The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

Update: 1/26/2021
In my journey to read one biography on each President, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris was one book that I was excited to read, mostly because of how Morris would recount Roosevelt's life from boyhood until he becomes President. A few years ago, I tried to read this independently of my little Presidential reading project. Back then, I gave this book five stars, and I even put it on my top ten list of that year. One scene that stood out to me at the time was how Morris described Roosevelt in college, as it was fun seeing the reaction of his classmates to how much he exercised both his mind and body. Now, having read it all the way through, my opinion has changed, and I would not say for the better.

One of the major strengths is the description of Roosevelt as a person and his accomplishments. He is someone who a reader can like no matter what side of the political aisle they are on. Roosevelt was an avid hunter and believed in the right to own firearms, yet he was also Police Commissioner for the city of New York. He loved the outdoors, and yet also grew up and lived in one of the most populous cities in the world. Roosevelt was Harvard educated and grew up in a wealthy household, yet loved his time on his ranch working out west, and also knew how to speak plainly to many of New York's least educated citizens. In short, there is something for everyone to like about him. If I would have to describe Teddy's political personality in one sentence, I would say he was as combative as Andrew Jackson, but more sensible when it came to who and what he was going to fight. As opposed to Andrew Jackson who took everything personally (for example, the bank of the United States), Roosevelt chose to fight for the good of the people he worked for. One example of this would be when he was a New York State legislature, and he fought for the Civil Service Commission to help end the Spoils System of appointing people in government positions. He saw this as a horrible way to run the government, and saw Civil Service reform as a way to end much of the corruption that was an accepted part of life at this time. Morris is an excellent author who uses his extensive research to display all of the hardships Roosevelt faced, political and otherwise, to the reader.

But there are also times where Roosevelt's political hardships are explored in too much detail. Whenever an author stretches the life of someone out into three copious volumes, even the smallest argument is thoroughly inspected. Morris is no exception to this rule, as he analyses the many different people, places, and things that Roosevelt did in his early life, including the major and minor political conflicts he had before he became President. Many readers will find this fascinating and will revel in the conflicted life of Roosevelt. I am not one of those people. Instead, there were many times where I considered the challenges Roosevelt faced as tedious and inconsequential. But this is a highly subjective opinion, and you could love this amount of detail. Just something to keep in mind.

One thing that the reader must also consider is how Morris writes his books without much context. He will often write about people involved in Roosevelt's life, going as far as to poetically describe their physical characteristics, but then he will become excessively vague when describing historical events. For an example of domestic policy, take the slums and poverty of the urban poor in New Work during the 1800's. Morris will not describe for you how these people lived these conditions beyond a sentence or two, instead focusing on how this pertains to Roosevelt. Another example when it comes to foreign policy is the United States interest in the Philippines and Cuba. If the reader does not know that the US is interested in these countries, then they will not learn why through Morris' book. They are simply introduced to show how Roosevelt felt about the rising conflict and little else.

Another element to consider is the readability of this text. It was published in the 70's and the language feels like it, with terms that the reader may not recognize, leading to the cadence and language creating awkward sentences, sometimes making it difficult to read. As a word to the wise, I suggest having a dictionary beside you as you read, just in case.

Despite my reservations, I think that this is text that you should explore if you want a well detailed account of Theodore Roosevelt's early life. The issues that I had with this book are far outweighed by its display of Roosevelt's early character that shows the President he would become. I give it a four out of five.

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This book was awesome! I have to admit that I was not able to finish it before it had to go back to the library, but don't let that hold you back from reading this. It was simply too long, and I had to many other commitments to finish it before it had to go back. I will end up buying this book and finishing it at a later date.

This text was simply amazing! Morris has the ability to write history as though you are reading a story, which is something that I have seen very few people be able to do. Perhaps this is because he has such a great man to work off of. Teddy Roosevelt was a man who did everything under the sun and then some, in terms of either a passion or a career. He was a man who could be at home both in a library studying and out in the Forrest studying birds. He was a governor, and a police officer, and eventually a US President.

Morris' work allows the reader to explore Teddy's life with ease. He has a way of writing that made me not even think that I was reading non-fiction. I can totally understand who this book has gotten onto so many Award lists. It is simply amazing. I will be buying this book, and the other's in the series. If you want a complete picture of TR, then there is no other biography I can suggest. I give it a high five out of five.