The Development of Theodore Roosevelt:
From Sickly Child to Urban Reformer
All of the Roosevelt biographies I’ve listed in
other resource sections will serve you well, but there
are two that deserve special attention for this essay:
Kathleen Dalton’s own study, Theodore Roosevelt:
A Strenuous Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002)
and Edmund Morris’s The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
(New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1979), the
first volume in a still unfinished series.
Roosevelt wrote well about himself, and you shouldn’t
miss these autobiographical works touching on his experiences
in the West and the Spanish-American War. While I’ve
given the original dates of publication, you can find
almost all of these conveniently available in recent
reprints:
Hunting Trips Of A Ranchman: Hunting Trips On The
Prairies And In The Mountains. New York: Review
of Reviews, 1904.
Outdoor Pastimes Of An American Hunter. New
York: C. Scribner's sons, 1908
Ranch Life And The Hunting-Trail. Illustrated
by Frederic Remington. New York: Century, 1896.
The Strenuous Life; Essays And Addresses.
New York: Century, 1902.
The Winning Of The West. 4 vols. New York,
London, G.P. Putnam's sons, 1889-96. Roosevelt’s
historical study is interesting in light of his own
experiences in the West.
This book provides a close look at Roosevelt’s
career in New York City:
Jeffers, H. Paul. Commissioner Roosevelt: The Story
Of Theodore Roosevelt And The New York City Police,
1895-1897. New York: J. Wiley & Sons, c1994.
This is your best bet for a close look at Roosevelt’s
military career in the Spanish-American War:
Samuels, Peggy and Harold. Teddy Roosevelt at San
Juan: The Making of a President. College Station:
Texas A&M University Press, c1997.
Not surprisingly, the Dickinson University site has
an especially useful section on Roosevelt in the Dakotas:
http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.com/TR_Dakota.asp
