The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book Read Online Free PDF

talented presidents in U.S. history. Some of his predecessors may have been more versed in the classics, but TR was better equipped to digest facts on issues that mattered to statesmen, such as military history and affairs, economics, and business statistics. His experience at Harvard helped him develop his reading, concentration, and retention skills.
    TR’s Attention Span
    Charles William Eliot, the president of Harvard when TR was in attendance, recalled his remarkable power of concentration. Although TR confessed that he rarely saw Eliot, the president knew about him.
    TR lamented the lack of science courses at Harvard. Ironically, Eliot is remembered for expanding the range of courses during his tenure and offering undergraduates unlimited choices in selecting from the list. He wanted them to discover their “natural bents” and pursue them into specialized studies.
    Eliot stated that “the intellectual power which most attracted the attention of his [TR’s] companions and teachers was an extraordinary capacity for concentrating every faculty on the work at hand, whether it were reading, writing, listening, or boxing.”
    He added that TR “would read by himself in a room half-filled with noisy students without having his attention distracted even for an instant; indeed, he would make no answer to questions addressed directly to him, and did not seem to hear them.” That was a talent that TR never lost.

There Is More to College than Studying
    TR became a “joiner” at Harvard. When he wasn’t boxing, engaging in endurance contests, or studying, he was participating in a club activity of some sort. He was connected with The Advocate , Harvard’s undergraduate journal of fiction, poetry, art, and criticism, and the O. K. Society, a group of the publication’s editors, which included him.
    At various times he was a member and vice president of the Natural History Society, the Art Club, the Finance Club, the Glee Club, the Harvard Rifle Corps, and the Harvard Athletic Association.
    His position as editor reflected TR’s enthusiasm and penchant for challenging authorities. In 1916, on the fiftieth anniversary of the publication’s founding, Albert Bushnell Hart, then head of the government department at Harvard and a classmate of TR’s, talked about the newspaper in 1880. He noted that those were turbulent days.

TR was by far the most honored member of the Harvard Class of 1880 when it came to advanced degrees, honorary degrees, and society memberships. Only one classmate came close: Albert Bushnell Hart. His resume included a PhD in history, an LLD, honorary degrees from Tufts (1905) and Western Reserve (1907), and a LittD. He became a professor of history and a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
    Hart hastened to add that it was not because TR was editor. Rather, he said, “The entire board was a fighting organization, with definite ideas of needed reforms and a positive manner in urging them.”
    Social Climber
    TR also joined the Hasty Pudding Club; the oldest collegiate social club in the United States; the “Dickey,” the nickname for the Institute of 1770, the oldest club at Harvard; and the prestigious Porcellian Club (The “Pork”). The Porcellian, a men’s-only group, was the last club a student could join prior to graduation. For that reason, it was called a “final club.”
    Membership in such clubs, particularly the “Dickey,” drew charges of snobbery from some of TR’s classmates. “Dickey” members often ate off campus in small groups, away from school activities. TR did the same thing. He was not particularly concerned at that point about what other students thought of him or his eating habits. He was simply doing the right things to establish his place in the Harvard caste system and his college legacy.
    Some of the clubs to which he belonged were offshoots of his interests, e.g., the Natural History Club, the Harvard Rifle Corps, and the athletic association. He was