Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life

by Kathleen Dalton

He inherited a sense of entitlement (and obligation) from his family, yet eventually came to see his own class as suspect. He was famously militaristic, yet brokered peace between Russia and Japan. He started out an archconservative, yet came to champion progressive causes. These contradictions are not evidence of vacillating weakness: instead, they were the product of a restless mind bend on a continuous quest for self-improvement.

In Theodore Roosevelt, historian Kathleen Dalton reveals a man with a personal and intellectual depth rarely seen in our public figures. She shows how Roosevelt’s struggle to overcome his frailties as a child helped to build his character, and offers new insights into his family life, uncovering the important role that Roosevelt’s second wife, Edith Carow, played in the development of his political career. She also shows how TR flirted with progressive reform and then finally commited himself to deep reform in the Bull Moose campaign of 1912. Incorporating the latest scholarship into a vigorous narrative, Dalton reinterprets both the man and his times to create an illuminating portrait that will change the way we see this great man and the Progressive Era.

Genres: Biography, History, Presidents, Nonfiction, American History, Biography Memoir, Historical

752 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://bestpresidentialbios.com/2015/...

One of the most recent comprehensive, single-volume biographies of TR is Kathleen Dalton’s 2002 “Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life.” Dalton is a history instructor at Phillips Academy at Andover and focuses on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. She is currently working on “The White Lilies and the Iron Boot” about Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt.

Unlike most TR biographies, Dalton’s book neither embraces the notion of Roosevelt as a larger-than-life hero nor endlessly castigates him for his many faults. And in the book’s Introduction Dalton makes it clear she intends to avoid placing her subject on the pedestal built up by earlier historians (with the assistance of Roosevelt’s autobiographical exaggerations) in an effort to find the “real TR.”

But in the process of eschewing the trend toward hero-worship, Dalton leaves nearly every dramatic, colorful story of Roosevelt on the cutting room floor. TR’s life, of course, was one of extremes. And without these anecdotes her biography ultimately proves bland and unsatisfying – particularly surprising given how exuberant and spirited her subject was.

Dalton also fails to exhibit a flair for storytelling. Her biographical approach involves seemingly exhaustive research combined with an austere writing style. Historians may appreciate the lack of gratuitous drama but most fans of presidential biographies will miss the imagery which places them in the thick of the action. In addition, many significant scene- and character-establishing details are missing or rushed past.

TR’s failed attempt to become speaker of the New York State Assembly (an early setback which taught him much about politics) is barely mentioned, almost no introduction is provided to America’s military conflict with Spain in 1898 and the Rough Rider’s life-defining (if foolish) actions at San Juan and Kettle hills are almost entirely ignored. In addition, Roosevelt’s complex attitude toward the vice presidency and the political drama surrounding his selection as McKinley’s running mate are almost entirely unexamined.

Individually, any of these events can be overlooked without losing full sight of Roosevelt. But so many are missing or rushed past that the resulting portrait of Roosevelt is undeservedly gray and lifeless. Ironically, despite Dalton’s efficiency in coverage TR’s life the book still weighs in at 524 pages; by the end, one wonders what could have consumed that much space.

“A Strenuous Life” does have much to offer, however. Dalton does an admirable job examining TR’s family relationships during his childhood, she provides a fascinating character analysis of his oldest daughter and her review of Roosevelt’s post-presidential journey along the River of Doubt is engrossing. But of particular merit is a unique chapter (Saving “Our Own National Soul”) analyzing Roosevelt’s ethical and moral vision for the country.

Overall, Kathleen Dalton’s “Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life” provides an occasionally interesting and often incredibly balanced perspective of our twenty-sixth president. But while the text is infused with observations of Roosevelt I have not seen elsewhere, far too much is left out of the discussion. And in an effort to reveal the real TR rather than the caricature, this biography fully reveals neither.

Overall rating: 3½ stars

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thorough book about a very interesting subject. TR was very much a self-starting person who refused to quit at anything (politics, travel, his own health, the direction of his family). He is admirable in many ways, but I was surprised at how bigoted and misogynistic he could be (only partly a product of the time period). He believed Africans and Native Americans were savages and the US was better off without them. He also believed women belonged in the house and were immoral and unpatriotic if they didn't have as many children as possible. I guess all heroes have feet of clay, right?

