This section contains 5,014 words (approx. 17 pages at 300 words per page) |
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SOURCE: "Theodore Roosevelt, Historian," in Medieval and Historiographical Essays in Honor of James Westfall Thompson, edited by James Lea Cate and Eugene N. Anderson, Kennikat Press, Inc. 1966, pp. 423-38.
In the following essay, Miller offers a critical view of Roosevelt's historical works.
The career of historian was the first to which young Roosevelt, newly graduated from Harvard, turned his attention. He had considered the life of a naturalist, but reasons either sentimental or temperamental led him to abandon it. Probably it was a fortunate decision, for the earlier impulse came more from a healthy love of outdoors and an extension of his boyhood collecting habits than from any real interest in science as such. The older naturalist-philosopher on the bank of the lily pond was giving place to the scientist-technician with his laboratory and his microscope, and for that Roosevelt had no taste. He chose history.
He knew...
This section contains 5,014 words (approx. 17 pages at 300 words per page) |
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