The Strenuous Life
Encyclopedia
"The Strenuous Life" is the name of a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

 in Chicago, Illinois on April 10, 1899. Based upon his personal experiences, he argued that strenuous effort and overcoming hardship were ideals to be embraced by Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 for the betterment of the nation and the world in the twentieth century.

The Speech

Roosevelt states the main point of his speech in the opening remarks:

An individual who puts great effort into his work and is not lazy, he claims, will be a success. It is the duty of someone who does not engage in manual labor for a living to devote himself to the arts or sciences. He uses the citizens of Chicago and Illinois as examples of people who embody such a spirit. Those who do not embrace the strenuous life, however, do not live meaningful lives.

As the speech continues, Roosevelt claims that the strenuous life can benefit not just the individual, but also the entire country. He advocates imperialism as an extension of the strenuous life. America must become involved in global affairs, or else it will suffer as a nation. America must be a powerful country, and it must exert this power if it sees fit. Such strength necessarily requires a strong military, and a strong military presence. Roosevelt's concluding words tie together the importance of the strenuous life in the individual and the nation.

The speech was published in 1900 as part of a collection of other Roosevelt writings and addresses also entitled The Strenuous Life.

Importance

Roosevelt's speech reflected his own personality and life experience. Roosevelt was sickly and asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...

tic as a youngster, and had to sleep propped up in bed or slouching in a chair during much of his early childhood. He was in poor physical condition as a result. Roosevelt's father compelled the young Roosevelt to take up exercise, including boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 lessons in order to ward off bullies. The influence stuck. Upon graduating from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, Roosevelt underwent a physical examination and his doctor advised him that due to serious heart problems, he should find a desk job and avoid strenuous activity. Roosevelt disregarded the advice. As an adult, he exercised regularly and took up boxing, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, hiking
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...

, rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...

, polo
Polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...

, and horseback riding. As governor of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, he boxed with sparring partners several times a week, a practice he regularly continued as President until one blow detached his left retina
Retina
The vertebrate retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...

, leaving him blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

 in that eye (a fact not made public until many years later). Thereafter, he practiced jujutsu
Jujutsu
Jujutsu , also known as jujitsu, ju-jitsu, or Japanese jiu-jitsu, is a Japanese martial art and a method of close combat for defeating an armed and armored opponent in which one uses no weapon, or only a short weapon....

 and continued his habit of skinny-dipping in the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

 during winter.

As such, the phrase "the strenuous life" has become highly connected to Roosevelt's life. Nathan Miller's biography of Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: A Life, begins by saying that "the strenuous life" is one of "the things that immediately come to mind when Theodore Roosevelt's name is mentioned."

The speech also reflected the American spirit at the turn of the century
Turn of the century
Turn of the century, in its broadest sense, refers to the transition from one century to another. The term is most often used to indicate a non-specific time period either before or after the beginning of a century....

. The increasing industrialization and urbanization of America led many to become fearful of growing weak. College sports were on the rise, as were recreational athletics such as bicycling. American culture embraced masculinity
Masculinity
Masculinity is possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical of or appropriate to a man. The term can be used to describe any human, animal or object that has the quality of being masculine...

, patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

, and nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

. Issues of masculinity were especially predominant during this time, given the various women's movements of the age. Critics and scholars, including author Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....

, worried about a femininization of America. The time was ripe for Roosevelt to extol the masculine virtues of the strenuous life. Roosevelt used the speech to justify American imperialism as well.

Influences

Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...

 wrote a rag
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...

 called "The Strenuous Life."

Sarah Vowell
Sarah Vowell
Sarah Jane Vowell is an American author, journalist, essayist and social commentator. Often referred to as a "social observer," Vowell has written five nonfiction books on American history and culture, and was a contributing editor for the radio program This American Life on Public Radio...

's collection of essays entitled The Partly Cloudy Patriot
The Partly Cloudy Patriot
The Partly Cloudy Patriot is a book published in 2002, and is a collection of essays about American history and the author's own reflections on such issues, by Sarah Vowell, a contributing editor for the WBEZ / Public Radio International program This American Life.The chapters include scenes from...

includes one entitled "The Strenuous Life." Vowell compares her life to Roosevelt's, especially her lack of strenuousness, and refers to the speech directly.

Kathleen Dalton's biography of Roosevelt is entitled Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK