Rating: 
Summary: The thrilling story of the our most inspiring president
Review: My dad gave me this book for my 22nd birthday a few years ago. I was intimidated by its width (about 700 pages) and doubted whether I'd make it through the first two chapters before putting the tome down, for good.
Then I picked it up and started reading. The next week or so gave me one of the most engaging, riveting, emotional reading experiences I've had.
Teddy Roosevelt was remarkable and tremendously likable, no, lovable. His life was marked by fascinating successes and devastating personal losses.
In this book, Edmund Morris captures an unforgettable personality with clarity. His writing is intense and intelligent, mirroring the book's rambunctious and driven subject.
Just trust me. I love a good novel like the next
guy, and this book is like the granddaddy of all summer novels - except it's all true. Read the book and
you will adopt this amazing man as one of your most enduring heroes
Rating:
Summary: Morris brings history and Roosevelt alive with his work!
Review: For those who love history,Theodore Roosevelt, or just a good story will enjoy
this book. Morris brings us Theodore Roosevelt as no other author can. The American hero of the late 19th Century becomes every reader's hero today.
I have always felt that a good biography is one that brings me closer to that person than any friend could. Well, thanks to Morris, I have come to know T. Roosevelt very well
Rating:
Summary: dscyoung
Review: Outstanding! McCullough and others have done wonderful things with Presidential biographies; however, Morris has brought Roosevelt alive like no other. The struggles young Roosevelt endured are a inspiration. His genius is detailed in true color. I couldn't wait to pick up Theodore Rex. Looking for a hero in todays rough and tumble? Look no further than TR.
Rating:
Summary: Good To The Last Page...
Review: By way of introduction I should say that I am a biased reviewer. Having been born in New York City and having lived in Oyster Bay for the first three decades of my life, I am a member of the Theodore Roosevelt Association and The Friends of Sagamore Hill. Therefore, Edmund Morris's biography of TR is a wonderful trip back in time over familiar ground.
To a denizen of Oyster Bay, "The Colonel" is not just an historical figure, but a living, breathing presence who walks our streets to this day. There are still Roosevelts living in town (so many have lived there over time that in fact the towels at Roosevelt's home are embroidered "R of S" for "Roosevelt of Sagamore") and almost all the local watering holes boast some association with "Teddy" (he hated that nickname, by the way). Nobman's Hardware, recently burned down, was TR's hardware store, c. 1910.
Morris does a phenomenal job of capturing Roosevelt's life from its beginnings in antebellum Knickerbocker New York, and splendidly paints us a portrait in words not only of this amazing man, but of his incredible family (Theodore Roosevelt Sr. founded Chemical Bank and the American Museum of Natural History among his many accomplishments; TR's mother Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt was the inspiration for Scarlett O'Hara; his Bulloch uncles built the Confederate raider CSS Alabama; his brother Elliott was Eleanor Roosevelt's father AND FDR's godfather; his sisters were both doyennes of official Wahington's social circles).
Most impressive of all is TR himself, who in six overwhelming decades of life was born a morbidly ill youngster who by sheer drive turned himself into a naturalist, an ornithologist, an historian, a biographer, a New York State Assemblyman, Governor of New York State, Police Commissioner of New York City, a Federal Civil Service Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a Ranchman, a big-game hunter, a Colonel commanding a regiment in the Spanish-American War, an Amazon explorer, Vice President of the United States, the first American to win the Nobel Prize in any category, the inspiration for the Teddy Bear, the man who named the White House the White House, father of the Panama Canal, the first President to fly in an airplane, the first President to travel in a submarine, an aspirant for the Mayoralty of New York City, the only third-party Presidential candidate to come in second, and our nation's 26th Chief Executive...
After lunch he...
...Edmund Morris is clearly dazzled by the man, and THE RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT reads almost like a novel, so effortless is the writing and so compelling the subject. Traveling through the years with TR is FUN. Morris never becomes cloying and never loses sight of the fact that TR in his heart was always "about six."
As The Colonel said about his favorite coffee..."It's good to the last drop!"
Rating:
Summary: A Fun Biographical Romp
Review: I have a photo of Theodore Roosevelt in the company of men like Wyatte Earp, Jeremiah ("Liver Eating") Johnson, and the like--all notorious westerners--at a train depot in the northwest where they gathered for hunting expeditions.
Edith Kermit Carow stated the obvious: "Here was a person of refinement...and much sexual potential." In other words, a great Man.
Theodore Roosevelt was comfortable--even sought--the company of the famous and infamous and from a rather unimpressive stature rose to be one of our greatest, most patriotic and driven Presidents.
This is a very well written biography of a great man, at a time when one man could touch all spheres of life worldwide--politics, economics, commerce, diplomacy, arts, lifestyles of the rich and poor, famous and ignominious. For these reasons, and much more, I highly recommend this definitive biography.
Would that there were another such man (or woman) in the wings, somewhere gaining the experience that could rival Theodore Roosevelt's greatness. My greatest fear is that our society has disintegrated to the point where no such person could develop or be nourished. Surely that person is NOT presently covered by the tabloid press.
Rating:
Summary: Rip Roaring Read.
