TR FETISH

I just ordered my third biography of Theodore Roosevelt on Half.com. I guess you could say I’m a bit obsessed with the man. Having digested Morris’ “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt” and “Theodore Rex,” I’m turning my attention to Grondahl’s “I Rose Like a Rocket,” which, like “Rise” details TR’s early (i.e. pre-presidential) political career.

“Rocket” argues that TR’s meteoric assent to the White House (where he became, at age 42, the youngest president ever) was a combination of an external political environment ripe for reform and an internal drive for accomplishment in the face of daunting physical and emotional hardships. I am looking forward to seeing how external and internal interplay, and how a well-meaning but clunky reformer wizened up through political victories and defeats.