Rating: 
Summary: My favorite presidential biography
Review: McCullough's Truman was my favorite presidential biography until I read The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting look at TR
Review: I have long been a fan of TR and would like to hoghly recommend a trip to Sagamore Hill (Oyster Bay, Long Island) to anyone who has not been. You cannot understand teddy until you have sat on his wonderful veranda our admired his hunting trophies.Morris deftly captures the spirit of this larger than life individual without turning him into a caricature. No small task. He reminds readers that underneath that gruff facade was a most sensitive man. Very interesting look at TR's childhood, education and early political careers and a most provoking examination of his breif marriege to the ephermeral Alice Lee Hathaway. Also fascinating section on the Rough Riders and Spanish American War. A minor coplaint is that the end of the book is rushed. only a few pages exist on his Vice Presidency. I understand it was brief, but the final pages are rushed. A great biography and I now look forward to reading Theodore Rex!
Rating:
Summary: A must read for those interested in TR
Review: Much has been said over the sequel to this book, outlining Teddy's time in the White House. The most fascinating part of his life, however, is his rise to the top. Morris goes through this time brilliantly. Forget buying the "10 habits of effective people," just read this book
Rating:
Summary: A Massive Book On A Massive Figure
Review: Morris's TR books are not the best presidential biographies I have ever read -- Caro's LBJ series receives that honor. But the TR books are certainly the best written. Morris is essentially spinning a yarn, telling the tale of an astounding and unbelievable character who, incidentally, happened to be a real person. Morris writes like a great epic novelist, and Teddy Roosevelt is the perfect protagonist. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, and its sequel Theodore Rex, are unlike any other biographies I've read. They move quickly and flow freely, and come off like a great action adventure. These are biographies for lovers of the genre, yes, but also for those who would think they couldn't stomach cracking the spine on one.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Bio About an Even More Amazing Person!!
Review: There are many outstanding reviews here on Amazon about this terrific book,so I'll just add a few points that may not have been covered already. With Mr. Morris' recent THEODORE REX, I quickly reread this one, and it was as good the second as the first time. The beginnings are really something, and an inspiration to all, given that TR was born sickly and started the strenuous life at a very early age, in part due to his impressive father. True, it does not hurt to be from a very well off family. His youthful biology experiments are wonderfully described, as young TR became virtually a one-boy laboratory,interested in any and all things. He was awed by his youthful travels in Egypt analyzing the multitudes of flora and fauna now within view. Ditto for the ancient architechural wonders. His years at Harvard are noted,and his famous personality as child and dynamo are noted not for the last time, since even his associates later in the White House noted the same thing...Anyway, a long book, but amusing,thoughtful, dynamic, and wondrous, just as TR was, and Mr. Morris probably is as well.. at least when writing about this tornado of a figure!!
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable...
Review: Morris' first installment in the epic life of Teddy Roosevelt is the greatest biography I have ever read. His attention to detail, beautiful writing style, and commitment to his subject are amazing. His finest quality; however, is his ability to weave the countless anecdotes of TR's youth and rise to the Presidency into the larger framework of late 19th and early 20th century American history. In terms of research, Morris' study of Roosevelt is of monumental proportions. Personal correspondence, diaries, letters, public papers, books by Roosevelt, and books about Roosevelt all form the sea of sources that Morris successfully and impressively navigated. I'm very happy that, like so many other people, I waited to read 'Rise of TR' after 'Theodore Rex' was published, as I don't think I would have been able to wait to continue reading Morris' account of this amazing man's life and accomplishments.
Rating:
Summary: A President as large as America
Review: TR was the perfect example of a leader embodying the spirit of his country. Like America at the turn of the 19th century, he had a limitless belief in himself and the greatness of his future. He seemed to fit seven lives into one. This book only covered his birth until his presidency and yet, what he lived was enough the fill multiple biographies of lesser men. I enjoyed Morris's style because it did not get in the way. He was able to be both academic, while also telling an engaging story. A rare feet among history writers, though I did notice Morris did seem to fall in love with his subject.
Rating:
Summary: The rise of one of America's most original Presidents
Review: It is easy to grow enthusiastic about Theodore Roosevelt from this book.
TR evolves before the reader's eyes from a puny, sickly, much beloved child to a tough outdoorsman in the Dakota country, admired for his vigor by the denizens of that wild outpost, to a President (by the providence of McKinley's assasination).
This book discusses TR's formative years. It chronicles his childhood, and his warm relationship with his well-drawn father is endearing. It discusses his Harvard years, where he was considered quite the character. It discusses his longing courtship and mairrage to his first wife, who died young, and it discusses his profound bereavement at her death. It describes his rough-and-tumble years as a ranch owner in the Dakota country: a financially dismal episode that was morally formative. His rise to the White House -- from precocious State Assemblyman to controversial Federal Service Commissioner to energetic but frustrated New York Police Commissioner to Assistant Secretary of the Navy to Rough Rider (for which he gave up his assistant secretariship of the Navy) to Governor of New York (a job he loved) to Vice President (a job he did not want) to President -- his influence, successes, defeats, and vitality in all of these positions are carefully and interestingly described. Nor does the author fail to pause to allow the reader to admire TR's dilightful and loving family life and warm friendships.
TR comes across as fortunate in his birth to wealth, in his temperment, in his parents, in his natural intelligence, and even in the physical disability that taught him to overcome obstacles. But one is conscious that others might have squandered natural gifts such as his, or yielded to disabilities that were also his. TR comes across as a fighter. Morris gives an in-depth understanding of the rise of one of America's most original and dynamic Presidents and personalities.
Rating:
Summary: Proof that history can be Fun
Review: Theodore Roosevelt was our most colorful and entertaining president ever and Mr. Morris is the biographer he deserves. This book is important, accurate, and extremely well written. It is also great fun. Morris has a wonderful writing style and a knack for letting TR speak for himself. All of this adds up to a book that is both important, absorbing, and a joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Engaging Book, Amazing Man...DEE-lightful!
Review: This is a highly engaging, easily readable book about a man that was nothing if not an amazing, fascinating character. TR had his detractors and was not without blemishes. He had a fiery temper, proselyted to jingoistic extremes America's "Manifest Destiny" and mongered for war with Spain. Yet, TR exemplified the character of America emerging on to the world stage of power at the end of the 19th Century as perhaps no other American...bold, brash, bellicose, confident and impatient. Morris' Pulitzer Prize winning narrative of TR's rise to become the youngest president at age 42 rushes forward at a necessarily breathless pace as he describes a colorful character who was avid hunter and passionate conservationist; tireless writer of historical potboilers and scholarly author of the definitive naval history of the War of 1812; moralist and self-serving politician; sentimental family man and wanderer; rancher and refined gentleman; etc. I no sooner finished reading this book than I rushed out to buy the recently published "sequel", "Theodore Rex." I will dive into it with the same gusto with which TR charged through life.
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