Book Review - The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

Author: Edmun Morris

This was my first autobiography so it caught me off guard at how much entrigue could be built up for one real person’s life. Reading about the death of Alice and his mother was comparable to a season finale. It took me another 100 page bing to fall asleep and by that point I was captivated by the moves with Edith. A true testiment to the writing of Morris.

Yet I couldn’t help but shake the idea that a first graders report on the former President wouldn’t excite me. Reading about his life was exhausting, every moment of downtime was filled with some major endeavor. Finishing major accomplishments, that were worthy life long goals themselves, as if they were his morning errands. Reading a classic novel inbetween campaign stops or writing a history book as a break from studying law. Climbing the Matterhorn on your honeymoon? Despite reading a book which I knew the ending to, TR comes across as such a gravitational figure that he bent history to his own will.

Morris attempts to put TR into perspective in such a way that he wasn’t “just some rich guy”, yet the reality that TR never really struggled suggests that he had many benefits others did not. Again though his charisma makes me think he would have been welcome anywhere even if his statue was lower?

On a personal level I’m envious of a world of such lawlessness and extravigence that a person could travel west to claim land to build a cabin for themselves and then turn around to go back east for a social ball on the weekends. Digging deeper I think i’m even more envious of being such a master of chaos. Juggling all these commitments while living out of bags on the road I know first had I would struggle to balance or not burn out. TR goes west to maintain his ranch after a destructive snowstorm, while still writing letters to friends, orchestrating campaigns for office, maintaining a second home out east, and keeping up on his personal development. After an eight hour day I can barely muster the strength to respond to a text or finish thrity minutes of flooring work.