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

It can be incredibly dry. Only 529 of the 700+ pages are text excluding sources, notes, and index. I am incredibly intrigued by Roosevelt. Without suffering through a 3 book biography, I would say that this is the most thorough one volume book on the president. It was wordy... Sometimes too wordy. I'm not looking for cliff notes, but let's cut it down a bit. Some may quickly lose interest (*cough* me on several occasions).

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Strenuous' is an apt descriptor for Theodore Roosevelt and was a constant choice by him for his approach to life. The influence of early life experiences, particularly his asthma, and of his immediate family relationships, on all of his later life is shown along with his growth and change in emotional, social, political and spiritual areas of his life. I learned much about his major achievements as well as details about specific political machinations to accomplish them. I found this book fascinating.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theodore Roosevelt is one of those American presidents who will forever be written about as generations will reinterpret him once again. And because he's such a colorful character that people
love writing and reading about him.

This is not any kind of hagiography at all Roosevelt had some dangerous tendencies that some would
and do consider downright fascistic. He was also a progressive, slowly at times, but coming out on
the side of change and reform. He was from the upper classes, but had it imbued in him by his
beloved father that his wealth carried with him a responsibility to lead. Personal tragedy robbed him
of his parents and wife early on, his wife and mother dying within 24 hours of each other of typhoid
leaving a baby daughter. After Alice Hathaway Lee died, TR married Edith Kermit Carow a childhood
friend with whom he had six more kids.

TR took great pride in the fact that the Republican Party was the party that preserved the union and
freed the slaves was his party and the great force for reform. Democrats were the party of treason
and he felt that till the day he died. Yet if you gain no access to his private correspondence, but
-read the many books he authored, the self assured Anglo-Saxon sense of superiority comes through on every page. Civilization reached its finest flower with the English speaking peoples and
it was their destiny to run things. Immigrants some of them were of low character. Latin Americans are referred to as 'dagoes' constantly. His great achievement of his presidency the
Panama Canal was achieved by backing a revolution taking part of Colombia to form the Republic
of Panama. But note no American troops were used.

He was forever restless and he first comes to national attention during the Spanish-American War
leading the regiment of volunteer cavalry. TR's mastery of the media at the time was such that
there were more than one regiment in Cuba. But all you ever heard of was his Rough Riders. It
was no accident that humorist Finley Peter Dunne's Mr. Dooley said that TR's account of his exploits would be called 'Alone In Cubia". It gained him the GOP nomination for Governor of New
York and then when he proved too much for the GOP bosses in New York to handle, the Vice Presidency in 1900.

And the presidency in 1901 when William McKinley was assassinated. TR was the first president
who did not believe in using troops to settle strikes. One of his first challenges in the White House
was settling a nationwide coal strike through mediation. He was the first president to make conservation a major concern. He pushed for the Pure Food and Drug Act for fair railroad rates
when that was the mode of transportation for the nation's goods.

And for a man who was as militaristic as he was Roosevelt wins a Nobel Peace Prize for mediating
a peace conference to end the Russo-Japanese War. He was bellicose before and after his presidency, but quite responsible during it.

After he left the White House he was disappointed in his handpicked successor William Howard Taft
and felt his Republican Party was returning to maintaining laissez faire capitalism above all. It
had no sense of noblesse oblige to the lower classes. He ran and split the GOP vote with Taft and
elected Woodrow Wilson who on domestic issues shared some of TR's views.

In many ways I think and so does the author that his ex-presidency 1909-1919 was his darkest period. Military intervention that he never did while in the White House he was all for with Wilson
there. Wilson was a hated Democrat of the party of treason and rebellion. He wanted intervention
yesterday in World War 1. When it came he was for all kinds of censorship of dissent and hated
Wilson's League of Nations.

He also did a truly stupid thing. He went to Africa on safari immediately after leaving the White House and got reams of publicity for months from press dispatches. Coming through that OK
during the Wilson presidency he led an expedition into some unexplored Amazon country in Brazil
and came out of it with ruined health. Something that no weight challenged middle aged man should have done.

Still he had hopes of being the GOP candidate of 1920 so his sudden death left a vacuum in the reform elements of his party. A second TR presidency instead of the standpat presidency of Warren
Harding, etc. who knows.

There are as many interpretations of Theodore Roosevelt as there are books about him. This one is
most satisfactory.

