[Michael Memorium] Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough - 5 stars

[Theresa]

Generally NF reads slower for me. I tend to read a biography or other NF in stages, with liberal doses of fiction inserted. I find it does go faster when I'm not researching and writing for my day job (lawyer for those new here). I had expected to finish this under Book Club - it's a buddy read after all (and may I say I'm the first in it to finish!!!!!) -- but here we are and if this book doesn't scream 'leadership' ... well I just don't know then what would.

This was also one of Michael's favorites, becoming a memorial read for Michael as well.

Teddy Roosevelt was a product of an extraordinary family and an extraordinary time. As a young man, having already experienced much and made a mark on his world, determined his future path that ultimately made him President of the United States, the youngest at 42. McCullough only takes us up to 1886, to a 27 year old Teddy, but he was molded by the events and tragedies of those 27 years, and also by his extraordinary family and late 19th Century New York City. McCullough presents all in warm lively detail with a particular gift for bringing it all to colorful rich life as a good historical fiction novel does. If McCullough skirts over some particulars, or the occasional information drops feel a bit flat, it is quickly forgiven.

The Roosevelt family, both his immediate family and the extended family, were truly extraordinary. His father, Theodore Sr., was a great philanthropist whose legacy of charitable work is still evident in NYC today. Senior Theodore loved his children and spent an extraordinary amount of time with them considering the norm of that era. It was his father that Teddy spent his life emulating. Mittie, his mother, was a southern belle, a woman of great spirit, intelligence and energy who also had a strong influence on all her children. One of the most interesting chapters was the one in which the immediate family endured the Civil War with Mittie's brothers serving the Confederacy, her family still in the south, yet her husband and his family unionists to which she remained loyal. Senior Theodore did not take up arms out of respect and love for his wife, but the conflicting loyalties created a very strained household no doubt. It was eased by the fact that Senior Theodore and Mittie were a love match, one that seems to have stayed strong. Later, his siblings were to be very important to his success, especially his elder sister Bamie (Anna).

Teddy grew up and called home NYC and, in the summer, the North Shore of Long Island. The Roosevelts were mostly Republicans - with a stray Democrat or two - and when Teddy stood for a seat on the NYS Assembly at the ancient age of 22 he stood as a republican, the party of Lincoln, but with a reform agenda. I'm not a big fan of reading about political strategems or politics in general, but McCullough's description of the Republican National Convention in Chicago 1884 to which Teddy was a delegate at 23, brings to vivid life the pageantry, not just the chaos and brutal politicking, that once accompanied a presidential nomination at the Convention.

Another enormous influence on Teddy was nature, especial birds and mammals, marking him as a true Victorian. it started very young as a result of outings with his father to help ease his asthma attacks (the chapter on asthma and how today's findings illuminate Teddy's first 20 years is so informative). He became fascinated with birds, everything about them, and even learned taxidermy to study them. His first hunting was along the Nile on a family trip where he shot birds to study. His interest in hunting for sport did evolve and it was on a trip to 'bag his Buffalo' that he first saw and fell in love with the Badlands of North Dakota.

McCullough ends with Teddy's years in the Badlands, 1883 - 1886, after which time Teddy has resolved to become a professional politician and puts behind him the defeats and tragedies that informed his earlier years (and to some extent sent him into exile to the Badlands). In fact, on July 4, 1886, he was asked to deliver a speech in the town of Dickinson, ND. Reading it you can't but hear and feel that this was his first 'presidential' speech, the speech of a mature man setting out to claim his future. And he did, returning permanently later that year to NYC, remarrying, and running for NYC mayor by end of 1886.

The rest is history.

[Joy D]

So glad you enjoyed it! I am taking my time but plan to finish this month. I agree it's a great example of leadership.