Picked by Theodore Roosevelt fans

Here are 40 books that Theodore Roosevelt fans have personally recommended once you finish the Theodore Roosevelt series. Book DNA is a community of authors and super-readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

Book cover of Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt

Michael Hoffen Author Of Be a Scribe!: Working for a Better Life in Ancient Egypt

From my list on amazing history for readers young and old.

Why am I passionate about this?

My love of history began at a young age, when I first read The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History, one of the books featured below. Reading that book, I felt a deep appreciation for the past that has lasted ever since. When I visited the Temple of Dendur at the Met Museum, I felt mesmerized by the mysterious symbols covering its walls, sparking a fascination with ancient Egypt.

Michael's book list on amazing history for readers young and old

Michael Hoffen Why Michael loves this book

David McCullough is one of my favorite authors of history, and Mornings on Horseback is, in my opinion, one of his best works.

McCullough introduces us to the young Theodore Roosevelt, from early childhood to early adulthood. Born to a Southern mother and a father who would later contribute heavily to the Union cause, he grew up in a mansion in New York City but spent considerable time ranching in the Badlands of North Dakota.

Teddy Roosevelt was a fascinating man with contradictions and character, the perfect subject for a masterful biography.

By David McCullough ,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Mornings on Horseback as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The National Book Award–winning biography that tells the story of how young Teddy Roosevelt transformed himself from a sickly boy into the vigorous man who would become a war hero and ultimately president of the United States, told by master historian David McCullough.

Mornings on Horseback is the brilliant biography of the young Theodore Roosevelt. Hailed as “a masterpiece” (John A. Gable, Newsday), it is the winner of the Los Angeles Times 1981 Book Prize for Biography and the National Book Award for Biography. Written by David McCullough, the author of Truman, this is the story of a remarkable little…


Book cover of The Path to Power

Dean Movshovitz Author Of Pixar Storytelling

From my list on rethink your approach to storytelling.

Why am I passionate about this?

It started with Goosebumps. Then came Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Stephen King. King led me to Kubrick, DePalma, Reiner, and Cronenberg, where my passion for film and screenwriting was sparked. This passion eventually led me to write my book. On that path, these 5 books helped me understand storytelling better: how it helps us understand the machinations of the world; makes sure our messages reach our audience; how language can tell its own story; how to find the spirit within the structure; and how storytelling can change your life. My world is richer thanks to these books. My ideas of what is possible are broader. Hopefully, they’ll do the same for you. 

Dean's book list on rethink your approach to storytelling

Dean Movshovitz Why Dean loves this book

I’ve never seen a man’s life told with such clarity and skill as Caro lays out LBJ’s journey. I was in awe of how clear-eyed Caro was about what his story is about: not the facts and dates of LBJ’s life, but what Caro saw in LBJ’s life about ambition, politics, and the powers that shape society.

Caro never for a second loses sight of the story he is telling, and what it is truly about: power, how to get it, and how to yield it. Caro’s adherence to the themes he found in LBJ’s story is inspiring—and completely informed how I approach storytelling.

By Robert A. Caro ,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked The Path to Power as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'The greatest biography of our era ... Essential reading for those who want to comprehend power and politics' The Times

Robert A. Caro's legendary, multi-award-winning biography of US President Lyndon Johnson is a uniquely riveting and revelatory account of power, political genius and the shaping of twentieth-century America.

This first instalment tells of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country, revealing in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy and ambition that set LBJ apart. It charts his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut…


Book cover of The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966

James Tobin Author Of The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency

From my list on bring real people of the past back to life.

Why am I passionate about this?

In a family of readers, my older sister was fascinated by the American Revolution, so I became a reader under that influence, gulping down biographies for kids. I trained as an academic historian but never really wanted to write academic history. Instead, I wanted to bottle that what-if-felt-like magic that I'd felt when I read those books as a kid. I became a journalist but still felt the pull of the past. So I wound up in that in-between slice of journalists who try to write history for readers like me, more interested in people than in complex arguments about historical cause and effect. 

James' book list on bring real people of the past back to life

James Tobin Why James loves this book

Before I picked up this book, I would have told you that West Point cadets were the last kind of people I'd care to read about, which just goes to show how shallow stereotypes can be.

Atkinson's deep research and vivid storytelling are enthralling. I finished the book with an emotional comprehension of the war in Vietnam that I had never had before.

By Rick Atkinson ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Long Gray Line as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times bestseller about West Point's Class of 1966, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Rick Atkinson.

"A story of epic proportions [and] an awesome feat of biographical reconstruction."―The Boston Globe

A classic of its kind, The Long Gray Line is the twenty-five-year saga of the West Point class of 1966. With a novelist's eye for detail, Rick Atkinson (author of the Liberation Trilogy) illuminates this powerful story through the lives of three classmates and the women they loved―from the boisterous cadet years, to the fires of Vietnam, to the hard peace and internal struggles that followed the…


Book cover of In Trace of TR: A Montana Hunter's Journey

David Tindell Author Of The Heights of Valor

From my list on most charismatic President in U.S. History.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by our 26th president for a long time. Most of us would be content with being known for one or two good things in our lifetime; TR was many things, and his work still impacts us over a century after his death. I wondered, who was this guy? He is relatively short, stocky, near-sighted, and not your typical action hero, yet he accomplished so much in a life that barely got through 60 years. I found so much more than I expected, and you will, too. Roll up your sleeves, get in the arena with TR, and, as he often said, “Get action!”

David's book list on most charismatic President in U.S. History

David Tindell Why David loves this book

I picked up this book while doing my “trace of TR” trip out West with my brother in 2011. We rode through the Badlands on horseback and saw the site of Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch, even the bar in Wibaux, where he knocked out a bully with a one-two combination.

Aadland, a Montana rancher, and TR aficionado decided to follow the paths of Roosevelt’s ranching days and hunting expeditions on foot and horseback, the way Roosevelt did himself in the 1880s. TR often credited his time in the Badlands for making him into the man who became a president.

What is there about this land that has such an impact? Having ridden there myself, I can understand a little, but Aadland’s experience as a modern rancher lends a context that really helps us understand this vital period of Roosevelt’s life.

By Dan Aadland ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked In Trace of TR as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As a student of American history, as a hunter, horseman, and former Marine, and as someone passionate about the West, Dan Aadland had long felt a kinship with Theodore Roosevelt. One day, on a single-footing horse, lever-action rifle under his knee, Aadland set out to become acquainted with TR as only those who shared his experiences could. In Trace of TR documents that quest, inviting readers to ride along and get to know Theodore Roosevelt through the western environment that so profoundly influenced him.

Accompany Aadland as he rides the broad prairies in search of TR's "prongbuck," tracks elk through…


Book cover of Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership: Executive Lessons from the Bully Pulpit

David Tindell Author Of The Heights of Valor

From my list on most charismatic President in U.S. History.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by our 26th president for a long time. Most of us would be content with being known for one or two good things in our lifetime; TR was many things, and his work still impacts us over a century after his death. I wondered, who was this guy? He is relatively short, stocky, near-sighted, and not your typical action hero, yet he accomplished so much in a life that barely got through 60 years. I found so much more than I expected, and you will, too. Roll up your sleeves, get in the arena with TR, and, as he often said, “Get action!”

David's book list on most charismatic President in U.S. History

David Tindell Why David loves this book

“Far and away, life's best prize is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” I loved this book because it tells us exactly what we should be doing now: rolling up our sleeves and getting into the arena. The federal bureaucracy of the early 20th century was smaller but no less entrenched than it is here in the 21st. And Congress was, if anything, even harder to deal with then than it is now (despite the lack of TV cameras).

How can any president hope to get anything important accomplished? TR shows us how. His instructions to his cabinet secretaries often include three words: “I want results.” He also shows us how to work with, and sometimes around or even through, the titans of industry to build the economy and avoid labor strife. This book should be a must-read for anybody who wants to lead anything, be it…

By James M. Strock ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Harness the Power of TR's Charisma
Theodore Roosevelt was a leader of uncommon strength who, through the sheer force of his extraordinary will, turned America into a modern world power. Thrown headfirst into the presidency by the assassination of his predecessor, he led with courage, character, and vision in the face of overwhelming challenges, whether busting corporate trusts or building the Panama Canal. Roosevelt has been a hero to millions of Americans for over a century and is a splendid model to help you master today's turbulent marketplace and be a hero and a leader in your own organization.


