The Strenuous Life

A life of slothful ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack of either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual. I ask only that what every self-respecting American demands from himself and from his sons shall be demanded of the American nation as a whole. Who among you would teach your boys that ease, that peace, is to be the first consideration in their eyes?
-from "The Strenuous Life"

Of all the many sides of Theodore Roosevelt-politician and soldier, naturalist and historian-today he remains a grand symbol of booming American progress in the 20th century. Indeed, he is largely responsible for setting the nation on the course it has followed over those hundred years, as this 1904 volume handily demonstrates.

This collection of speeches Roosevelt gave and essays he wrote from 1899 through 1901 illuminates his keen image of America as a nation strong of character, honest of leadership, and rich in material and moral wealth-and represents the splendid challenge he extended to the American people to match him in action and in spirit, and to create a political and social life for the country as robust as his own personal and public life was.

This is, in the aggregate, a revealing picture of the character of one of the great American personalities.

Also available from Cosimo Classics: Roosevelt's Letters to His Children, A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open, America and the World War, Through the Brazilian Wilderness and Papers on Natural History, Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, and Historic Towns: New York

OF INTEREST TO: Roosevelt fans, students of the American presidency, readers of 20th-century U.S. and world history


American icon THEODORE ROOSEVELT (1858-1919) was 26th President of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909, and the first American to win a Nobel Prize, in 1906, when he was awarded the Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War. He is the author of 35 books.