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Forging a President: How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt
"There are few sensations I prefer to that of galloping over these rolling limitless prairies, with rifle in hand, or winding my way among the barren, fantastic and grimly picturesque deserts of the so-called Bad Lands." —Theodore Roosevelt
He was born a city boy in Manhattan; but it wasn't until he lived as a cattle rancher and deputy sheriff in the wild country of the Dakota Territory that Theodore Roosevelt became the man who would be president. "I have always said I would not have been president had it not been for my experience in North Dakota," Roosevelt later wrote. It was in the "grim fairyland" of the Bad Lands that Roosevelt became acquainted with the ways of cowboys, Native Americans, trappers, thieves, and wild creatures--and it was there that his spirit was forged and tested.
In Forging a President, author William Hazelgrove uses Roosevelt's own reflections to immerse readers in the formative seasons that America's twenty-sixth president spent in "the broken country" of the Wild West.
He was born a city boy in Manhattan; but it wasn't until he lived as a cattle rancher and deputy sheriff in the wild country of the Dakota Territory that Theodore Roosevelt became the man who would be president. "I have always said I would not have been president had it not been for my experience in North Dakota," Roosevelt later wrote. It was in the "grim fairyland" of the Bad Lands that Roosevelt became acquainted with the ways of cowboys, Native Americans, trappers, thieves, and wild creatures--and it was there that his spirit was forged and tested.
In Forging a President, author William Hazelgrove uses Roosevelt's own reflections to immerse readers in the formative seasons that America's twenty-sixth president spent in "the broken country" of the Wild West.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2017
6 people are currently reading
679 people want to read
About the author
William Elliott azelgrove
22 books203 followers"An absolutely riveting story as only William Hazelgrove can write."
Janet Parshall The Janet Parshall Show Moody Radio
AS FEATURED ON JANET PARSHALL SHOW ON MOODY RADIO Propelled by idealism and determination, Jay and Lauren set out to cycle around the world. Believing in the essential goodness of humanity, the couple find kindness and hospitality while slogging through desert sand in Namibia, fleeing an enraged elephant in Botswana, and enduring freezing rain in Spain. William Elliott Hazelgrove's gripping account, reminiscent of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, chronicles Jay and Lauren's epic journey toward an encounter with terrorists who decide that slaughtering these youthful seekers will serve ISIS's cause.” ―Doug Kari, author of The Berman Murders
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW OF EVIL ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD
Novelist and historian Hazelgrove (Hemingway's Attic) recounts the fate of American cyclists Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin, who were slain by terrorists in Tajikistan in 2018, in this chilling true crime tale. Drawing from the couple's blog and interviews with their friends and family, Hazelgrove portrays Jay as a charismatic idealist who convinced Lauren to give up her job to follow him on a four-year bike trip around the globe, beginning in South Africa and ending in South America. In Africa, they faced charging elephants, flies, and malaria; in Europe, they dealt with suspicious officials and a few gnarly crashes. Still, they pushed forward for two years, winding up in Central Asia's Pamir Mountains (nicknamed the "Roof of the World"). In Tajikistan, a group of young men radicalized by ISIS stalked and ambushed the couple after encountering them on a highway; four were then killed by local police, while the ringleader died in an American prison. Hazelgrove's prose is utilitarian ("Jay and Lauren ride on into Botswana, which proves to be flat, arid, wild, and hot"), letting the facts of the case carry the narrative forward. For the most part, the approach pays off, lending the account an unsettling air. Readers will be aghast.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW OF DEAD AIR THE NIGHT ORSON WELLES TERRIFIED AMERICA 8/8/24
RELEASE OCT 30 2024
In this fine-grained account, historian Hazelgrove (Writing Gatsby) chronicles the mass hysteria that accompanied Orson Welles’s infamous 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. Hazelgrove presents Welles as an actor of immense ambition and preternatural talent, noting that by age 22, he had put on headline-grabbing plays (the government shut down his 1937 production of The Cradle Will Rock, fearing its pro-labor themes would be incendiary) and traveled around New York City in a faux ambulance to move more quickly between his numerous radio and theatrical commitments. The author recounts the rushed scriptwriting process for War of the Worlds and offers a play-by-play of the broadcast, but he lavishes the most attention on the havoc Welles wreaked. Contemporaneous news accounts reported college students fighting to telephone their parents, diners rushing out of restaurants without paying their bills, families fleeing to nearby mountains to escape the aliens’ poisonous gas, and even one woman’s attempted suicide. Hazelgrove largely brushes aside contemporary scholarship questioning whether the hysteria’s scope matched the sensational news reports, but he persuasively shows how the incident reignited elitist fears that “Americans were essentially gullible morons” and earned Welles the national recognition he’d yearned for. It’s a rollicking portrait of a director on the cusp of greatness. (Nov.)
