Excerpted from Theodore Roosevelt by Kathleen Dalton. Copyright
© 2002 by Kathleen Dalton. Excerpted by permission of Vintage, a
division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of
this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission
in writing from the publisher. A Conversation with KATHLEEN
DALTON author of THEODORE ROOSEVELT: A Strenuous Life Q: Your
book is entitled THEODORE ROOSEVELT: A Strenuous Life. Please
explain the subtitle to your book. A: The strenuous life has two
meanings in my book. I put a strenuous life in the title because
TR used that phrase to summarize his philosophy of life. In his
most famous speech called "The Strenuous Life" he urged
Americans to turn their backs on the soft, easy indoor life they
had been leading and embrace the challenges of the twentieth
century with a spirit of adventure and courage. He praised
physical activity—sports, mountain climbing, exploring, and
fighting if necessary--and strenuous endeavor of all kinds,
including building an empire a