"The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris

I'm closing out my study of the 19th century - and beginning my look at the 20th - with a trilogy of biographies by Edmund Morris.  Volume One of this Pulitzer Prize winning biography was outstanding.

Roosevelt was a stunning man in every way.  The marks against him in the ledger (his love of hunting on an industrial scale) counterbalance his successes (fighting corruption in New York, as legislator and police commissioner).  He was the definition of active energy and accomplishment.

As just one example of his astounding achievements, he wrote a book entitled The Naval History of the War of 1812 that was so authoritative that it was studied closely by the Royal Navy and installed on every ship of the U.S. Navy.  What's astounding is that he wrote it as an undergraduate college student, with no naval training and no training as an author or historian.  Who does that?

Although FDR played on a larger stage and ultimately made a bigger mark on history (defeating Germany in WWII, among other accomplishments), Teddy was the original.  He was the first politician in the family and the first to gain national prominence.  Without him, FDR wouldn't have become president and who knows what the world would look like today.

I can't wait to start Volume II.  But first an interlude, by resuming my study of the history of the English novel with Thomas Hardy and his Far From the Madding Crowd...