American Made: Theodore Roosevelt   We've been working hard to introduce to you a new ongoing series titled: American Made. It will feature a character from American History that embodies the classic American ideals we admire, and a person that directly contributed to the success of our great nation! We hope you're as excited as we are about this!  Don't forget to "subscribe" to the show on Apple Podcasts and leave a review!  Let us know what you think, we love hearing from you (good or bad)! Email us at: [email protected] You can check out our website for all the latest!  The Early Years     The man that would eventually become one of the most charismatic and personable presidents in our country’s history was anything like his persona during his early years. He was born as a small, sickly child, hardly the embodiment of a leader as he would eventually become to be known for the most.  He became the type of man that takes his destiny into his own hands and successfully overcame his physical health problems by embracing a strenuous lifestyle. He integrated his exuberant personality, vast range of interests, and world-famous achievements into a "cowboy" persona defined by robust masculinity.     Home-schooled, he began a lifelong naturalist avocation before attending Harvard College. His book, The Naval War of 1812 (1882), established his reputation as both a learned historian and as a popular writer. Upon entering politics, he became the leader of the reform faction of Republicans in New York's state legislature. Following the near-simultaneous deaths of his wife and mother, he escaped to a cattle ranch in the Dakotas. Roosevelt served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley, but resigned from that post to lead the Rough Riders during the Spanish–American War.     Returning a war hero, he was elected Governor of New York in 1898. After the death of Vice President Garret Hobart, the New York state party leadership convinced McKinley to accept Roosevelt as his running mate in the 1900 election, moving Roosevelt to the prestigious but powerless role of vice president. Roosevelt campaigned vigorously and the McKinley-Roosevelt ticket won a landslide victory based on a platform of peace, prosperity, and conservatism.   Early Politics     Following McKinley's assassination in September 1901, Roosevelt became president at age 42, and remains the youngest president to take office. As a leader of the Progressive movement, he championed his "Square Deal" domestic policies, promising the average citizen fairness, breaking of trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs.      Making conservation a top priority, he established many new national parks, forests, and monuments intended to preserve the nation's natural resources. In foreign policy, he focused on Central America, where he began construction of the Panama Canal. He expanded the Navy and sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to project the United States' naval power around the globe.      His successful efforts to broker the end of the Russo-Japanese War won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. He avoided the controversial tariff and money issues. Elected in 1904 to a full term, Roosevelt continued to promote progressive policies, but many of his efforts and much of his legislative agenda were eventually blocked in Congress. Roosevelt successfully groomed his close friend, William Howard Taft, and Taft won the 1908 presidential election to succeed him.      In polls of historians and political scientists, Roosevelt is generally ranked as one of the five best presidents.     Roosevelt didn't stay long at law school, opting instead to join the New York State Assembly as a representative from New York City—becoming the youngest to serve in that position. Not long after, Roosevelt was speeding through various public service positions, including captain of the National Guard and minority leader of the New York Assembly. However, the tragic deaths of his mother and his wife, which occurred on the same day (February 14, 1884), propelled Roosevelt to leave for the Dakota Territory for two years. There, he lived as a cowboy and cattle rancher, leaving his infant daughter in the care of his elder sister.     Returning to political life in 1886, Roosevelt was defeated for the New York City mayorship. Around the same time, he married his second wife, Edith Kermit Carow, whom he had known as a child (they had watched the funeral procession of Abraham Lincoln from a window in his grandfather's house on Union Square in New York City). Roosevelt soon resumed his career trajectory, first as a civil service commissioner, then as a New York City police commissioner and Assistant U.S. Navy Secretary under President William McKinley.     Taking a keen interest in the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt left his government post to organize a volunteer cavalry known as the Rough Riders, which he led in a bold charge up San Juan Hill in the Battle of San Juan Heights, in 1898. A war hero, and nominated for the Medal of Honor, Roosevelt was elected governor of New York in 1898.   Presidential Life     Roosevelt's progressive policies in New York ran him afoul of his own party, so Republican Party bosses plotted to quiet him by naming him on the McKinley ticket in the thankless post of vice president. However, after his re-election in 1901, President McKinley was assassinated. At age 42, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt became the youngest man to assume the U.S. presidency.     Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency is distinguished by his dedication to prosecuting monopolies under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Out of this commitment grew a benchmark of his first term, the "Square Deal"—a domestic program that embraced reform of the American workplace, government regulation of industry and consumer protection, with the overall aim of helping all classes of people. Roosevelt's charismatic personality and impassioned combination of pounding fists and emphatic rhetoric undoubtedly helped in pushing his agenda.     In 1905, Teddy Roosevelt walked his niece, Eleanor Roosevelt, down the aisle (Theodore's brother, Elliott, had died in 1894) during the wedding ceremony for Eleanor and her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin D. Roosevelt.     Around the same time, believing that America needed to take its rightful place on the world stage, Roosevelt initiated a massive public relations effort. Engaging his unofficial policy of “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” Roosevelt bulked up the U.S. Navy and created the "Great White Fleet," sending it on a world tour as a testament to U.S. military power. He also helped expedite completion of the Panama Canal by providing tacit approval of the Panama revolution with funds and a naval blockade preventing Columbian troops from landing in Panama. President Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his role in negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese War. Roosevelt believed that if Japan had devastated Russia, it would lead to an imbalance of power in the Pacific, one that the United States would eventually have to realign , but at a disastrous cost.     