The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

Coverage is no less attentive as Theodore attends Harvard, enters politics as a New York state assemblyman and later heads west to become an ardent cowboy and rancher in the Dakotas. This first volume covers Roosevelt’s pre-presidency thoroughly and with great vigor, beginning with his frail but stunningly precocious youth. Morris is also well known for his controversial “ Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan” and is currently working on a biography of Thomas Edison. Published in 1979, this Pulitzer Prize-winning volume remains widely-read and extremely popular. However, that project was abandoned.“ The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt” is the first in a three-volume series by Edmund Morris about the life of the 26th president. Topics include early childhood, education and hobbies, travels in Europe and Africa, New York legislature, frontier life, civil service commissioner, New York police commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, the Rough Riders and victory in Cuba, governor of New York, and short term as vice-president.Ī planned film adaptation by director Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio was scheduled to be released in 2013. The book provides insight into the world of influence from a master of corporate power as opposed to leaders who practice personal power.

Morris examines his life as a young politician driven by a sense of public duty and stewardship, and captures multiple aspects of the events that shaped the character and performance of Roosevelt. Morris reports that Roosevelt probably read the equivalent of one book per day during his life.

His passion for learning despite severe illness is well documented. Specific topics include the philosophy of Roosevelt's father, mother, and his family. It includes the Roosevelt family history starting with his parents' influence, his turbulent childhood illnesses, education, involvement in politics, and political accomplishments that prepared him to be one of the most influential presidents of the modern era. The Rise covers the time from Roosevelt's birth through his ascendancy to the Presidency.

It won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the 1980 National Book Award in Biography. It is the first in a trilogy continued more than twenty and thirty years later by Theodore Rex (2001) and Colonel Roosevelt (2010). The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979) is a biography of United States President Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris and published by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan when the author was forty years old.

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris