SOURCE: "Theodore Roosevelt, Historian," in Medieval and Historiographical Essays in Honor of James Westfall Thompson, edited by James Lea Cate and Eugene N. Anderson, Kennikat Press, Inc. 1966, pp. 423-38.

In the following essay, Miller offers a critical view of Roosevelt's historical works.

The career of historian was the first to which young Roosevelt, newly graduated from Harvard, turned his attention. He had considered the life of a naturalist, but reasons either sentimental or temperamental led him to abandon it. Probably it was a fortunate decision, for the earlier impulse came more from a healthy love of outdoors and an extension of his boyhood collecting habits than from any real interest in science as such. The older naturalist-philosopher on the bank of the lily pond was giving place to the scientist-technician with his laboratory and his microscope, and for that Roosevelt had no taste. He chose history.

He knew...