[Riley Haas · Rating 3 out of 5]

At long last, I have finished this mammoth, exhaustive "one volume" biography of Theodore Roosevelt. Given the depth of this one, I have to wonder about the detail of multi-volume biographies. Anyway, why would I read such a thing? Well, I read this because TR is my dad's favourite president. I had mixed feelings about him and this biography has not helped me get rid of those mixed feelings.
So, this is an extremely detailed biography of Roosevelt. The level of detail is rather incredible and it's clearly a monumental undertaking. Each paragraph seemingly contains at least one fact, and often many more, and they're all methodically sourced. As scholarship, it's clearly an accomplishment. And if earlier biographies of Roosevelt missed parts of his life or misrepresented him in some way, then I guess this very well researched book is a welcome and necessary correction.
But I am just a guy who read this because his father likes TR, I am not a Roosevelt scholar nor am I a fan or someone who has read other books about him. For the layperson like me, it's hard to see the appeal. Because, though this book is obsessively documented, it is also mostly just "And then this happened, and then this happened" for over 500 pages. Dalton occasionally allows herself to reflect on his legacy, but only does that occasionally, and it's usually within the context of how we understand TR, or how TR's post-presidential radicalism was influential on FDR. There is very little analysis and when there is criticism, it is very muted. For example, one day TR got romantically or sexually frustrated and shot a dog! In the pre-Trump 21st century, this fact would have kept him from ever winning political office and yet, Dalton just drops it in there as if it's just something that happened, and doesn't deserve much thought. When evaluating the faults of his Presidency, there is a brief 2-page summary of things he could have handled (much!) better. Again, this book is over 500 pages long.
I am left feeling I know everything there is to know about TR's day-to-day life but with tons of questions about whether or not he was actually someone to be admired. I guess biography, in the pure sense, is supposed to give you the life story and allow you, the reader, to make your own conclusions, but I guess I'd rather read a book more concerned with TR's place in history. It's admirable that he is probably the most well-read president in US history. It's admirable that he changed his mind on many issues and became more radical as he aged, rather than what happens to many (most?) people. Some of the things he did as a politician - such as reforming the NYPD - appear to have been very good. On the other hand, he was extremely impulsive, quick to anger, an imperialist and nationalist, responsible (at least in part) for many deaths in the Philippines and an absolute blowhard. Had I been alive during WWI, I probably would have hated his guts. (His obsession with war got one of his children killed, too.) I understand that, among US presidents, he's probably one of the better ones, at least since the American empire came into existence (partially under his watch!) but he still was a very flawed man whose words were regularly far more high-minded than his actions.
Of course, all humans are complicated and contradictory. But if TR is your ideal president, it's worth thinking about whether or not there should be a presidency - if having one person in charge of a country (especially a large one) is actually sensible at all. Because if perhaps the most well-read and intellectually curious president in US history can be this flawed a person, perhaps there is no hope for any president to be "good" in the moral sense.
I think this book is for people who've read shorter biographies of TR and want to know more. It is not for anyone just wanting a summary or knowledge about his place in US history.

[Vanina Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lol I read this for my job

[suz]

rip teddy roosevelet, you would have hated male influencers and get ready with me vlogs

[Wouter Frencken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mooi boek over fascinerende en inspirerende man

[JC NoKey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Badass TR
1) Roosevelt learned to be a better hemispheric neighbor by the end of his presidency. He and Root worked to bolster the Central American justice system, to build a partnership with Mexico on regional peace initiatives, and to gain a place for Latin American representatives in international conferences. Roosevelt's diplomatic efforts behind the scenes to avert war between Brazil and Argentina over Uruguay may not have been the decisive factor in keeping the peace, but by the end of his second term many Latin American diplomats saw him more often as a peaceful partner than as a menacing imperialist. BUT… The contradiction in Roosevelt's approach to foreign policy was that his aggressive posture-"We want" it, and so "we take it"-stood side by side with his internationalist commitment to negotiate, arbitrate, and build lasting structures to promote peace. His motto "Speak softly and carry a big stick" honored both sides of his foreign policy legacy, using diplomacy and force to promote national interests.
2) The President's football safety conference did not stop gratuitous violence at a Harvard-Yale game later that fall, where players inflicted intentional injuries on each other. Roosevelt kept defending the value of football, but Eliot asserted that the game was not only excessively violent but made "cheating and brutality profitable. In response, Stanford, Berkeley, and Columbia abolished football, and Harvard also did so temporarily but only to force new rules of play —the addition of referees to stop brutality, a neutral zone at the line of scrimmage, and a ten-yard first-down rule, most of which were eventually adopted by other schools. At last, several groups of reformers put together an organization that later became the National College Athletic Association which, thanks to the President who loved football, made the game safer.
3) Wilson, TR declared, "has made up his mind that the bulk of our people care for nothing but money getting, and motors, and the movies, and dread nothing so much as risk to their soft bodies, or interference with their easy lives.
4) On Roosevelt leading an infantry division in ww1 (he was in no physical condition to do so) John L. Sullivan said that anyone who could not see the appeal of the Roosevelt Division "hadn't any soul."


