SOURCE: "Theodore Roosevelt: Learned Style," in The Learned Presidency, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1988, pp. 39-88.

In the following essay, Burton examines the influences that formed Roosevelt's prose style.

On 7 June 1910, in the Sheldonian Theatre of the University of Oxford, ex-President Theodore Roosevelt delivered the Romanes Lecture. He called it "The World Movement—Biological Analogies in History." The invitation by Lord Curzon, the chancellor of the university, to give the address was recognition accorded Roosevelt as a distinguished man of letters as well as a former American president. His reputation in each regard was understood and appreciated on both sides of the Atlantic. Roosevelt found the prospect of giving the Romanes Lecture greatly attractive. It would afford him the opportunity once more of expounding his view of modern history, the leading feature of which was the world movement of the European races across the backward areas of the world...