Roosevelt's international  stance was the impetus for the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which claims the right to intervene in cases of wrongdoing by a Latin American or any other nation, though some critics assert that the doctrine designates the United States as the "policeman" of the western world. While it is true Theodore Roosevelt supported desegregation and women's suffrage, his administration took an often passive, sometimes contradictory approach to improving civil rights. He defended Minnie Cox, who experienced racial discrimination in the South while working as a postmaster, and strongly supported a woman’s right to vote in 1912. Roosevelt  was also the first president to entertain an African-American, Booker T. Washington, as a guest at the White House. However, the political backlash from the event was so severe that he never invited Washington back again.     One of Roosevelt’s less admirable actions regarding civil rights occurred in 1906. The War Department Inspector General had investigated an incident in Brownsville, Texas, involving black troops who had been accused of a shooting rampage that left one white person dead and another wounded. The Inspector General’s report recommended the president dismiss the solders because none would confess. Roosevelt waited until after the November elections—after hundreds of thousands of blacks cast their votes for Republican candidates across the North—and then dismissed all 167 black soldiers from the service. None would receive their pensions.         Roosevelt has also been deemed the country's first environmentalist president. In 1906, he signed the National Monuments Act, protecting sites like the Grand Canyon and preserving countless wildlife sanctuaries, national forests and federal game reserves. He also made headway with the nation’s infrastructure, instigating 21 federal irrigation projects.     The presidential mansion officially became known as the White House when Roosevelt had the name emblazoned on his stationery. He hired the most illustrious architects of the time, McKim Mead and White, to renovate the decrepit mansion. During his presidential term, the White House served as a lively playground for the Roosevelts' six children; due in no small part to the president's passion for sports and books, each room of the home was enlivened with activity, from crawl space to library. "Giving the pony a ride in the elevator was but one of many stunts" of the (Theodore) Roosevelt White House, according to memoirs published in 1934 by Ike Hoover, the White House's chief usher.   Post-Presidency     When Teddy Roosevelt left office in 1909, he felt assured that he was leaving the nation able hands; Roosevelt's successor was his friend, former Secretary of War William Howard Taft. Having enjoyed his travels in Europe and the Middle East with his family as a young boy, as well as his two years as a rancher in the Dakotas and countless hunting trips, it seems only logical that Roosevelt's next move would be embarking on an African safari.     But after two years of collecting specimens, speaking engagements and traveling—including as special ambassador to England for the funeral of King Edward VII—Roosevelt became disgruntled with Taft’s weak enforcement of progressive policies, and decided to make another run for the presidency. To do so, though, meant launching a third party initiative, as Taft was running on the Republican Party ticket. So Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party, also known as the "Bull Moose Party," and began campaigning for the 1912 election. While delivering a speech on the campaign trail in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Roosevelt was shot in the chest in an assassination attempt by John Nepomuk Schrank. Shockingly, he continued his speech for 90 minutes before seeing a doctor, later chalking up the incident to the hazards of the business.     Roosevelt lost to Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 election, in a rather close popular vote. He considered running again in 1916, winning the Progressive nomination, but bowed out in favor of Republican Party nominee Charles Evans Hughes. His political aspirations, however, would soon prove to be far from over. In 1914 when war broke out in Europe, Roosevelt became frustrated with Wilson’s stance on neutrality and continually criticized the president’s policy. When the U.S. finally declared war, Roosevelt requested permission to head a volunteer division for service in France in World War I, but Wilson had the Secretary of War turn him down.     Roosevelt was proud that all four of his sons enlisted for service during WWI, but brokenhearted when his youngest son, Quentin, was shot and killed in Germany.   Death and Legacy     When Teddy Roosevelt was a young boy, doctors discovered that he had a weak heart, and advised him to get a desk job and not strain himself. However, he lived a more active life than most. Outside of his political career, Roosevelt published more than 25 books about a range of subjects, including history, biology, geography and philosophy. He also published a biography and an autobiography, including The Winning of the West, comprised of four volumes.     Theodore Roosevelt died in his sleep on January 6, 1919, at his Long Island estate, Sagamore Hill, after suffering a coronary embolism. He was 60 years old. He was buried at the Youngs Memorial Cemetery in New York.     Although he was denied the Medal of Honor for the Battle of San Juan Heights, Roosevelt posthumously received the honor—the highest award for military service in the United States—more than 100 years later, on January 16, 2001, Roosevelt was the first president to receive the Medal of Honor, conferred by President Bill Clinton.     Teddy Roosevelt's energetic vision helped bring the nation into the new century. America owes nearly 200 million acres of national forest and parkland to his foresight—some of which can be viewed atop Mount Rushmore, where Roosevelt's visage is carved in memorial.     Works Cited:

• Robert W. Merry, President McKinley: Architect of the American Century (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017)
• Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic” delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910
• Medal of Honor Citation, The Congressional Medal of Honor Society, http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/2178/roosevelt-theodore.php 
• Sidney Milkis, “Theodore Roosevelt: Foreign Affairs,” US Presidents: Theodore Roosevelt. The University of Virginia Miller Center. 2017