Progressive Views
1) Young TR: As a young politician, he often favored capital over labor: he opposed legislating eight-hour workdays and bills prohibiting prisons from selling for profit the forced labor of their inmates. But legislation for the good of the family appealed to him. He railed against organized liquor interests and showed a precocious interest in moral reform. He also fought to restrict the growing power of saloons with licensing fees and regulation. It startled a lot of people when Theodore called on the state legislature to pass a law punishing wife beaters by whipping them in public; he was shocked by what he read about husbands' cruelty toward their wives. When he was satirized in the press for his speech about public whippings he held his ground, and confessed: "I felt very angry and could not help saying what I did.
2) nor could he stop lifelong Democrats like young Franklin D. Roosevelt from voting for TR. Franklin said that he voted for Eleanor's uncle because "I felt he was a better Democrat than the Democratic candidates.
3) Democratic means, however, required legislative consent. H. G. Wells thought TR sided with the forward-looking humanitarian movements of the day but could not harness reform energies while Congress was tied up in knots of its own making. The President's daily bursts of energy, however, were not sustained by the enduring patience and persistence he needed to keep working with Congress.


Trust
1) (NOT TR) Next, Harriman and Morgan sparked a Wall Street panic and ruined many investors over their fight for control of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and Morgan declared that he did not care about the larger economic consequences of his Wall Street dealings: "I owe the public nothing."
2) Stocks fell and Wall Street accused TR of acting like a financial Rough Rider. A fistfight broke out on the floor of the Senate over Roosevelt's trust-busting, and visitor after visitor tried to convince him he must relent. But he would not. When Roosevelt launched investigations and prosecutions against Northern Securities, and later the Beef Trust and the Sugar Trust, he crossed over into the populist territory Pulitzer and Hearst had claimed as defenders of the little people's interests against the monopolists. He also took up the anti-monopoly rhetoric of Bryan and modified it for his own war against economic privilege-cartoonists pictured TR waving "the big stick" against corporate giants. He knew the economic power of monopolies would not be crushed by a few anti-trust prosecutions, but he believed he had to stand up on behalf of the nation-state to defy men of great wealth. He later created the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department to make big business answer to the government on a regular basis. Even before the Supreme Court sustained him in using the Sherman Act to stop railroads from monopolizing regional transportation, railroads east and west dropped many of their pooling arrangements in order to avoid prosecution and bad publicity.?4
3) FDR’s famous quote about mob rule… wonder where it came from: "Everything is un-American that tends either to government by a plutocracy, or government by a mob."


Equality Under Law
1) Theodore began writing his senior thesis on "The Practicability of Equalizing Men and Women Before the Law," in which he asserted that "in an ideally perfect state of society strict justice would at once place both sexes on an equality," including equal rights of inheritance, the vote, and the right to go to law school.
2) In his important essay "True Americanism" he argued for "fair treatment" all people on America's shores, and he also tried to promote a new spirit of brotherhood among immigrants and old stock people. He wrote that if the country could build a "community of interest among our people," ethnic and racial differences would matter less and a true national spirit would replace hatred between groups. He eventually defined his belief in fair play between all groups as the Square Deal and insisted: "To me the question of doing away with all race and religious bigotry in this country" was the most urgent question in public life. But in the years ahead he might show the racialist or the egalitarian side of his divided heart, depending on his mood and the audience he sought to please.
3) He echoed Lincoln in a 1903 speech at a New York State Fair when he declared: "We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less."
" Roosevelt's Square Deal, the name he gave his domestic policies, came to symbolize a government that dealt fairly with every man, regardless of his wealth, creed color, or religion. He told Hay that Lincoln also influenced him "to try to be good natured and forebearing [sic] and to free myself from vindictiveness.
4) On his tour of Europe, Roosevelt praised true democracy and "equality of opportunity, and declared that "probably the best test of true love of liberty in any country is the way in which minorities are treated in that country."

