Great, I am done with Volume One.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. , a controversial man in American history. He plays a lot of roles in the course of history. The following describes the course of his life,

From his early days as an Assembly man in New York state Assembly ->Commissioner of the Civil Service Commission-> Police Commissioner of New York->Assistant Secretary of the US Navy->Lieutenant Colonel of the "Rough Riders"-> Governor of New York State-> Vice President of the United States-> President of the United States.

"The rise of T.R" is definitely a good book that gives a good description on the late 19th century politics in America. It paints a picture about the working of the many political machines and their influences in the American political system. For example, in order to get nominated, a candidate should secure their nomination by their Party Bosses. If they did get nominated, the candidates were controlled by the Party Bosses like stringed puppets to select the many candidates that the Bosses prefer in the many essential government bureaucratic bodies which essentially supports the "Spoil system" that is heavily rooted after the election of Andrew Jackson as the president of the U.S.A. Of course, by looking at The U.S from the 21st century, we can't deny the fact that this spoil system may still exist in this great nation but I am sure a great control has been put in place to restrict the power of these political machineries.

Other than a good picture of the late 19th century politics, I was able to read about T.R, a man who grew up as one who could imagine may not live past his fourth birthday, to his time before he was called upon as the next President of the United States when his president, William McKinley was assassinated by an Anarchist. The book gives many small details about the interesting characteristics of T.R that the reader like me may grow to love and to hate. Well, it definitely gives a different feel to me since I have yet to read an biography since last year.

However, I do encourage people to read this book since it gives us a thought about this great man who may be the first and the strongest candidate to represent Americanism. Although this book is the first book out of a three book series by Edmund Morris, a Kenyan writer who wrote not only about T.R but Ronald Reagan and Beethoven, this books really gives us a good picture about the early life of T.R as a child until he became the president of the United States.