Customer Reviews

I Rose Like a Rocket: The Political Education of Theodore Roosevelt

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent account of the early political career of
Teddy Roosevelt, state legislator, federal civil service commissioner, NYC police commissioner, Rough Rider, Governor of NY, Vice-President, and you probably know the rest. It is full of wonderful stories, such as TR and reporters combing NYC for policemen who were corrupt or not doing their jobs, the first bicycle policemen which TR organized, his successes and failures, his gift for publicity and cultivation of his image.
With the help of a lot of caffeine, TR worked very hard and learned to work with the less than honest machine politicians. The research seems through and the writing impeccable. A true gem. But, then, the material could not be finer.

TR has always been one of my two favorite Presidents (the other being JFK), and this book is more than just your typical biography on him. It takes the unique angle of writing only about TR's life and political career before he became President, starting with his childhood and going through his political development, service in government, personal triumphs and tragedies, stint as a Rough Rider, time as Vice President, and finally having the last chapter be about his famous late-night ride to take the Oath of Office after President McKinley finally succumbed to his gunshot wound. We learn about how his experiences during this part of his life formed his political philosophy and development, making this incredible human being into the astute incredible President and politician he became over time. Mr. Grondahl really knows how to do his research and how to make it interesting and relevant instead of just some dry recounting of facts, names, and dates. It was also an added bonus how the author lives in the same area as I do.

This book was an interesting look at the early life of Theodore Roosevelt, but the true masterpiece here is the index. Perfectly alphabetical and full of surnames followed by given names, the index deserves a Pulitzer all its own!

A fascinating book. Paul Grondahl shows TR's political rise as an explosive combination of two different factors or forces -- one internal and one external.

These forces are on display on the cover of the book. The title ("rose like a rocket") suggests the circumstances that quickly propelled TR into political opportunity. New York, and the nation, were ripe for a patrician reformer. Yet, as the book makes clear, Roosevelt's life consisted as much of sorrow as of opportunity. So external events are insufficient to explain his success.

The subtitle ("political education") suggests the more important factor -- TR's intellectually aggressive approach to life, which enabled him to constantly improve by learning from his mistakes. Roosevelt himself seldom admitted to mistakes. So it takes a great journalist and historian like Grondahl to extract those lessons for us. A very enjoyable piece of detective work!

In today's world, Teddy Roosevelt would be classified as a sickly geek. As a boy, he had severe bouts of asthma, wore thick glasses and even at age 23 only weighed 130 pounds. This book reveals the people and events that shaped his life. He lost a substantial portion of his inherited wealth when the cattle market collapsed in the 1890's.

Teddy really had multiple concurrent careers, he wrote lots of letters on a daily basis, and he also wrote lots of books and magazine articles, which became the backbone of how he supported his family. The salaries for the various political positions that he held were meagar but he had a terrific work ethic and almost unlimited amounts of energy.

This book is also a ray of sunshine and hope. The 1880's and 1890's were full of corrupt political hacks and yet Teddy found a way to succeed without sacrificing his integrity.

This is a great read and it is my pleasure to recommend it to one and all.

I so enjoyed this book that I wish the author would write a follow-up book on his presidency and the remainder of his life.

Linda Moore
Dallas

It is amazing how Teddy made it to adulthood, let alone bull his way to the top of New York's political scene. His determined mind set against the political corruption of the time is inspiring. We watch as his experiences mold his character and his drive. Grondahl's book unfolds this oft overlooked portion of Teddy'a life and is a necessary read for those who really want to meet Teddy Roosevelt.

A friend of mine gave me this book a few years back. I finished reading it while on vacation in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, I traded it away for another book that was smaller and easier to carry while traveling. I have regretted it since then as it is interesting, informative about the history of New York State, Teddy Roosevelt and this country as a whole. I just recently replaced it by buying it on Amazon.com and am looking forward to re-reading it. Paul Grondahl is a great author and Teddy Roosevelt still is an inspiration to me.

With all the biographies of Theodore Roosevelt available, it might seem superfluous to add this one to your reading list. But this valiant endeavor by journalist and author Paul Grondahl has several aspects that recommend it in addition to, or even instead of, its competitors.

First, "I Rose Like a Rocket," as its title implies, focuses on the rapid political ascendancy of the young Roosevelt, especially on his early careers in Manhattan and Albany. And his was a meteoric rise, from Assemblyman (two years) to civil service commissioner (six years--"the longest he remained in any job" before his presidency) to police commissioner (two years) to assistant secretary of the navy (one year) to New York State governor (two years) to Vice President (six months). The book closes with Roosevelt boarding the train that will take him to the presidency after McKinley's assassination. This account is greatly enriched by the author's meticulous research into Albany's public archives and private collections.

In each position, Roosevelt pursued his persistent, if uneven, battles against corruption and cronyism, and his adversarial style ranged from an early petulance and arrogance to the maturity of an operator who balanced "seduction and flattery" with "intense anger and grudges." Only the office of the Vice President, a "trifling position as McKinley's understudy," seemed a "political dead end."