WGN CHICAGO INTERVIEW ON WRITING GATSBY https://wgnradio.com/after-hours-with...
WRITING GATSBY THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE WRITING OF THE GREATEST AMERICAN NOVEL
TRAILER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIewK...
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT ON 160 MINUTES THE RACE TO SAVE THE RM
Janet Parshall The Janet Parshall Show Moody Radio
AS FEATURED ON JANET PARSHALL SHOW ON MOODY RADIO Propelled by idealism and determination, Jay and Lauren set out to cycle around the world. Believing in the essential goodness of humanity, the couple find kindness and hospitality while slogging through desert sand in Namibia, fleeing an enraged elephant in Botswana, and enduring freezing rain in Spain. William Elliott Hazelgrove's gripping account, reminiscent of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, chronicles Jay and Lauren's epic journey toward an encounter with terrorists who decide that slaughtering these youthful seekers will serve ISIS's cause.” ―Doug Kari, author of The Berman Murders
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW OF EVIL ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD
Novelist and historian Hazelgrove (Hemingway's Attic) recounts the fate of American cyclists Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin, who were slain by terrorists in Tajikistan in 2018, in this chilling true crime tale. Drawing from the couple's blog and interviews with their friends and family, Hazelgrove portrays Jay as a charismatic idealist who convinced Lauren to give up her job to follow him on a four-year bike trip around the globe, beginning in South Africa and ending in South America. In Africa, they faced charging elephants, flies, and malaria; in Europe, they dealt with suspicious officials and a few gnarly crashes. Still, they pushed forward for two years, winding up in Central Asia's Pamir Mountains (nicknamed the "Roof of the World"). In Tajikistan, a group of young men radicalized by ISIS stalked and ambushed the couple after encountering them on a highway; four were then killed by local police, while the ringleader died in an American prison. Hazelgrove's prose is utilitarian ("Jay and Lauren ride on into Botswana, which proves to be flat, arid, wild, and hot"), letting the facts of the case carry the narrative forward. For the most part, the approach pays off, lending the account an unsettling air. Readers will be aghast.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW OF DEAD AIR THE NIGHT ORSON WELLES TERRIFIED AMERICA 8/8/24
RELEASE OCT 30 2024
In this fine-grained account, historian Hazelgrove (Writing Gatsby) chronicles the mass hysteria that accompanied Orson Welles’s infamous 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. Hazelgrove presents Welles as an actor of immense ambition and preternatural talent, noting that by age 22, he had put on headline-grabbing plays (the government shut down his 1937 production of The Cradle Will Rock, fearing its pro-labor themes would be incendiary) and traveled around New York City in a faux ambulance to move more quickly between his numerous radio and theatrical commitments. The author recounts the rushed scriptwriting process for War of the Worlds and offers a play-by-play of the broadcast, but he lavishes the most attention on the havoc Welles wreaked. Contemporaneous news accounts reported college students fighting to telephone their parents, diners rushing out of restaurants without paying their bills, families fleeing to nearby mountains to escape the aliens’ poisonous gas, and even one woman’s attempted suicide. Hazelgrove largely brushes aside contemporary scholarship questioning whether the hysteria’s scope matched the sensational news reports, but he persuasively shows how the incident reignited elitist fears that “Americans were essentially gullible morons” and earned Welles the national recognition he’d yearned for. It’s a rollicking portrait of a director on the cusp of greatness. (Nov.)