Book cover of Anti-Memoirs

Jere Van Dyk Author Of Captive: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban

From my list on courage, camaraderie, and survival in the face of danger.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in Washington State. My father and my uncles fought in WWII; one was captured in Africa, and one was the first to fly over the Himalayas. My father wanted me to be a missionary, but I was drawn to the world. I became a runner and loved the camaraderie in track and field, but I was uncomfortable in college and didn't like my coach. I wanted to go far away. I began my career as an aide in the U.S. Senate but left and became a journalist in Afghanistan. Each of these books is a story of courage, camaraderie, and survival. I hope you enjoy them.

Jere's book list on courage, camaraderie, and survival in the face of danger

Jere Van Dyk Why Jere loves this book

I was sitting in a cafe in Paris with a friend from Texas. I had just finished my time in the Army and was studying on the GI Bill. My friend was reading a book. I asked what it was about. He looked at the cover. I would like it, he said and gave it to me. I couldn't put the book down.

He dedicated the book to Mrs. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, I learned that John Kennedy toasted him at a White House dinner in his honor as "the man we all wanted to be," For years I too wanted to be like him. As a young man, he went to French Indochina and lived in China, struggling then.

He wrote Man's Fate, his first novel, which made him famous. He was a pilot in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. He made a documentary about the…

By Andre Malraux , Terence Kilmartin (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Anti-Memoirs as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Reprint from the French edition. Five printings plus a book club edition. André Malraux (1901 - 1976) was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine (Man's Fate) (1933), which won the Prix Goncourt. He was appointed by General Charles de Gaulle as Minister of Information (1945-1946), then as Minister of State (1958-1959), and the first Minister of Cultural Affairs, serving during De Gaulle's entire presidency (1959-1969).


Book cover of The Desert and the Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast

Jere Van Dyk Author Of Captive: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban

From my list on courage, camaraderie, and survival in the face of danger.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in Washington State. My father and my uncles fought in WWII; one was captured in Africa, and one was the first to fly over the Himalayas. My father wanted me to be a missionary, but I was drawn to the world. I became a runner and loved the camaraderie in track and field, but I was uncomfortable in college and didn't like my coach. I wanted to go far away. I began my career as an aide in the U.S. Senate but left and became a journalist in Afghanistan. Each of these books is a story of courage, camaraderie, and survival. I hope you enjoy them.

Jere's book list on courage, camaraderie, and survival in the face of danger

Jere Van Dyk Why Jere loves this book

Since 9/11, beginning with the slaughter of Daniel Pearl of the Wall Street Journal by al-Qaida in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2002, the kidnapping of journalists has grown to become a state-sponsored industry, mainly in the Muslim world from the Philippines to Africa, to the Middle East. Many survivors write about their kidnappings.

I especially liked Michael Scott Moore's book, in part because I know him, but more because he was held and tormented for three years in the desert by Somali pirates; yet forgives them to save himself. Moore is a German-American journalist and a surfer from California who also lives in Berlin. I loved his courage of diving, naked, from the deck of the ship he was on into the Red Sea, and swimming for freedom.

To be a kidnap victim is to live in a primal, sometimes reptilian world. I liked that he didn't hold back in telling…

By Michael Scott Moore ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Desert and the Sea as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Michael Scott Moore, a journalist and the author of Sweetness and Blood, incorporates personal narrative and rigorous investigative journalism in this profound and revelatory memoir of his three-year captivity by Somali pirates-a riveting,thoughtful, and emotionally resonant exploration of foreign policy, religious extremism, and the costs of survival.

In January 2012, having covered a Somali pirate trial in Hamburg for Spiegel Online International-and funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting-Michael Scott Moore traveled to the Horn of Africa to write about piracy and ways to end it. In a terrible twist of fate, Moore himself was kidnapped…


Book cover of The Last Step: The American Ascent of K2

Jere Van Dyk Author Of Captive: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban

From my list on courage, camaraderie, and survival in the face of danger.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in Washington State. My father and my uncles fought in WWII; one was captured in Africa, and one was the first to fly over the Himalayas. My father wanted me to be a missionary, but I was drawn to the world. I became a runner and loved the camaraderie in track and field, but I was uncomfortable in college and didn't like my coach. I wanted to go far away. I began my career as an aide in the U.S. Senate but left and became a journalist in Afghanistan. Each of these books is a story of courage, camaraderie, and survival. I hope you enjoy them.