In addition, the author blends in a masterful account of Roosevelt's personal life: his intensely devoted relationship with his sister Bamie, his short-lived first marriage, the dual tragedy that nearly ended his career, his subsequent life as a family man, and the occasional strains his ambitions brought to his second marriage. Making full use of the hundreds of letters Roosevelt sent to his sister, Grondahl shows there's more depth to the future President than the caricature of the weakling-turned-strongman that Roosevelt himself was so eager to present in his public writings. This is no hagiography: Roosevelt's aims could be as self-serving as they were honorable.

And, finally, the almost-novelistic prose of "I Rose Like a Rocket" is compulsively readable. In spite of its academic vigor and scrupulous research, it's one of the quickest 400-page biographies you're ever likely to read.

This new biography focuses greatly on the political career of TR from his early days as a New York State Assemblyman, through his career as a Washington bureaucrat, back to New York City as a Police Commissioner, back to Albany and the New York Governor's mansion, then skillfully bobbing his way to the Vice Presidency, and his fateful ascension to the top office after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. This book has asides on his youth and his non-political life, but the book stops right upon his ascension to the Presidency, for this is all-too familiar territory. What is amazing to contemplate, though, is that TR was only 42 upon becoming President, yet he had nearly two decades of politicking behind him. How so many biographies have glossed over his pre-Presidential political life is beyond me. For it was in these earlier incarnations that the man who became a pro-business, pro-middle class Progressive was born. From his earliest pugnacious encounters with senior politicians ready to literally sandbag him (quoth TR, in response: `I'll kick you, I'll bite you, I'll kick you in the balls. I'll do anything to you- you'd better leave me alone.'), to his strained but admiring relationship with reform-minded Democratic New York Governor and later President Grover Cleveland- including such tidbits as TR's role in shepherding New York's first civil service law, which reduced the power of political patronage brokers, to Cleveland's desk- the book allows insights into TR, the politician and man, from his overt, risk-addicted personality to his covert, subtler manipulations.

The book also sketches a personal side of TR not oft-explored, at least in its relation to his politics, such as his first marriage and widowerhood, and his numerous writing commitments to serial magazines of the day, on a whole assortment of topics. It also details how the man's principles often hampered his overall rise, which was less rocket-like, and more bulldozer-like, especially in his resuscitation of the office of assistant Navy Secretary. Of course, his style of politicking earned numerous enemies, who conspired to defeat his bid for the mayoralty of New York City, stymied many police reforms, and then even tried to deny him renomination after a successful governorship, instead conspiring with him to get him the Vice Presidential nod just to get him out of the state. This was because, despite being a wealthy scion of a centuries old New York Dutch clan, TR had a social conscience- displayed when he championed Jacob Riis's seminal tracts on urban poverty, or when hr took up union leader Samuel Gompers' challenge to visit the vile tenements of the city he was born in. Yes, many of these exploits were media manipulations, but what set TR apart from such latter-day phonies as Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, is that his care for the oppressed was not dependent upon the media glare. He also was pro-business while being pro-corporate responsibility- shrewdly building public support of the state's first tax on corporations. He knew wealth must first be created before it can be distributed. He also gave state employees an eight-hour workday, one of the first such laws in the country.

In short, this book is well worth the read, and has less of the calculated polish of a historian's attempt at hagiography, with none of the self-important puffery, and more of a down and dirty muckraker's attempt to tell a reader about a man who stood up for himself. Ontogeny recapitulates biography, or something like that. Bravo!

Another excellent addition to the biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, Paul Grondahl writes well and offers further insights to the political achievements of one of our greatest and most colorful presidents. Recognizing the necessity of including biographical information to drive the political ascendancy of Roosevelt, the book covers the life of Roosevelt including his family, his adventures, his personality, his value system, and mostly how others reacted to him. From his early days in the legislature, through police commissioner, to governorship, and eventually the Presidency, Roosevelt led a full life of rugged individualism, scholarship, heroism, and unparalleled energy.

Grondahl's obvious background in journalism serves him well in this reporter style biography. Excellent writing, thorough unbiased presentation, and a nice balance of politics and personality make this a complete look at Roosevelt's unusually vigorous and young rise to the top of the political world. The research is precise, comprehensive, and incorporates quotes from Roosevelt and others. The occasional interpretation simply gives another look at the complicate man and provides a more complete picture.

Occasionally the political events and abundance of names gets overwhelming as does the Tammany information. While the focus of the book is on the political structure and Roosevelt himself, there are times when a closer look or a micro-historical glance at the people and how their lives were affected by Roosevelt's decisions would have given the book a more "common man" feel. Hinting at the complexity and difficulty surrounding his own family, the story seemed to avoid dwelling deeply on those aspects that might have deeply touched Roosevelt, thereby affecting his political machinations. In spite of the attempt to blend the emotional and personal with the global, a reader still gets a perfunctory glimpse into the character of TR.

Overall this is an outstanding contribution to the multitude of volumes on Roosevelt. "I Rose Like a Rocket" is highly recommended for Roosevelt fans and anyone curious as to his political rise to the top. For me, it simply whetted my appetite for more knowledge. Readers need to know that the chronology ends at the start of TR's presidency and does not include any political or biographical information afterward.