WGN CHICAGO INTERVIEW ON WRITING GATSBY https://wgnradio.com/after-hours-with...
WRITING GATSBY THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE WRITING OF THE GREATEST AMERICAN NOVEL
TRAILER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIewK...
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT ON 160 MINUTES THE RACE TO SAVE THE RM
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 28, 2017
Another absorbing, engagingly-written historical account, this one involving our 25th U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, by William Elliott Hazelgrove --- an author I have come to count on for creatively written and well researched biographic details. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book - Forging a President: How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt because it is filled with events that are retold from a reader's viewpoint - within the framework of engrossing anecdotes, verifiable quotations and the vantage point of hindsight analysis.
It is the tale of how a scrawny, asthmatic grief-stricken “dude” from the east went west into the Dakota badlands and remade himself into the virile, energetic legendary hunter, frontiersman and cattle rancher following the sudden deaths of his mother, his first wife Alice, and the subsequent collapse of his political career. Traits molded in the closing years of America's “wild west” served TR well when – as “that cowboy president” - he became a strike negotiator, trust buster, national park conservationist, Rough Rider, Nobel Prize winner, and inaugurator of the Panama Canal.
Hazelgrove is a fantastic writer of creative non-fiction, particularly biography, and this book is about a very remarkable man. Be sure to put it on your reading list.
Thanks to the author for the complimentary electronic review copy!
It is the tale of how a scrawny, asthmatic grief-stricken “dude” from the east went west into the Dakota badlands and remade himself into the virile, energetic legendary hunter, frontiersman and cattle rancher following the sudden deaths of his mother, his first wife Alice, and the subsequent collapse of his political career. Traits molded in the closing years of America's “wild west” served TR well when – as “that cowboy president” - he became a strike negotiator, trust buster, national park conservationist, Rough Rider, Nobel Prize winner, and inaugurator of the Panama Canal.
Hazelgrove is a fantastic writer of creative non-fiction, particularly biography, and this book is about a very remarkable man. Be sure to put it on your reading list.
Thanks to the author for the complimentary electronic review copy!
June 22, 2017
A very sickly, asthmatic child, many people believed that Theodore Roosevelt would never live to adulthood. Growing up in a time when there was little in the way of treatments for his respiratory ailments, his father would hitch up a buggy, drive the team as fast as possible and have young Theodore put his head into the wind so that air would be forced into his lungs.
Yet, survive to adulthood he did, only to have his wife and mother die within a few hours of each other. A semi-broken man, he handed his daughter over to a relative and left political life for the last vestiges of the frontier in what was then the Dakota Territory. It was indeed a wild time with no law other than what one could make for themselves, an environment where only the strong survived.
In many ways harboring what we would now describe as a “death wish,” Roosevelt went out there and literally faced down murderous men and Native Americans, operated outdoors in the most horrific of weather conditions and was a true cowboy, working on and owning a cattle ranch. Often mistaken for a soft gentleman from the east due to his looks and educated speech, Roosevelt never hesitated to stand his ground. There were many times when he could easily have become just another largely anonymous death in the savage land of the Dakotas in the 1880’s.
This book is a great adventure tale of the actions of Theodore Roosevelt during this period of his life. So much of the western genre of entertainment is exaggerated for effect, in this case, it all really happened. Wild rides during a stampede, getting down off his horse and taking aim at one of the members of a band of Native Americans in a time when both sides hunted down and killed members of the other, acting as a lawman in tracking down thieves, punching out a man threatening him and enduring desert heat and Arctic cold. Properly done, it would be a great movie.