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having previously ready both of Edmund Morris' books on Roosevelt I still found this books very intriguing. It was interesting to read a biography about someone many would consider the ultimate man's man written by a woman. Perhaps not surprisingly, Dalton chose to portray his entire life through the lens of gender. Normally I would have been completely turned off by that approach and dismissed her as a feminist self projecting the weight she places on her own gender role onto the rest of the world. While i don't deny the pressures of gender socialization I reject the notion that they are our primary motivations, but rather a piece of the puzzle given different weight by different individuals. But instead Dalton astonished me with her remarkable insight into the male psyche. Rather than dismissive i was impressed and able to relate to emotions that she projected onto TR which stem from male expectation. While I still believe there was more to the picture than this book puts forward, and i would still recommend Morris' books before this one, this is great supplemental reading (yes it's 800 pages) to get an alternate understanding that comes from a less idolized perspective.

[Davina · Rating 5 out of 5]

TR can be easily dismissed by modern sensibilities. Many of his beliefs have not withstood the test of time. It is notable that many, perhaps most, of those beliefs were commonly held prejudice of the time. The author does a good job of putting those beliefs in to context. What is most notable was TR's ability to be swayed by what he saw and what he learned. The TR on his deathbed was not the brash young man nor the sickly child. You can see some of the influence of the Bull Moose on another Roosevelt, FDR. I appreciate that with the lapse of time, this author has the ability, perhaps, to see TR more objectively than those writing to defend him or to damn him in the years following his death. As an aside, knowing more about TR makes Arsenic and Old Lace even more Bully!

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

T.R. and Lincoln are by far the most interesting Presidents I have read about so far.

[Gabriel Magill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know as I have ever read another biography where the writer seemed so unenthusiastic about their own subject. This attempt to show the "real" Teddy Roosevelt, stripped of the glamour and hero-worship so often given him falls utterly flat. Naked truths and bare facts are valuable approaches to writing about biology, astronomy, or mathematics. But to write about people and about history, understanding the ideals of the person is essential. When she talks about Roosevelts views of masculinity, morality, and faith, she does so with a condescending pat on the head for his quaint victorian ideas. It is almost as if she is telling her readers not to get too fond of this guy because he wasn't all that great. Then why write about him? The best biographies are those written by people who either truly connect with the ideals of the person they are writing about and hold them up as a champion, or else viemently oppose the person's ideals and holds them up as a cautionary tale. This book does neither, and leaves you feeling indifferent about one of the most fascinating and complex presidents America has ever seen. Instead of truly unpacking the man Roosevelt, the author spends more time psychoanalizing his family dynamics, reducing his priniciples and values to a series of family conditionings and trauma.

One redeeming quality to this book, however, is the thoroughness of the explinations of all Roosevelt had to juggle during his time as president. Dalton does an excellent job highlighting the numerous conflicting interests and landmark changes Roosevelt faught for during those years. I found that portion of the book quite fascinating. I give credit to Dalton’s thorough research in writing this book.

[Becca Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t know much about TR before this—mostly I had the popular notion of him a a moose-hunting, rough-riding, cowboy man, all of which is weirdly accurate, but not even close the the most interesting parts of his persona.

Teddy was a monopoly-busting, union supporting, suffragist with a socialist program for every man, woman, and child in America. He had some big missteps on racial equality, but by the end of his life, was an important proponent of black political involvement--at a time when Jim Crow was practically government sanctioned. While he supported women's suffrage and counted so many women as important advisors, he also had rigid ideas about gender roles-- especially motherhood and physical masculinity. He was complicated, like people tend to be.

I especially loved the parts about TR’s conservation efforts. That man loved a good bird; he described himself as a “small ornithological boy” well into his middle age. There’s a lovely antidote about him engaging in a public scientific debate about the taxonomy of coyotes, while busy establishing himself as a political force in New York State. Another about raising his grandbabies up to pet the "buppies" (his impressive taxidermy mount collection) night night before bedtime at Sagamore Hill.

