Word: rooseveltã
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Dates: during 2001-2001
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...great irony that one of the United States’ most erudite presidents was also one of the least suited for the patient, critical style of university life. Roosevelt??s senior thesis at Harvard had grown within a couple years of his graduation into a full-scale volume of naval history that remains today the definitive work in its field. And yet he could not shake his disdain for an institution that despite its resources had produced only one of the three men most prominent in American colonialism—Secretary of War (later State) Elihu Root, Philippines...
What comes across with striking clarity in this biography are two things: Roosevelt??s vigor and his endless supply of moral confidence. As a politician and as a private person, the man was nervy. Morris’ title refers to a comment from Henry James that fairly summed up his autocratic style of leadership as he tore through opposition—foreign and domestic—to achieve what he considered the only moral outcomes. Opposition, such as he saw at Harvard, was lazy and callow: “Those who remain on the sidelines...
Earnestness grows tiresome fast, however, and it is a strength of both the biographer and his subject that it is leavened with snapshots of Roosevelt??s extraordinary energy and curiosity. At various points in the narrative we are informed that Roosevelt was studying jujitsu, conducting ornithological surveys, reading unreal amounts of literature and nonfiction, steering submarines, publishing papers on natural history, setting the Guiness record for shaking hands and killing bears—all while in office. When he invited foreign emissaries for weekend jaunts, he advised them to wear clothes they didn’t care about...
Harvard’s soul is in the Yard, where ghosts walk. To sleep where your heroes slept—Thoreau, Emerson, Gertrude Stein, Franklin Roosevelt??to follow the paths they walked on, is a rare privilege in a young country. I come from Los Angeles, a city famous for obliterating all traces of its past. In the Yard, the trees are saturated with the spirits of great women and men, as well as the thousands of mere mortals who occupied this ground in an unbroken line that extends far past the founding of the republic itself...
What follows is a whirlwind romp through American history as it pertains to the Supreme Court. Rehnquist offers short sketches of influential justices who aren’t as well known, such as Justices Joseph Story, Samuel Miller and Rufus Peckham. His description of Franklin Delano Roosevelt??s failed attempt to “pack” the Supreme Court is especially engaging, and brings to life the drama of the event. Every major case touched upon in high school U.S. history is at least mentioned, and sometimes lavishly described, up through the Warren Court. Marbury v. Madison...