The Strenuous Life by {author}: summary and why it matters

What it argues

The title essay comes from a speech Roosevelt gave to the Hamilton Club in Chicago in April 1899. He argued that a nation, like a person, needs to prefer the hard path of effort and risk to the soft one of ease, that the doctrine of ignoble ease would lead to decline, and that the United States should accept the duties that came with its power, such as the administration of the new territories.

The other essays include writings on the American ideal of manhood, on the responsibilities of citizenship and good government, on the need for a strong navy and on the importance of national character. He praises work and family, with a stress on fatherhood and motherhood, and condemns the race suicide of small families, a phrase that has not aged well.

The collection reflects the optimism, confidence and imperial assumptions of the era.

Why it matters

It is a source for a vigorous and moral style of public life and for the progressive-era conservative nationalism that Roosevelt represented. Some of its views on race and empire are dated, and readers should judge them in context.

About the author

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was a New York politician, historian and rancher who served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, commander of the Rough Riders in Cuba, governor of New York and, from 1901, the twenty-sixth president. He wrote dozens of books, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War.

Who should read it

Readers who like speeches and who are interested in character and citizenship.