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Loading... Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished…by David McCullough
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Excellent! McCullough focuses on TR's early life and family as he shows the development of TR's character. A superb book that takes you back in time to a forgotten way of life. I highly recommend for anyone who wants to understand TR. (  ) stevetempo | Aug 9, 2009 |  Although billed as a biography of the early life of Theodore Roosevelt, it really is as much a social history as a biography. As one expects from McCullough, the work is well researched and well written. It is a particularly engaging work because he has taken the time and effort to clearly develop the stories and characters of Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. and his wife, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, known as Mittie. To a lesser extent, one comes to know the future president's siblings and his large and close extended family. TR senior comes through as a philanthropist in the best sense of the word--dispensing not only his money but his time. Mittie was a true southern belle. One comes to appreciate the effect of the family's wealth and the personalities of the parents on the development of the younger TR. The political events and jockeying of the day are also an important part of this history. This book gives the reader an excellent understanding of how Teddy Roosevelt came to be the larger than life man who was the 26th president. ( )1  LisaCurcio | Apr 4, 2009 | I hereby join the chorus in praise of David McCullough. He's great. The NY "Times" calls him "our best social historian," and I'll certainly go along with that. In this book we get a closeup of "Teedy," as he was called by his family. In spite of a sickly, challenging childhood, TR grew up utterly indefatigable. His public life never swerved from the dictates of his conscience, and he changed America by running independently in 1912 (in the election that gave us Woodrow Wilson). The book points obliquely to a yearning to measure up to his over-achieving father, but Teddy's eventual accomplishment cannot be overstated. I finished this book (which devotes only a handful of pages at the end to TR's Presidency, BTW) with a much fuller appreciation of that fellow whose rightful place is in Mt. Rushmore. (  ) LukeS | Mar 23, 2009 | amira | Mar 11, 2009 | Great detailed account of Teddy's childhood, father, and family life. ( ) kcslade | Feb 5, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
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The father is the first Theodore Roosevelt, a figure of unbounded energy, enormously attractive and selfless, a god in the eyes of his small, frail namesake. The mother, Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt, is a Southerner and a celebrated beauty, but also considerably more, which the book makes clear as never before. There are sisters Anna and Corinne, brother Elliott (who becomes the father of Eleanor Roosevelt), and the lovely, tragic Alice Lee, TR's first love. All are brought to life to make "a beautifully told story, filled with fresh detail", wrote The New York Times Book Review.
A book to be read on many levels, it is at once an enthralling story, a brilliant social history and a work of important scholarship which does away with several old myths and breaks entirely new ground. It is a book about life intensely lived, about family love and loyalty, about grief and courage, about "blessed" mornings on horseback beneath the wide blue skies of the Badlands.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:18 -0400)
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