The Strenuous Life (Little Books of Wisdom)

Rating:
Summary: A Powerful Book (Speech)
Review: This is a documented speech by "Teddy." If you believe that life owes you something as opposed to working hard and earning your keep, then you must read this book. If you are a self-starter and want to "make a name for yourself" through hard work, this book/speech will get you excited. It is a must read -- even for children. Hard work does pay off!

Rating:
Summary: Classic Roosevelt-- for good and bad
Review: This little collection of Roosevelt's speeches and essays gives a wonderful taste for the jingo President's beliefs in a Strenuous Life of hard work, manly virtues and manifest destiny. As a historian, I'm fascinated that this is being marketed as speaking to today's Americans. Roosevelt's comments on the role of white middle-class Protestant women as the breeders of a virile race and his exhortations to embrace 'righteous war' might seem a bit strange as current-day advice, stemming as they do from Teddy's concerns with forcing the Spanish out of Cuba and with 'race suicide,' the belief that white Protestants were being out-bred by Catholic immigrants and African-Americans. For those interested in the Establishment position on those issues in 1900, however, or in Roosevelt himself-- some of these were speeches and the rhythm of them gives you a wonderful idea of what they must have sounded like being delivered-- this is a valuable resource.