Theodore Roosevelt: The Rough Riders/An Autobiography (Library Of America)

Theodore Roosevelt: The Rough Riders/An Autobiography (Library of America)

Reformer, rancher, conservationist, hunter, historian, police commissioner, soldier, the youngest man ever to serve as president of the United States--no other American public figure has led as vigorous and varied a life as Theodore Roosevelt. This volume brings together two fascinating autobiographical works. The Rough Riders (1899) is the story of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, the regiment Roosevelt led to enduring fame during the Spanish-American War. With his characteristic elan Roosevelt recounts how "these grim hunters of the mountains, these wild rough riders of the plains," endured the heat, hunger, rain, mud, and malaria of the Cuban campaign to charge triumphantly up the San Juan Heights during the Battle of Santiago. In An Autobiography (1913), Roosevelt describes his life in politics and the emergence of his progressive ideas. Surveying his career as a state legislator, civil service reformer, New York City police commissioner, assistant secretary of the navy, governor, and president, Roosevelt writes of his battles against corruption, his role in establishing America as a world power, his passionate commitment to conservation, and his growing conviction that only a strong national government and an energetic presidency could protect the public against the rapacious greed of modern corporations.