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The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is a biography written by Edmund Morris. It details the early years of his life until he became president. It was first published in 1979 and received the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, as well as the National Book Award for Biography (Hardcover). He also wrote biographies on Ronald Reagan, who once served him as an authorized biographer. He’s also a prolific travel and arts writer for publications such as The New Yorker.
Morris describes Roosevelt’s childhood in detail. He was born to Mittie and Theodore Roosevelt, his second child. He suffered from asthma which embarrassed his father who wanted him to be strong like other boys. His doctors suggested he spend a lot of time outdoors, but this didn’t satisfy Theodore Senior who installed a home gym for him so that he could strengthen himself up.
Roosevelt is naturally curious and loves to learn new things. He’s self-motivated and studies as many books in his father’s library as he can. Although he’s home-schooled, he was accepted into Harvard University at just 17 years old. He studied law and natural history, both of which he excelled at. His friends say that Roosevelt always chose who to spend time with very carefully—he didn’t believe everyone at Harvard was worthy of his time or energy. When not studying, Roosevelt would spend time with select people but everyone noticed how much effort Roosevelt put into everything he did.
Roosevelt loved learning about nature from an early age; this passion led him to pursue a career in the military where his knowledge could be used to protect America’s wildlife resources.
Roosevelt is saddened to learn that his father has died. He’s happy because he never disappointed his family, which keeps him focused on schoolwork. Roosevelt studies naval warfare and learns lessons that will apply to foreign policy as President.
It is around this time when he notices a fellow student, Alice Lee. He doesn’t want to seduce her so soon after his father’s death, but he does love her. When natural history studies demand that he move abroad for a few years, instead of studying law and politics as well, which would let him stay close to Alice, he decides to narrow his studies in just law and politics.
Once married, Roosevelt and Alice leave New York City for Washington D.C., where he studies at Columbia University School of Law. He decides to take politics more seriously, but the men are unimpressed with him because he’s young and polished. They say that he doesn’t know anything about the world yet, so it’s too early for him to have a spirit for politics. However, Roosevelt reacts passionately by saying that they don’t understand his passion or commitment to change things in government through political action.
Roosevelt is not impressed with the current state of politics. He thinks it’s full of hypocrisy, corruption and ignorance. Furthermore, he has a lot of knowledge on many different topics. His passion helps him get promoted to speaker of the House by the Republicans.
The country is excited about this young, new candidate. He has the potential to become President and he’s very popular. However, he’s not taking these predictions too seriously because he believes that US law is irrational and doesn’t make sense.
Meanwhile, Roosevelt’s personal life falls apart. He loses his mother to illness and Alice to childbirth within a very short space of time. After that, he becomes obsessed with his work and throws himself into exposing government corruption until he gets elected Republican party leader.
