Has he read a biography of Teddy Roosevelt?
I don't think he has read much about his early years, but he has read things like National Geographic's Eyewitness to the 20th Century and here is some of what that book said about him: "Most significantly, it is hard to deny that Theodore Roosevelt was a confirmed racist who used his belief in the inferiority of nonwhites to support American imperial intervention abroad."
That one sentence led to lots of discussion about racism and imperialism. I never read things like that when I was his age and I don't think I would have wanted to talk about it if I had.
He read a biography on Lincoln a while back and he says he is interested in what presidents did while they did while they were in office and why they made the decisions they made.
I'd say the "Most significant" thing about TR is that he empathized with people due to his own situation and experiences and fought against entrenched interests and corrupt politicians to implement much of the Progressive agenda of the 20th century. He sought out the counsel of many people, many of whom were formidable women, including his daughter Alice.
He treated all men equally despite any personal beliefs he had. His fights as a young man, representative, appointee, and elected national official are interesting to read as his passion shines through. He was personally threatened several times and his enemies sought to smear him at every turn. And in the midst of his very hectic life, he wrote many books on history that have stood the test of time. His children became formidable in their own right, which is usually not the case of presidential progeny. Alice was the counselor to many leaders and a force to continue Progressivism and Ted won the Medal of Honor saving the Normandy invasion.
Its pretty telling that the National Geographic has to stoop to gotcha theater to satiate an academic fetish when the real story of TR is very compelling.
Here is a taste of what TR faced:
"By the next summer, however, grieving over the loss of his wife and mother, both of whom had died on the very same day the previous February, he returned to North Dakota seeking to regain his sense of purpose."
And then disaster upon disaster followed along with a cast of characters that challenged him at every turn:
"A brutal cycle of heavy snowfall, partial thawing, and subzero freezing ensued, crusting the ground with impenetrable ice. Thousands of animals froze, starved, or fell prey to predators. Newspapers estimated the total loss of stock as high as 75 percent. When Roosevelt returned to Medora in the spring of 1887, he found that more than half his herd had perished."
You have man barely in his 20s, son of a Dutch New York Business Elite and Ivy League grad trying to do this and get over his loss as well. And before he was in his late teens, he could barely lift ten pounds and spent days or weeks in bed - and he was profoundly gifted:
"
Sickly and asthmatic as a youngster, Roosevelt had to sleep propped up in bed or slouching in a chair during much of his early childhood, and had frequent ailments. Despite his illnesses, he was a hyperactive and often mischievous boy. His lifelong interest in zoology was formed at age seven upon seeing a dead seal at a local market. After obtaining the seal's head, the young Roosevelt and two of his cousins formed what they called the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History". Learning the rudiments of taxidermy, he filled his makeshift museum with many animals that he killed or caught, studied, and prepared for display. At age nine, he codified his observation of insects with a paper titled "The Natural History of Insects".[11]"
It changed him profoundly:
Roosevelt felt that his associations with the West immeasurably enriched his life. He once wrote, "I have always said I never would have been President if it had not been for my experience in North Dakota."