In terms of overall activity, Theodore Roosevelt was the most accomplished president of the United States. He was a soldier on the ground in war, personally hearing the bullets flying about him, he served in many different political offices. His achievements as president are significant, he created the national conservation movement and was the author of 47 books covering a wide range of topics.
This is the story of how this extraordinary man barely escaped death many times and was turned into the man with the grit to become an effective president from a man that openly expressed his desire to die.
Yet, survive to adulthood he did, only to have his wife and mother die within a few hours of each other. A semi-broken man, he handed his daughter over to a relative and left political life for the last vestiges of the frontier in what was then the Dakota Territory. It was indeed a wild time with no law other than what one could make for themselves, an environment where only the strong survived.
In many ways harboring what we would now describe as a “death wish,” Roosevelt went out there and literally faced down murderous men and Native Americans, operated outdoors in the most horrific of weather conditions and was a true cowboy, working on and owning a cattle ranch. Often mistaken for a soft gentleman from the east due to his looks and educated speech, Roosevelt never hesitated to stand his ground. There were many times when he could easily have become just another largely anonymous death in the savage land of the Dakotas in the 1880’s.
This book is a great adventure tale of the actions of Theodore Roosevelt during this period of his life. So much of the western genre of entertainment is exaggerated for effect, in this case, it all really happened. Wild rides during a stampede, getting down off his horse and taking aim at one of the members of a band of Native Americans in a time when both sides hunted down and killed members of the other, acting as a lawman in tracking down thieves, punching out a man threatening him and enduring desert heat and Arctic cold. Properly done, it would be a great movie.
In terms of overall activity, Theodore Roosevelt was the most accomplished president of the United States. He was a soldier on the ground in war, personally hearing the bullets flying about him, he served in many different political offices. His achievements as president are significant, he created the national conservation movement and was the author of 47 books covering a wide range of topics.
This is the story of how this extraordinary man barely escaped death many times and was turned into the man with the grit to become an effective president from a man that openly expressed his desire to die.
June 7, 2017
Mr. Hazelgrove has written a very enjoyable and interesting story about the 25th President of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt was a very sick and weak asthmatic young man who discovered he had to get strong to overcome his physical condition. After losing his mother and wife in less then twelve hours he had to move on. Not something easy to do for such a young man but he did not give up and with the collapse of his political career he moved forward.
He dreamed of becoming a cowboy and being able to kill a buffalo He also decided to invest some of the money his dad had left him and purchased cattle which he had someone take care of for him. Mr. Roosevelt overcame many obstacles and this book will show you what a remarkable and dedicated man who later became President was.
He dreamed of becoming a cowboy and being able to kill a buffalo He also decided to invest some of the money his dad had left him and purchased cattle which he had someone take care of for him. Mr. Roosevelt overcame many obstacles and this book will show you what a remarkable and dedicated man who later became President was.
May 13, 2018
A focus on Teddy Roosevelt's molding from a lost, grieving, hypochondrial, to the dynamo he became as our 26th President. And a remarkable transition it was. Without it he would in most certainty not have become that. William Hazelgrove paints a fairly captivating narrative of this transition and all it entailed in the forging grounds of the Dakota Badlands.
Roosevelt is shown for the man of the times in a final chapter of what wthe still the wild west. Remarkably he had what it took to survive and actually thrive in a rough and tough environ that would have broken most other men, and in many cases did. Yet despite the challenges he squared off against in a sense he ended up shaping this same hostile land to get what he needed from it. And that was, to become the man he became.
Roosevelt is shown for the man of the times in a final chapter of what wthe still the wild west. Remarkably he had what it took to survive and actually thrive in a rough and tough environ that would have broken most other men, and in many cases did. Yet despite the challenges he squared off against in a sense he ended up shaping this same hostile land to get what he needed from it. And that was, to become the man he became.
