Ryan Swanson, a sports history professor and author of "The Strenuous Life," dives into Theodore Roosevelt's dynamic engagement with physical fitness and sports. Discover how Roosevelt's own struggles with health ignited his passion for vigorous living and inspired a national movement in the late 19th century. Swanson also reveals Roosevelt's pivotal role in preserving football, his thoughts on baseball, and how he embodied the 'strenuous life' even in the White House, promoting a legacy of athletic engagement in American culture.
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insights INSIGHT
Rise of Physical Culture
Industrialization and urbanization peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, changing American life.
This led to concerns about health and a desire for change, with sports becoming a way to address these concerns.
question_answer ANECDOTE
TR's Transformation
As a sickly, asthmatic child, Theodore Roosevelt was challenged by his father to "make his body."
He dedicated himself to physical culture, trained with boxers, and largely overcame his asthma.
insights INSIGHT
TR at Harvard
At Harvard, Roosevelt immersed himself in athletics, though not at a championship level.
He valued physical and mental exertion, seeking friends who could both box and discuss Tennyson.
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The Strenuous Life is a speech-turned-book by Theodore Roosevelt, emphasizing the importance of embracing challenges and overcoming adversity. It champions ideals of courage, determination, and resilience, encouraging readers to live life to the fullest and contribute to the betterment of society.
In the first year of his presidency, the press used Theodore Roosvelt's name in connection with the word "strenuous" over 10,000 times. He was known as "the strenuous president," and with good reason: from his youth, TR had lived and preached a life of vigorous engagement and plenty of physical activity.
Today on the show Ryan Swanson, professor of sports history and author of The Strenuous Life: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of the American Athlete, discusses not only how TR was shaped by what was called "the strenuous age," but how he shaped it in turn by promoting sports, and participating in athletics himself. We begin our discussion with what was going on during the late 19th century that got people interested in what was then called "physical culture." We then turn to the beginning of Roosevelt's introduction to vigorous exercise as a boy, and how he famously decided to make his body. We discuss TR's fitness routine when he went to Harvard, and how his becoming a fan of football there led to him supporting the preservation of the game as president. We then discuss how TR lived the strenuous life while in the White House, and thereby inspired the American public to live vigorously too. We take a fun look at what TR thought of the game of baseball, how he went to a health farm at age 58 to get back in fighting shape, and what kind of exercise and athletics TR would be into if he were alive today.
The Art of Manliness 
