The Strenuous Life

Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of the American Athlete

Ryan Swanson

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Hardback

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English

Diversion Books
29 October 2019

History of the Americas; Political leaders & leadership

Featuring an amazing cast of historical figures, this is the story of how President Theodore Roosevelt led an American sports and fitness revolution.

Give up exercise, Theodore Roosevelt was told by a doctor while attending Harvard, or you might die of a heart attack! This after being plagued by crippling asthma, myopic eyesight, and other ailments as a child. Roosevelt's body was his weakness, the one hill he could never conquer. But, oh, how he tried! In vivid detail, The Strenuous Life shows how Roosevelt developed an obsession with athletics, carried it to the nation's highest office, and championed a new age of American athleticism. As President, Roosevelt boxed, practiced Ju-Jitsu, played tennis, conducted harrowing ""point-to-point"" walks, and invited athletes to the White House. He also made certain that each of his children played sports. Not surprisingly, Roosevelt's personal quest had broad reverberations. During his administration, America saw an unprecedented rise in sports and recreational activities. With Roosevelt in office, baseball's first ever World Series took place, interscholastic sports began, and schools placed a legitimate emphasis on physical education. Additionally, the NCAA formed, and the United States hosted the Olympics for the first time. Yes, the ""Bull Moose,"" as he'd come to be known, resided squarely in the midst of this upheaval. Filled with amazing anecdotes, a who's who of American political and sports figures from the early 20th century, and Rooseveltian gusto and humor, this book is the play-by-play and color commentary on Roosevelt's ""Strenuous Life.""

By: Ryan Swanson
Imprint: Diversion Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 228mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781635766127
ISBN 10: 1635766125
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 29 October 2019
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Ryan Swanson is an Associate Professor of history at the University of New Mexico's Honors College. He earned his Ph.D. in history from Georgetown in 2008 and has been studying and researching Theodore Roosevelt and his role in athletics in the United States for the past ten years. He is the author of When Baseball Went White: Reconstruction, Reconciliation, and Dreams of a National Pastime, which won the 2015 Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) research award, and co-editor of Separate Games: African American Sport Behind the Walls of Segregation, which received a North American Society for Sport History (NASSH) book prize in 2017. Swanson has also published a wide variety of articles and book chapters on the role of athletics in the United States.

Reviews for The Strenuous Life: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of the American Athlete

A contemporary described Theodore Roosevelt, America's most peripatetic president, as `pure act.' He prefigured modern America, including its passion for competitive sports. Ryan Swanson shows how the person who turned himself from a sickly youth into a robust man saw athletics as means of making a muscular nation. . -George F. Will The Strenuous Life is essential reading for anyone who cares about the history of sports in America. In luminous prose, Ryan Swanson shows how, as athlete and president, Teddy Roosevelt shaped the contests we play, watch, and to which we are gloriously addicted. -Michael Kazin, author of War against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918 It seemed as if Theodore Roosevelt's biographers had closed the book on his life story. But Ryan Swanson has uncovered an untold chapter in Roosevelt's life. His work reveals how Teddy Roosevelt, the forefather of the `Strenuous Life,' became America's first sports president, shaping the country's obsessions with sports at a pivotal moment in American history. -Johnny Smith, author of Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship between Muhammad Ali and Malcom X