Jere's book list on courage, camaraderie, and survival in the face of danger

Jere Van Dyk Why Jere loves this book

In my twenties, two friends and I climbed Mt. Hood, 11,249' in Oregon. The snow cracked loudly at night, and I worried about an avalanche. When I was in my 40s, Galon Rowell, a famous mountain photographer, and I, on an assignment from National Geographic to find the source of the Brahmaputra River, climbed from the flat terrain at 16,000' up into Mt. Khalish, 21,778.' in Tibet. We looked down at the Himalayas. K-2, at 28,251", is the second highest mountain in the world (Everest is 29,032'), on the Chinese-Pakistani border, and is considered by mountaineers to be the hardest to climb.

I loved the story, written by a fellow climber, about the boldness, tenacity, camaraderie, and competition of men, and women, pushing for weeks through rough storms to make the team that would go for the summit. What I love most is the story of Jim Wickwire approaching the…

By Rick Ridgeway ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Last Step as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt

Laurence Jurdem Author Of The Rough Rider and the Professor: Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and the Friendship That Changed American History

From my list on the lives of Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a historian who focuses on the political history of the United States during the 20th century. My particular interest focuses on the history of the Republican Party & the American presidency. I am curious about how individuals acquire political power and their use of it. I was drawn to write a book about the friendship between Roosevelt and Lodge because of my fascination with the friendship among Eastern elites and how Lodge served as a mentor to Roosevelt in helping him achieve prominence in United States politics. Despite the many books on T.R. no one has ever written a narrative about his relationship with Lodge. 

Laurence's book list on the lives of Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge

Laurence Jurdem Why Laurence loves this book

A wonderful biography of the journalist, poet, and diplomat.

Taliaferro’s narrative gives the reader a broad understanding of the political and diplomatic events which shaped the United States and the Republican Party from 1838-1905. Hay, like his close friend Henry Adams was a prolific letter writer and a man of strong opinions.

Within the text one gets a detailed description of not only what Hay’s relationship was like with Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, but also his complex relationship with Henry Cabot Lodge and others within the political and diplomatic circles of Washington, D.C.

By John Taliaferro ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked All the Great Prizes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From secretary to Abraham Lincoln to secretary of state for Theodore Roosevelt, John Hay remained a major figure in American history for more than half a century. His private life was as glamorous and romantic as it was privileged. This first full-scale biography since 1934 is a reflection of American history from the Civil War to the emergence of the nation as a world power as Woodrow Wilson is about to take office.

If Henry James or Edith Wharton had written a novel describing the accomplished and glamorous life and times of John Hay, it would have been thought implausible—a…


Book cover of The Letters of Henry Adams: 1858-1892 Volumes 1-3

Laurence Jurdem Author Of The Rough Rider and the Professor: Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and the Friendship That Changed American History

From my list on the lives of Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a historian who focuses on the political history of the United States during the 20th century. My particular interest focuses on the history of the Republican Party & the American presidency. I am curious about how individuals acquire political power and their use of it. I was drawn to write a book about the friendship between Roosevelt and Lodge because of my fascination with the friendship among Eastern elites and how Lodge served as a mentor to Roosevelt in helping him achieve prominence in United States politics. Despite the many books on T.R. no one has ever written a narrative about his relationship with Lodge. 

Laurence's book list on the lives of Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge

Laurence Jurdem Why Laurence loves this book

One of the most prolific correspondents in American history, Adams keen eye and biting wit is the perfect companion for anyone who wants to gain a picture of the themes, events, and personalities that dominated the Gilded Age.

The grandson, and great-grandson of two American presidents, Adams was a symbol of the WASP elite whose dominance in American society was beginning to wane. A former journalist, professor at Harvard, mentor to Henry Cabot Lodge and friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Adams was closely associated with the who’s who of politics, art, and society.

While Adams may have realized he was writing for posterity, the letters are detailed and leave little to the imagination in terms of what Adams thought of those he encountered among the politicians and government men who occupied the nation’s capital. 

By Henry Adams , J. C. Levenson (editor) , Ernest Samuels (editor) , Charles Vandersee (editor) , Viola Hopkins Winner (editor)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Letters of Henry Adams as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Henry Adams's letters are one of the vital chronicles of the life of the mind in America. A perceptive analyst of people, events, and ideas, Adams recorded, with brilliance and wit, sixty years of enormous change at home and abroad.

Volume I shows him growing from a high-spirited but self-conscious 20-year-old to a self-assured man of the world. In Washington in the chaotic months before Lincoln's inauguration, then in London during the war years and beyond, he serves as secretary to his statesman father and is privy to the inner workings of politics and diplomacy. English social life proves as…