Art of Manliness - Latest Comments in Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Cody — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 18:29:14 -0000

Like Lee I disagree with Roosevelt the 1st policies. He fundamentally misunderstood, or purposely undermined, the American tradition (as different as it was from the rest of the world). The trade was of property rights and self-responsibility in exchange for paternalism and top-down control. State control of the rules so as to create the appearance of equal ends, even while this new power to write rules is in fact commandeered and designed for the use by big business.

Nevertheless I believe that most everyone in the world has something to teach. For TR it is the method of living, the determination, the strenuous life of effort. While his actions severely undermined the American societal features that created these virtues in our people, he nevertheless embodied Americanism in his personal life habits and mastery of self.

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Lewis — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 05:37:30 -0000

@Brett, He didn't "Discover, navigate, and _be named_ after a completely uncharted Amazonian river over 625 miles long", I'm pretty sure the river was named after him ;)

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Sylvia Catalina Cruz — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 16:13:44 -0000

I agree with Chuck's analysis.
I disagree with Lee.
We should all live strenuous lives like Theodore Roosevelt.
As a former foster child my life was nothing but personally strenuous but I still dedicated my life to public service.
Sylvia Cruz

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Holly — Sat, 29 Jun 2013 02:12:43 -0000

Though the "strenuous life" highlights are true, I think you've missed or dismissed the most important part of Theodore Roosevelts success - God in his life. He wanted to be a "brave Christian gentleman", like his father, and that is what he became. All of those characteristics mentioned in your article are about a man laying down his life and accepting the position God made him to be.

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Chuck — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 22:44:17 -0000

P.S. I am sorry that top hats and handle-bar mustaches and other accoutrements went out of fashion. Men's fashions were quite good at the turn of the century. I, myself, wear a beard and mustache. I have been wearing it since 1975. Chuck

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Chuck — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 22:21:35 -0000

Teddy Rooseveldt undertook "the strenuous life" because he was sickly as a child and it was the only way he could overcome it. Well, it seemed to have worked!

As for his policies, I don't see anything wrong with them! God forbid we guys should protect women and children! Horrors! Look how absolutely (but predictably) disastrous our policies of the last 30+ years have been! Deregulation of banks is (PREDICTABLY!!) going to lead to nothing but bank scandals, bank failures, bank closings, S&L scandals and failures, etc. This has ALREADY happened! Poor people voting for "trickle-down theory"? How STUPID!
Deregulation is nothing but UNMITIGATED DISASTER, but it makes rich thieves richer! ENRON! Added tax breaks for the already wealthy have lead to our increased national debt! We went from PLUS $500 BILLION to MINUS $16 TRILLION! With the Chinese (formerly the RED CHINESE!!!) holding 1/3 of OUR DEBT! THEY OWN US! What DISASTER! Chuck

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Daniel — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:51:00 -0000

Damn sicko socialist what with his trying to protect women and children. It's unamerican, I tells ya!

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Lee — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:31:35 -0000

hmmm T Roosevelt??

He was a Progressive Socialist hiding in the Republicans, looking like a Conservative, then trying to create a new party, the Progressive movement.......not my favorite Pres.

New Nationalism was Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive political philosophy during the 1912 election. He made the case for what he called the New Nationalism in a speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, in August 1910. The central issue he argued was human welfare versus property rights. He insisted that only a powerful federal government could regulate the economy and guarantee social justice. Roosevelt believed that the concentration in industry was not necessarily bad, if the industry behaved responsibly. He wanted executive agencies (not the courts) to regulate business. The federal government should be used to protect the laboring men, women and children from what he believed to be exploitation. In terms of policy, the New Nationalism supported child labor laws and minimum wage laws for women. Roosevelt supported graduated income and inheritance taxes, workers' compensation for industrial accidents, regulation of the labor of women and children, tariff revision, and firmer regulation of corporations.

That is sick socialist ways folks

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Mike McC. — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:08:14 -0000

This article is just bully! You can never run out of good manly material with TR, keep 'em coming!

Am currently reading "T.R.: The Last Romantic" by H.W. Brands, about half way through and loving every minute of it. Covers his entire life, not just presidency, additionally it discusses his personal life as well. Very in-depth and quotes TR's letters and diaries frequently, which is great. I highly recommend it.

Cyrus: You could use that argument for almost every man of that time, he was no more racist than every other person during his time period despite that being post-civil war. He was simply a man of his time despite being wrong in that respect, although it is important to consider.

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

CyrusTab — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:53:18 -0000

T. Roosevelt was an extraordinary man for sure, talented and driven. However, he was not exactly a saint nor someone we should seek to emulate in every way. For one, he was a warmonger who, among other things, pushed the American war in the Philippines and consistently shrugged at the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in that war, considering it a small price to pay to "civilize" them. Not least, he was quite racist, although that was not too unusual given his time and social status. When learning that black heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson had knocked out "white hope" Jim Jeffries in their extraordinary 1910 bout, Roosevelt allegedly yelled out a racial epithet in frustration over Jeffries' loss. Perhaps most notoriously, despite the overwhelming evidence (and Roosevelt's undoubted knowledge) that black regiments had fought (often valiantly) on the side of the U.S. in Cuba during Roosevelt's time there, he consistently refused to give any credit to black fighters nor to support giving them medals for their valor in Cuba. Certainly, these soldiers had embodied many of the qualities Roosevelt claimed to admire, but Teddy still refused to acknowledge them.

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Nate — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:47:45 -0000

I'm loving all the posts about T.R. I want to read about the man so I ask, what would you suggest as the best book about him and his life? Thanks!

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Andrew McCormick — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:45:35 -0000

L-O-V-E all these TR posts! Reading "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" changed my life and I instantly fell in love with a guy that had been dead for decades.

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Nathan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:15:13 -0000

Teddy was truly something. I second the recommendation of Edmund Morris' books. However, I don't believe he ran for a third term as stated.

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Thomas Gray — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:52:11 -0000

Wonderful site! TR is such a great a great role model. I am interested in learning more about how his personality and attitude drove his skills and acheivements.

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Luke — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:28:29 -0000

Fantastic website! I enjoy reading your fantastic blog and this is probably my favorite. Additional reading besides the two biographies mentioned above would be "the strenuous life" by Theodore Roosevelt; it is exceptionally quotable and epitomizes his ideals that allowed him to achieve so highly.

also i would like to add that to live the strenuous life, it is not only to work harder at what is already being done, but to spiral out and attempt a vast array of new things, to attempt to further one’s self through experience and accomplishment, to toil and risk while fulfilling the doctrine of the strenuous life for greater personal happiness and greater value to one’s cohorts.

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Alton Marcello — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:15:28 -0000

Tuffness is sooooooo necessary

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Peter — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 09:08:56 -0000

Amazing...I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't already know much of what was shared in this post, but I sure am glad I learned! What an incredible guy. I now have the perfect spontaneous gift idea for a friend who is facing tough times or a daunting task ahead -- a biography of Teddy Roosevelt. Any that you guys would recommend?

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Larry W. Phillips — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:48:46 -0000

Hi - I've got a question maybe one of your readers can help me with. I had a photo of TR shaking hands with 8,150 people on the day he got inaurgarated and now I've lost the photo and can't remember where I saw it. Help! Anybody know where I got that from? Thanks,
Larry Phillips

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Nisfris Wedsa — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:41:40 -0000

Hi i am Nisfris from Albania and i also like america and men

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

The Baltimore Babe — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:15:13 -0000

What beauty...

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Hasnain — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:42:59 -0000

An amazing man! I must read up more on him. Its so humbling how much a person can accomplish in life. Staggering! Makes me feel like an ant.

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

David Zent — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 01:24:52 -0000

If you guys want to have the night of your lives, catch Clay Jenkinson performing Theodore Roosevelt at various venues around the nation. He is well-known for portraying Thomas Jefferson, but Holy Crap! He is astounding as Roosevelt, who was Jefferson's polar opposite in politics and personality. I met Clay and enjoyed his recent performance here in Bakersfield CA. The room rose as one in a standing ovation, after he had performed for over two hours in character. I've never seen anything to match it, and I've made my living in live theatre for twenty-five years now. It was inspiring and awakening. Go see him if he performs anywhere in a five hundred mile vicinity of you - more than worth it.

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Todd Schafer — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:52:46 -0000

Funny how when something comes into your universe, you run across blog posts like this.
I had just been exposed recently to the greatness that was TR.
His picture is going up on my vision board along with Abe and Churchill (who are already there).

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

Jordan — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:13:30 -0000

sam, it's not bs.
They have the copy of the speech that was in TR's pocket when he was shot and the bullethole is clearly visible. It's in some museum somewhere.

And film was around by that time. There are plenty of videos showing TR greeting people, making speeches, etc. that are clear proof of his vigor.

Theodore Roosevelt is by far the greatest president in my opinion, both in terms of personality as well as [most] of his policies. Not to mention, he is the greatest example of a man that I can think of.

Re: Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt On Living The Strenuous Life

sam — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:44:22 -0000

sounds like bs to me. i guess some historian will dream up more bs and make gwb look like a fucking hero too - pity the web wasn't around then, there may have been a very different story - all politicians are lying hypocrites - there are no exceptions ever!