SOURCE: "Theodore Roosevelt: From History As Literature," in Style, Vol. 13, No. 1, winter, 1979, pp. 1-4.

In the following essay, originally published in History as Literature in 1913, Roosevelt argues that historical writing should retain a distinct literary aspect as exemplified by the works of the great historians of the past.

Because history, science, and literature have all become specialized, the theory now is that science is definitely severed from literature and that history must follow suit. Not only do I refuse to accept this as true for history but I do not even accept it as true for science.

Literature may be defined as that which has permanent interest because both of its substance and its form, aside from the mere technical value that inheres in a special treatise for specialists. For a great work of literature there is the same demand now that there always has been; and in...