An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt Paperback – August 14, 2013

I am a fan of Teddy Roosevelt, but I was hoping for more from this autobiography. TR did write many other autobiographical books, and this one is primariily about his presidentcy. Really it is TR justifying his policies and actions during his presidency. Not really that many interesting stories about events that happened while in the White House. It is a useful reference for historians to understand TR's policies and his motivations for what he did as president. Not much value to the casual reader who wants to learn stories and events surrounding TR as president.

I was surprised that Roosevelt had accomplished so much. I did no know that he originally became president as vice president replacing a resident's dealth. He was very active. Very well read, multilingual, physically active, he even was a.cowboy for a while. He was very much a conservationist. In fact, he has been raised,in my opinion . As on of the best presidents and a real patriot. I have one warning, in writing his autobiograhy, he is at times wordy. But it was nevertheless very rewarding to read.

This is a good book written a hundred years ago, soon after the events took place. With some documents to help the author's memory, of course.Theodore Roosevelt held several executive offices(none legislative), and at his time, he was an epitome of honesty. FDR probably got his idea of the New Deal from him, TR introduced a 'Square Deal'. He really did not like business monopolies.As TR progresses from a local politician through a cowboy, police commissioner, governor to the president, he presents in this book more and more original documentation to support his points. They may have been necessary in 1913 when the book was finished, the are bit redundant in 2014, especially since many biographies were written of him during the past 100 years.I could not resist to watch Capra's 1944 film 'Arsenic and old Lace' where TR is turned into a lunatic digging Panama Canal in the basement of a Brooklyn apartment he shared with his two very murderous aunts...In other words, we have TR's head next to Washington's, Jefferson's and Lincoln's on Mount Rushmore and on the other hand he is shown as a lunatic.The book contains some opinions no longer consider acceptable - hunting big cats, for instance.In the last pages TR blasts the Democrat in the White House (Wilson) for 'fuzzy' thinking and I have to agree with him.I wonder whether TR was our first 'modern' president who actually introduced some traditions we are still struggling with.Recommended especially to 2014 Republicans - hundred years ago the were actually quite progressive...

This is one of the very finest of autobiographies. Theodore Roosevelt writes with style and elan. He thinks profoundly, and he presents his own moral views with great vigor. Some of passages reflecting his experiences as a rancher in North Dakota - whose range extended into Montana - would have been exciting to read even if included in collections of the most popular western fiction ever written. Had such authors written them, the adventures he recalls in these passages would have enhanced the reputations of famed writers such as Zane Grey or Bret Harte, Louis L'Amour or even the great modern masters of historical Western lore such as Noel M. Loomis or Larry McMurtry. The days he recalls are those during which the West was as wild as it ever became.His political experiences especially as a reformer intent on overcoming corruption wherever he found it also are detailed in these pages. They truly are historically important.His experiences as Police Commissioner are revealing and because of them it is easy to understand why his picture hangs on the wall of the office of Police Commissioner (portrayed by Tom Selleck) in the currently popular TV series BLUE BLOODS.The Theodore Roosevelt advocacy for women's suffrage and for thoroughly equal rights for women is wonderfully presented in his inclusion of his exchange of letters with a 45 year old woman who had given birth to nine children and reared them all only to find that her conscientious devotion to her family had put her at a disadvantage. It had limited her exposure to many exciting influences and made her believe she had become "boring" to her husband and even her own children. In her letters, perhaps in reaction to the fact that he was nominated for the Medal of Honor for his actions as a warrior who was constantly exposed to enemy fire while leading his Rough Riders (from the front rather than from the rear) in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, she addressed him as Colonel Roosevelt rather than President Roosevelt.In this fine book, Roosevelt details his political experiences, including his reluctance to become McKinley's vice president. In this way he reveals the clarity with which he perceived how the opponents and rivals he had made as governor of New York were active in forcing the issue.When McKinley was killed just six months into that four-year term, Roosevelt refused to make wholesale organizational changes , but actually advanced McKinley's policies.As a naturalist and president he became one of the greatest and most able conservationist who ever lived. He had camped with John Muir and had lived a life compatible with the kind of conservation work that he undertook as president . He created the Forest Service. He allocated vast areas for national parks and set up systems of special protection for other primal locations. He set aside at least five vast wilderness areas as national parks and protected dozen more as wild-life refuges and safe areas. He launched preliminary efforts that later influenced BLM policies that preserved much that the nation and the culture otherwise might have lost.As everyone knows, under his administration and by virtue of his efforts, the U.S. took over from the French and built the Panama Canal. He negotiated the peace that ended the Japanese-Russian war and for that effort was awarded the Nobel Prize.There is no question that he is a talented writer and that he lived a life worth recording. Some passages in this fine book may seem too detailed and unnecessarily defensive, but for readers interested in the political history of one of the most generous, tough-minded, culturally useful and beneficial of our presidents it is or contains a moral vein that rivals in purity and worth all the legendary ores of the Comstock Lode. It is well worth the efforts to mine it.(A novel by Richard Stafford available as a Kindle book: The Mystery Call Girls Riot By Aka Lockord)