when he was on the campaign trail. Unfortunately, he was not packing one the night he was shot in Milwaukee in 1912.

. TR did not believe that children should play sports if it meant jeopardizing academics. He was a firm believer in study first, play later.

. As far as TR was concerned, the only good novels had happy endings. And if the heroes had to die, they had to do so nobly and worthilyjust as people should spend their lives.

. On his expeditions, TR carried a vial of morphine with which to end his life if necessary. He almost used it on his River of Doubt trip.

. Even though TR was an advocate of a strong navy, he was always bored when out at sea.

. TR was a sickly person when he was young. But the worst malady he suffered was homesickness, especially after he married Edith and traveled away from his home and family for long periods of time.

. TR was not fond of campaigning and talking to people who expected speeches from him at every stop. He especially did not like people telling him things about nature that he already knew, just to impress him.

. There was no better place on earth for TR than Sagamore Hill at Oyster Bay, New York. It was especially appealing when his family was there, since he valued family above all else.

. TR had very little use for news reporters while he was in the White House and advised his children to simply ignore them in the hopes that they would go away.

HISTORIANS ARE ASKED PERIODICALLY to rank U.S. presidents. In recent decades, such surveys have tended to place Theodore Roosevelt as the fourth greatest presidentbehind Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and George Washington. While the #1 ranking for Lincoln (who, with incomparable poise and skill, literally preserved the United States as a country during its time of maximum peril) would be difficult to contest, Theodore Roosevelt, who served as the twenty-sixth president from 1901 to 1909, may very well be deserving of the #2 ranking. True, Franklin Roosevelt (TRs fifth cousin) successfully confronted two crises, the Great Depression and the Second World War, that were far graver than any danger faced by America during TRs era. But FDRs foreign policy from 1933 to 1939 indirectly facilitated the growth in power of Nazi Germany, whereas TR demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to anticipate international crises and to act to forestall them. Theodore Roosevelt was by far the foremost environmentalist president in U.S. history. He was the first great domestic reformer among twentieth-century presidents. And TRs foreign policy was extremely well-conceived and well-executed and was based on farsighted principlesbroadly defined U.S. interests, formidable deterrent power, and Anglo-American solidarity and preeminencethat would guide U.S. presidents from World War II to the present day.