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Overall Summary
McCullough’s book, Mornings on Horseback, is one of many biographies about Theodore Roosevelt Jr. McCullough wrote the book because he felt that recent leaders in America lacked important characteristics that Teddy had.
A biography of Roosevelt reveals that he was exuberant, uncomplaining and self-confident. In addition to those qualities, the author also focuses on his early life to reveal what helped him become a successful president.
No book about Theodore Roosevelt Jr. can be complete without a thorough examination of the history of his family, which goes back to the mid-seventeenth century. The author shares pertinent details about that history and describes Theodore Roosevelt Sr. as a man committed to charity and civic pursuits while maintaining an air of sophistication and strength.
Theodore Sr. was a great man, and his son thought highly of him. This inspired Theodore Jr., who became an outstanding statesman and president himself. Roosevelt Sr.’s influence on the family was so profound that he earned the nickname “Greatheart,” which reflects his fearlessness and energy in both public and private life.
The author gives equal attention to Theodore’s maternal family. The influence of his mother, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, was as significant as that of his father. She had a great deal to do with who he became and how he behaved. As Geoffrey C. Ward puts it: “Teddy was much more like the Bullochs than the Roosevelts in his flamboyance, humor, love for heroics and derring-do.”
McCullough goes a little deeper into Mittie’s life, focusing on her childhood in Georgia and the many misadventures of her half-brother. He tries to paint a complete picture of some influences that shaped Theodore Roosevelt Jr.’s worldview.
The author also describes the toll that Civil War took on the Roosevelt marriage. The Roosevelts were a very political family, and different views caused a lot of conflict within the family. For example, Theodore’s father was a Lincoln Republican, while his mother supported her family’s cause (the Confederates). She even secretly made care packages for Confederate soldiers without her husband knowing about it.
After witnessing his father’s regret about not fighting in the Civil War, Theodore Roosevelt Sr. decided to hire someone to fight for him and did not personally get involved with the war.
The author also describes Theodore’s relationships with his siblings. He was the first boy born into the family and suffered from asthma. His sister, Anna, or “Bamie,” was her father’s favorite child. The third sibling was Elliot Roosevelt, who suffered from asthma as well. Corinne, the youngest of the four children in this family, also had asthma like her older brother but to a lesser degree than him.
This book is about the journey of Theodore Roosevelt from a sickly child to one of America’s most prominent political figures. This story begins in the late 1860s and ends with his second marriage in 1884, when he began focusing on public service. The author writes this book as if it were an intimate portrait of a former president, which makes it quite unique among biographies.
