Analysis: Theodore Roosevelt in Cowboy-Land

Date: 1896

Author: Theodore Roosevelt

Genre: autobiography

Summary Overview

As president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt had a reputation for being a strong, brave, and rugged figure. T. R., as he was later known, is often credited with defining what it was to be a man at the turn of the century. In this view, masculinity was tough, adventurous, and uncompromising. But Roosevelt, born and raised in New York, did not learn the art of manliness among the East Coast's high society or even in the tumultuous world of politics. He learned it, as many Americans did, on the western frontier. Lured by the promise of adventure after a personal tragedy, T. R. got his most important education from cowboys and ranchers, from lawmen and outlaws whom he encountered amidst the wilds. Afterward, he was able to utilize the symbols of the American West to his political advantage. Roosevelt would become the first cowboy president, influencing not just how the public viewed the presidency, but also the men who held the office.

Defining Moment

After the death of his wife and mother on the same night in 1884, a young Theodore Roosevelt, heir to a wealthy and powerful New York family, fled west to the Badlands in Dakota Territory. As it did for so many countless other Americans in the mid- to late nineteenth century, the frontier, wild and untamed, held the promise of reinvention. Through hunting, killing, taming nature, facing danger, a man might truly become a man. It was there, amid the cowboys and Indians, that Roosevelt could escape his pain, and perhaps find new meaning. Equipping himself richly, with expensive clothes and western accessories, T. R. settled on a ranch on the banks of the Little Missouri. At first, the cowhands and ranchers he met and worked with had little respect for the New York dandy come to pretend he was a cowboy, but it wasn't long before this changed.

Roosevelt threw himself into his new life with fierce determination, and soon, he earned the respect of the frontiersmen and settlers he met. In a famous episode, which he would retell often in later years, he knocked out cold a cattlehand who dared make fun of his glasses. Roosevelt came to embody the essence of what it was to be an American cowboy. Never giving up, facing nature under even the most brutal conditions, relying solely on himself, T. R. would be reborn or die trying. Roosevelt did everything one can do in the West. He rode, drove cattle, drank, gambled, even pursued and captured outlaws. At one point, he met and befriended the famous sheriff of Deadwood, South Dakota, Seth Bullock, with whom he would maintain a friendship his whole life. The West did for T. R. exactly what he wanted. Life on the range reinvigorated the once sickly youth. He grew stronger, more confident, and more determined.

Upon his return east, Roosevelt wrote of his experiences in a book titled, Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail. Published in 1888, the book was a great success. It stirred the imagination of an American public already fascinated by the frontier. It also enlarged Roosevelt's stature, giving him the credentials of a strong and powerful man. Most importantly the book helped build, in the eyes of millions of Americans, the myth of the West—a magical place where men are men.

Author Biography

Theodore “T. R.” Roosevelt was born in New York City on October 27, 1858 to a noted upper class family. Suffering from poor health throughout his youth, T. R. sought strength in his father, a businessman and philanthropist, whom he idealized as a model of strength and courage. After his father's death in 1878, Roosevelt threw himself into his studies, eventually publishing a highly influential book on naval warfare. After the death of his first wife, T. R. travelled out West, where he reinvented himself as a rugged frontiersman and naturalist. Upon his return to New York he quickly remarried and pursued a career in politics, becoming assistant secretary of the Navy in 1897, only to resign a year later to join the fight during the Spanish-American War. After leading a company of cavalrymen famously called the Rough Riders, T. R. was celebrated as a war hero and leveraged his fame to win the governorship of New York, becoming Vice President a short time later. After the assassination of McKinley, T. R. became the twenty-sixth president of the United States, overseeing the breaking of the trusts and the building of the Panama Canal. After a failed bid for a third term (though technically only his second) in 1912, under the Progressive ticket, T. R. spent the remainder of his life exploring, writing, and loudly denouncing the policies of both Republican and Democratic presidents. He died in 1919.

Document Analysis

Theodore Roosevelt paints for the reader a portrait of life on the frontier. Life on the prairie revolves around cattle-ranching. People of all shapes and sizes, from all corners of the United States can be found in the “cow towns” that dot the region. These are strong men, rugged men, and, Roosevelt says, “it would be difficult to gather a finer body of men, in spite of their numerous shortcomings.” Roosevelt writes time and time again about which men are suited for which professions, and he describes the various interdependencies at play. Mostly however, his account is full of romanticism. Hunters, mountain men, settlers, ranchers all together, lounging under wooden awnings or galloping through town—these are true Americans, the rough core of the nation. They are men doing manly things in pursuit of business and progress. And among them, the cowboy is king.

The cowboy in T. R.'s writing is the hero of the West. Not as big or as strong as some of the other frontiersmen, the cowboy is lean, quiet, stoic, and duty-bound. He wears a hat, a scarf, and boots. He is the sentinel of the West. The perfect expression of Americanism, the cowboy embodies all the traits that make the nation great—courage, restraint, civility, and knowhow. Only when he's drunk does the cowboy let loose with “mad antics,” firing off his pistols in boisterous fun, but real men are allowed to let off steam. Real men are allowed to sometimes run wild. For Roosevelt, there is no comparison, the cowboy is everything a man should be, far greater than farmers, laborers, or factory workers. And more to the point, the ideal cowboy is white because, for the Victorian T. R., nothing else could do.

Roosevelt warns his readers that the best cowboys are from the nation's Southwest. Easterners are not suited and not necessary for this type of work. Only in rare, exceptional cases—such as his own—can an Easterner hope to replicate a cowboy's skill and silent grace, for a cowboy is skill incarnate, an artist as much as a cowhand. And yes, T. R. admits that there are bad elements on the frontier, but these are not cowboys. Yes, they may wear the same costumes, but horse thieves and outlaws are not of the same class. They are corrupted, foul, often former buffalo hunters made evil by the destruction of the bison. The cowboy, however, is pure and perfect and good. In the end, the forces of darkness will be eliminated. It's happening even now.

Bibliography and Additional Reading

Bederman, Gail. Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880–1917. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995. Print.

Di Silvestro, Roger L. Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands: A Young Politician's Quest for Recovery in the American West. New York: Walker Publishing, 2011. Print.

Morris, Edmund. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Random House, 1979. Print.