This is a good even look at his life, his faults, his successes, his unique personal brand. Would have liked more information about his dogs (i like to know what kind of dogs a person likes)

[Kristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

From before, I had an image of Teddy as this chauvinistic testosterone berg of a man, which this book proves. What it also does do is portray him well, both good and bad, progressive and conservative, believing both that women are suited best to motherhood and needs protected, and that they are suited well for statesmanship and deserve suffrage. That the white race, and in particular the Anglo white race is superior, yet that many coloured people are good people, and deserve to be treated justly and have a fair chance. Before this book, I viewed him as an ostentatious and high handed brute of a man, which he was, yet he used that to his best ability to better America for all Americans.

Before I read this book, my favourite American president was FDR. He is now tied with his distant cousin and uncle-in-law, the bull moose himself.

May we see his like again.

[Neil White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theodore Roosevelt constructed his life and image in a way that still resonates with many today. He is a complicated figure who came from a very wealthy family but also with a 'muscular Christianity' that considered care for the less fortunate very important. His strenous life was his own attempt to construct an identity for himself and a model for what his hopes for the nation were. He was involved in America's attempts at imperialism, but also deeply committed to conservation. Kathleen Dalton does a good job of showing the complexity of Roosevelt and his evolution on a number of issues from suffrage to race relations to America's role in the world. An interesting look at Roosevelt as a man and the world he inhabited.

[Austin Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one came highly recommended by the Theodore Roosevelt Center as the most comprehensive single-volume biography, and I get why. It may not get into the weeds of military maneuvers, but it does a fantastic job of going beyond the rough and tumble public image and shows a man who was perpetually conflicted by the social and personal requirements of a white, upper-class man at the turn of the century. This is not a glowing biography, but Dalton does give credit to TR as a man who was (occasionally) capable of reflection and growth, and who was (occasionally) capable of grappling with big, unmanly emotions and concerns. It's one of the more "human" biographies I've read in a while. Strongly recommended.

[Joseph J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE BEST one volume biography of T.R. as a political leader and a husband, dad, family man. Kathleen Dalton draws upon previously unknown or placed aside letters to craft a rip roaring account of T.R.'s devotion to wife Edith and his energetic brood of children, as a backdrop to his exhaustive and energetic life as a politician leader, an author and explorer. Extending his energies and pursuits to demands on his sons created challenges and problems. Well written, thoroughly researched and colorfully written. I re read this book to mark the July anniversary of son Quentin's World War I death as an early aviator.

[Jared Osborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great and strenuous read into the life of American president Theodore Roosevelt. Although arduous in length (500+pages and 250+ additional in notes), it was an easy read that gives in sight into the life, family, personality, and views of a man who faced challenges by self improvement of the body, mind and soul.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was much about TR and his life and times that I learned by reading this book. I think if TR were to come back to the world, 100+ years after his death, he would be appalled by the state of politics today, and the overall lack of manliness in America's male youths. He might, however, be very impressed by how far women have come in the latter part of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

[Alec Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive and lucid, Dalton tells the Roosevelt tale, warts and all. She shares her own views and is unafraid of rendering conclusions that her reader may not always agree with, but are always consistent with the evidence. A fine place to delve into one of history's most charismatic and complex characters.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

a thorough and entertaining biography of an American hero that delves deep in an attempt to separate the myth from the man. My favorite president's life is presented, flaws and all, as the larger than life personality was bull-headed but never completely set in his ways and often willing to learn when presented with new information and experiences.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a hard time reading it and finally gave up. It was decently written but Theodore Roosevelt was anything but inspiring, the more I learned about him the less I thought of him. It is amazing to me what kind of individuals become US presidents.

[Jenny.p · Rating 4 out of 5]

They say this is the "best one-volume" TR biography. And they might be right. I find her writing and storytelling somewhat meandering, which often frustrated me. But, Dalton evokes a new and sympathetic point of view on some of the touchy topics that I appreciated.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Great book that details the life of Theodore Roosevelt, who at least to me, is one of the more upstanding Presidents that the USA has had. Dalton goes to great lengths to provide reputable sources, and while the book is long, it is well worth the read.

[Matthew Shoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid 1 volume biography of TR. This one isn't all gushing adventure story; the author covers TRs faults alongside his triumphs and keeps her criticisms fair and tempered. Being reminded Teddy was human makes me admire him no less.

[James West · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but short. I hope by the time my course is run the mine is a Strenuous life!!

[Andrew York · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book. Nice supplement to the other Roosevelt books, but the Morris trilogy will always be the gold standard for me

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

So dense, it felt like it took forever, but a great read.