He was basically the original action movie star who happened to run the country. Honestly, when you think about a former president of the United States, your brain probably defaults to guys in grey suits or stiff oil paintings that look like they haven’t blinked in a century. Then there's Teddy. Theodore Roosevelt didn't just hold the office; he lived it at a level of intensity that would give a modern influencer a nervous breakdown.
Imagine getting shot in the chest right before a speech. Most people would go to the hospital. Roosevelt? He looked at the blood, realized he wasn't coughing it up—which meant his lung wasn't punctured—and decided to speak for ninety minutes anyway. That isn't a tall tale; it’s just a Tuesday for him. This kind of raw, unfiltered energy is why we’re still talking about him over a hundred years later. He wasn't just a politician. He was a naturalist, a soldier, a boxer, and a guy who wrestled with the very idea of what America should be.
The Rough Rider Who Hated the Name
It’s kinda funny that we call them the Rough Riders. Roosevelt actually preferred "The First Volunteer Cavalry," but the press knew a good headline when they saw one. Before he was the former president of the United States, he was a guy mourning the loss of his wife and mother—who both died on the same day—by fleeing to the Badlands to be a rancher. He basically tried to outrun grief by becoming a cowboy.
When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, he didn't have to go. He was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He could have stayed in D.C. and pushed papers. Instead, he quit his job, gathered a bunch of ivy-league athletes and rugged frontiersmen, and headed to Cuba. The charge up San Juan Hill (technically Kettle Hill) became the foundation of his legend. It was messy. It was violent. But it gave him the political capital to become Governor of New York, and eventually, the Vice President.
Why the Establishment Tried to Bury Him
You’ve got to understand that the GOP establishment at the time actually hated him. They thought he was a "madman." Mark Hanna, a powerful senator, famously complained about putting "that damned cowboy" just one heartbeat away from the presidency. They wanted him in the Vice Presidency because back then, it was a political graveyard. They figured he’d sit there, be quiet, and disappear.
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Then McKinley was assassinated in 1901.
Suddenly, the man they tried to hide was the youngest president in history. He didn't play by the old rules. He went after the "trusts"—the massive monopolies like Northern Securities—and earned the nickname "Trust Buster." He didn't hate corporations, but he hated the idea that they were more powerful than the government. He wanted a "Square Deal" for everyone.
The Conservation Legacy Nobody Expected
Most people know about the teddy bear story—how he refused to shoot a captured bear—but his real environmental impact was massive. He didn't just like nature; he was obsessed with it. While other politicians saw the American West as a giant ATM to be cashed out, Roosevelt saw it as a soul-level necessity.
- He established the United States Forest Service.
- He signed the Antiquities Act of 1906.
- Roosevelt protected approximately 230 million acres of public land.
- He created 51 federal bird reserves and 5 national parks.
He’d spend days in the wilderness with John Muir, sleeping on the ground and talking about the "strenuous life." Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, actually had to convince him to stop hunting so much and start preserving more. It worked. If you've ever stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon and marveled that there isn't a strip mall or a luxury condo blocking the view, you can thank him.
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Life After the White House: The Amazon Disaster
Being a former president of the United States usually involves writing a memoir and building a library. Roosevelt decided to go to the Amazon and find a "River of Doubt." It almost killed him. In 1913, he joined the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition. It was a nightmare of malaria, infected wounds, and starvation. He lost a quarter of his body weight. At one point, he told his son Kermit to leave him behind to die so the rest of the group could survive.
He made it out, but he was never the same physically. The "Bull Moose" was finally slowing down. Even then, he tried to volunteer to fight in World War I when he was nearly 60. President Woodrow Wilson told him no, which Roosevelt never really forgave.
The Bull Moose Legacy
The 1912 election was wild. Roosevelt felt his successor, William Howard Taft, had betrayed his progressive ideals. So, he did what any rational person would do: he started his own party. The Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party) actually beat the sitting president in the popular vote, which is unheard of for a third party. He didn't win, but he fundamentally changed the platform of American politics, pushing for things like women's suffrage and social insurance long before they were mainstream.
Roosevelt represents a specific kind of American archetype that doesn't really exist anymore. He was an intellectual who wrote dozens of books, but he was also a guy who would challenge visitors to wrestling matches in the White House. He was complicated. He had views on race and imperialism that are rightfully criticized today, but he also invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House—a move that caused a massive scandal in the segregated South.
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How to Apply the Roosevelt Mindset Today
If you're looking to take a page out of his book, it’s not about hunting big game or starting a war. It's about the "Strenuous Life." He believed that a life of ease was a wasted life.
- Seek out physical challenges. Roosevelt was a sickly, asthmatic kid who basically willed himself into being strong. He called it "making his body."
- Read everything. He reportedly read a book a day, even while president. He could discuss Irish folklore, naval history, and ornithology in the same breath.
- Protect the "Commons." Whether it's a local park or a national forest, Roosevelt believed that some things belong to everyone and shouldn't be sold to the highest bidder.
- Embrace the "Man in the Arena" philosophy. Don't be the critic on the sidelines. It's better to fail while daring greatly than to be a "cold and timid soul" who knows neither victory nor defeat.
To truly understand this former president of the United States, you have to look at the sheer volume of his output. He didn't do anything halfway. Whether he was boxing a professional heavyweight in the White House (and losing sight in one eye because of it) or negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese War (and winning a Nobel Peace Prize), he was all in.
Next time you're feeling a bit stagnant, go for a hike in a National Park. Look at the preserved wilderness and realize it only exists because a guy with thick glasses and a big mustache decided it was worth fighting for. Read his "Man in the Arena" speech from 1910. It’s arguably the best thing ever written about the courage it takes to just try. Take a walk in the woods without your phone. Read a biography that challenges your perspective on American history, like Edmund Morris’s The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. Most importantly, find a cause that matters more than your own comfort and get to work. Roosevelt wouldn't have expected anything less.