June 20, 2024
This is a very engaging read about TR’s time in the Dakotas. I had read “The Bully Pulpit” by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and was really intrigued by her interpretation of TR’s time as a logger or cattle rancher, and that he retreated to these spaces as a way to overcome grief. If you are looking for a deep dive into this particular time in TR’s life, I would recommend this book. It is well written and very interesting.
May 21, 2020
Feels a bit like a western that happens to be about Teddy Roosevelt. I really enjoyed it, but felt parts of it were extremely repetitive. It could have done without the numerous reminders that this man would one day be president of the United States.
May 25, 2017
Teddy was an a-hole.
May 25, 2024
Very insightful into a little known time period of Teddy Roosevelt's life.
April 23, 2017
MY THOUGHTS
Circumstances can change a person for the good or the bad. This is what happened to Teddy Roosevelt. After the deaths of both his wife and mothers on the same day, Teddy Roosevelt set off for the Dakota Territory even though he was a sick young man, devastated by the deaths of his loved ones. This journey is what changed this sick man into one of the world's greatest men. He spent three years there. He got there right before 1890. That is when the West was officially declared closed. After those three years he returned and was healthy, strong and strong willed, with determination that no one could stop. He went in search of peace, strength and the ability to go one and that he found and much more.
The author instills in the reader a picture of Teddy Roosevelt arriving out West, a down and out man and as time went on he grew strong. The details of the scenery and the characters puts in the reader's mind exactly how it was, as though you are there with Mr. Roosevelt as he traveled the Badlands. He had to gain strength to survive those circumstances. This man changed completely from a New York boy, knowing only city life to being in the Dakota Territory wilds as a rancher and also as a deputy. Quite a change! He got to know entirely different kinds of people anywhere from Indians, cowboys, thieves, good people and even the wild animals. This wasn't a place for a sick, down and out man but when he spent three years in the Badlands, he was a changed man. Teddy Roosevelt survived and went on the become our 26th President. He was a powerful man. It took strength and will power to overcome the heart break he endured. He overcame and became one of the strongest men to survive the West. This is what made Teddy Roosevelt, the President of the United States.
I received a copy of this book from the author and voluntarily decided to review it.
Circumstances can change a person for the good or the bad. This is what happened to Teddy Roosevelt. After the deaths of both his wife and mothers on the same day, Teddy Roosevelt set off for the Dakota Territory even though he was a sick young man, devastated by the deaths of his loved ones. This journey is what changed this sick man into one of the world's greatest men. He spent three years there. He got there right before 1890. That is when the West was officially declared closed. After those three years he returned and was healthy, strong and strong willed, with determination that no one could stop. He went in search of peace, strength and the ability to go one and that he found and much more.
The author instills in the reader a picture of Teddy Roosevelt arriving out West, a down and out man and as time went on he grew strong. The details of the scenery and the characters puts in the reader's mind exactly how it was, as though you are there with Mr. Roosevelt as he traveled the Badlands. He had to gain strength to survive those circumstances. This man changed completely from a New York boy, knowing only city life to being in the Dakota Territory wilds as a rancher and also as a deputy. Quite a change! He got to know entirely different kinds of people anywhere from Indians, cowboys, thieves, good people and even the wild animals. This wasn't a place for a sick, down and out man but when he spent three years in the Badlands, he was a changed man. Teddy Roosevelt survived and went on the become our 26th President. He was a powerful man. It took strength and will power to overcome the heart break he endured. He overcame and became one of the strongest men to survive the West. This is what made Teddy Roosevelt, the President of the United States.
I received a copy of this book from the author and voluntarily decided to review it.
Read
June 5, 2017I met this author at a bookstore and chatted books/history/writing. It didn't take much to convince me to read a new book on TR's western years and how they influenced his presidency. I enjoyed it and learned a lot I didn't know about Roosevelt's time in the west when he was young. It's an accessible 234-page work that stays focused on those lesser known and adventurous years of TR's life out west.
July 15, 2017
Started out good, but once it started jumping around I lost interest fast.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews