Theodore Roosevelt: Champion of the American Spirit by Betsy Harvey Kraft

I have added several books about U.S. Presidents to my reading list,
but many of the better books on T.R. are very long. I decided to pick
up this short book, which is classified as "juvenile".

This book covers T.R.'s entire life from his childhood through his
multiple careers to his death. He went from head of NYC police to NY
state Assemblyman to rancher to Secretary of the Navy to soldier to
Governor of NY to U.S. President to explorer to presidential
candidate. All that time he was a writer, a hunter, a
conservationist, a reformer, and a father of six-- among other things.

One of the most interesting anecdotes about his life occurred when he
was running for president in the Progressive party. He was set to
give a campaign speech, but was shot. The only thing that kept him
from dying was his thick, folded up speech and metal glasses case in
his shirt pocket. But he was still badly injured and bleeding. In
spite of this, he went on to give an hour and a half speech before a
stunned crowd who could see his injured state.

Having read a bit about T.R., I will now have to pick up a longer book
some day to get some more detail. He is a fascinating character and
did a lot of great things for his country. This book does a good job
of summarizing the events of his life, as well as his amazing
character and boundless energy.

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