Growing up on Long Island, a visit to Sagamore Hill was a staple of our existence. I can remember going there with my school as well as several times with my parents and then with my own children. Other than Billy Joel, Theodore Roosevelt was considered to be the biggest celebrity from Long Island until that point. The thing is, he originally was a city boy, as David McCullough details in this book, covering Roosevelt’s early life. His reputation as a rugged westerner was something achieved following the death of his first wife.

In Mornings on Horseback, McCullough delves into the history of the Roosevelt family to demonstrate the environment Teddy grew up in. The family was very close, and Teddy was especially close to his older sister Anna, known affectionately as “Bammie.” As a child, Teddy suffered from debilitating asthma attacks, which led him to exercise to try to strengthen his body. The history of a time that is depicted in The Gilded Age was very interesting. The Roosevelt family had to conform to many of the dictates of society, but they were also uniquely their own family. Teddy challenged what was expected of him as a gentleman in many ways.

There are a number of tangeants in the narrative of Teddy’s early life. McCullough goes into asides about what was happening in New York City during his early years, and his father’s cursory involvement in City politics. This sets the stage for Teddy’s own forays into politics, once he finds studying law to be irrational. When his father died at a relatively young age, Teddy inherited enough money to be comfortable for the rest of his life, but he doesn’t rest on his laurels, regardless.

MuCullough has researched the family thoroughly, with much of the narrative he creates derived from letters written by the people themselves. It was interesting to see the home environment of young Teddy Roosevelt through these narratives. His letters to family rarely complained about much of anything. He seems to try to be optimistic and see the bright side of things, even when he might be the subject of others’ derision. I thought this was especially the case when he wrote home during his time enrolled at Harvard University. Roosevelt seemed to be on the outside looking in among many of his classmates, but it never seemed to actually bother him. Instead, he seemed to throw himself into life at college all the harder.

It was at Harvard that he met Alice Lee, who was the sister of one of his classmates. His pursuit of her was the first time any of the family saw him show any interest in a relationship. Alice turned him down the first time he asked her to marry him, but that didn’t put Teddy off. Rather than there being a rivalry, Alice seemed to get on very well with Teddy’s mother and sisters once they were married.

I liked seeing how Teddy’s conscience was developed during his early political years as well. A Republican, Teddy was very much a Progressive as well. When he saw the living conditions for the working class in New York City, he was appalled. The Republican Party then was a far cry from what it is now.

The narration of this audiobook is excellent. Narrated by Nelson Runger, he’s clear and easy to follow. Perhaps due to the fact that it’s non-fiction, there’s no real attempt to act differently depending on the perspective or the voice currently being heard. I liked this since it didn’t distract at all from the extensive history given by McCullough.

Mornings on Horseback isn’t a comprehensive history of Teddy Roosevelt. It’s a history of the early years of his life and the environment he grew up in that helped craft the man who would one day become the 26th President of the United States. I found it quite enjoyable and informative, as well as showing me how Teddy was related to FDR. Eleanor Roosevelt was his niece, something I did not know. The Roosevelts were wealthy, but they also had a different attitude about what that meant in society, and Teddy was sympathetic to people from all walks of life. This was demonstrated in his early work as a state Assemblyman in New York. It took several years after Alice died for him to get back to the life he once had, but he did so without losing the desire to help build a better world for everybody.

If you’re interested in the Roosevelt family, I can’t recommend Mornings on Horseback enough. At 445 pages, it’s not as long as some McCullough books, but this is because he focuses mostly on Teddy’s early life and ends the book before he charged up San Juan Hill or became the Vice President. There’s so much more to learn about the man, but I doubt anyone could depict his early life and times as well as McCullough has.