Review: Were it fiction, this man's life would be blasted as over the top. But since it is an authoritative take on one of our more interesting presidents it is a rip roaring read of high adventure and living large, while illuminating a pivotal period in America. Add to that delicious writing, and you have an utterly deeeeeelightful book. Thank goodness it is the first of a series.
As a side note to our current political stuff: This book can not help but to expand your perspective (from either side of the fence) on matters of war, corruption, world domination, business, labor, or politics as usual. I often forget, and this book reminded me, that the past has a lot to tell us about who we are now.
BUT that said, I urge you to read the book for just one reason -- it's fun! At a thousand pages it can seem like a big commitment, however every page is filled with adventure, romance, and intrigue, spanning from high society in New York to ranch life in the American West.
Rating: 
Summary: Great historian, Good writer
Review: It is with reluctance I report it took me five weeks to finish this book. It wasn't a page-turner but Roosevelt's life was compelling enough to prompt me to finish. The author does a magnificent job of detailing Roosevelt's life up to the occasion of his rise to president. I wish some of the detail was left out. The writing was good but pedestrian (seemed to misuse the word latter too much, it should be used - or so I have been taught - to indicate the second of two items, he used it to indicate the last of more than two items). I would put the odds of reading the second half of Roosevelt's biography by the same author at no more than 50 - 50.
Rating:
Summary: dscyoung
Review: Outstanding! McCullough and others have done wonderful things with Presidential biographies; however, Morris has brought Roosevelt alive like no other. The struggles young Roosevelt endured are a inspiration. His genius is detailed in true color. I couldn't wait to pick up Theodore Rex. Looking for a hero in todays rough and tumble? Look no further than TR.
Rating:
Summary: A Rising Start!
Review: "The Rise Of Theodore Roosevelt" tells the outstanding story of the pre-presidential years of this remarkable individual. In an attention-holding style, Morris relates the anecdotes known to all TR fans. In addition to the well known facts, Morris reveals lesser known facts which help us to understand TR and his career.Beginning with he President's New Year's Day Reception of 1907, the book quickly jumps back to a very youthful TR. In the following pages we read of the close relationship between TR and his father. We read of the father who, by example and word, taught TR his greatest virtues of honesty, social responsibility and concern for others. It was this father who drove him through the streets of New York to get him over his asthma attacks as well as the one who told him that he "had the mind, but not the body" and that he must build his body. When TR was contemplating a scientific career, it was this father who told him that he could pursue such a career, "if I intended to do the very best that was in me; but that I must not dream of taking it up as a dilettante", but that he would have to learn to live within his means. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr.'s payment of a substitute during the Civil War left his son with a sense of guilt which could only be assuaged by his own military service. We learn of the shattering effect that this father's death had on the Harvard student. As president, TR would remark that he never took any serious step without contemplating what his father would have done. Much attention is given to the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History" assembled by the young taxidermist. This was the first of three career paths considered by TR, scientific, which he abandoned, literary, which supported him for much of his life, and political, which became his life work. We learn of TR's loves, both of Edith and Alice. We learn of how TR pursued love with the same vigor and intensity that he pursued everything else which he desired. The death of his mother and Alice on Valentine's Day, 1884, which drove him into ranching in Dakota, would be almost as shattering as the death of his father. There are details of TR's young life of which I had been unaware, prominent among them are his extensive travels in Europe and the Middle East. In the course of this book we see the step by step maturation of TR from the snobbish Harvard freshman to the inclusive leader which he later became. College, romance, politics, ranching and war all played their parts in the development of the character of TR. During his political career, TR's outlooks on issues developed, but his core values never wavered. From his first caucus meeting, uncompromising honesty was a trademark of TR's character and his demand from others. TR always walked a tight rope between independence and party loyalty, earning both the support an enmity of reformers and the organization alike. After having established himself as an unrelenting foe of corruption during his service on the U. S. Civil Service Commission and the New York Board of Police Commissioners, his appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Navy enabled TR to act on the world stage. Taking advantage of Secretary Long's frequent and extended absences, TR prepared the Navy for its spectacular successes in the Spanish-American War., a war which TR had worked so hard to bring about. The war gave TR the opportunity to pay his inherited debt by service in the Rough Riders. Organizing a volunteer cavalry of westerners, Indians and Ivy League athletes, TR had to work to get his men equipped and to the front. Their heroic charge up San Juan Hill is the stuff of which legends are mad and TR made his legend as a Rough Rider. Exploiting his martial glory, TR road into the Governor's mansion where he continued to walk the fine line between independence and party loyalty. His successes he won and the enemies he made lead him to the vice-presidency. I have mentioned just a few of the highlights of TR's young life, but this book covers many more. Morris employs a talent to tell the details without becoming bogged down. Read "The Rise Of Theodore Roosevelt" to learn of TR's early life and character and then bring on "Theodore Rex".
Rating:
Summary: quality man, quality book
Review: Well researched, entertaining chronicle of the developmental years of a remarkable man, of a sort we don't see today. I could hardly put it down. Morris is a superb writer, and captures the nature and personality of his subject intelligently and effectively. This book must be read in tandem with Theodore Rex, about which I would say the same things. One wishes for a world like this, and a man like this, today.
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