Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished… (urspr publ 1981; utgåvan 1982)

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Read from Dec 2020 to Jan 2021. Good read. Longer chapters divided into shorter segments that help break it up. Would recommend it for those who love history and want to gain insight into the family background, childhood, and young adulthood of Teddy Roosevelt. Learned a lot about his parents and siblings, but especially his dad and sister Bamie. The book does a great job explaining the dynamics of his privileged childhood, the physical ailments he (and his siblings) battled as a child, and who he became as a young man after his dad died, specifically when he went out west. It details how he got into politics, but abruptly ends with his run for mayor. ( )

A window into a way of life, and the life of one man, that should serve as an inspiration to others.
Theodore Roosevelt overcame the sickness and adversity that plagued his early years, to become one of the most prominent leaders of his day. He was selfless, and a true philanthropist. An example of how privilege and wealth do not have to be associated with greed, conceit or egotism. ( )

Biography of the great president, though it deliberately covers only his early life (and is thus comparable to Churchill's autobiography "A Roving Commission"); the book stops just at the point where Roosevelt ran, and lost, for Mayor of New York. It covers his childhood, and there's an extensive discussion of the illnesses that beset him, as well as the peculiar family dynamics that certainly shaped his mind. Of some interest is the coverage of his first wife, who was mostly airbrushed out of history. The famous trips out West, which almost literally made a new man of him, are also covered in detail. McCullough is an engaging writer, and this is a good read. Recommended. ( )

McCullough turned his considerable talent for telling the stories of history to the first 27 years of Theodore Roosevelt's life...his sickly childhood, his loving family, his brief first marriage, his "ranching" days, his growth into a man of substance. It's fascinating. Politics generally bores me silly, but I even found myself engrossed in the chapter about the 1884 Chicago Republican convention, which McCullough describes as "crucial" in T.R.'s political life. Just goes to prove what a compelling writer McCullough is. ( )