To be sure, interpretations and opinions of Roosevelt the man and the politician are varied. These diverse issues could have easily led to a confusing and disjointed address, but with Roosevelt’s unified worldview built on moral absolutes, there are deep connections between every topic.Įach year I am reminded again of the amazing scope, integrated worldview, and stunning prescience of Theodore Roosevelt during a roundtable discussion I have with my high-school history students after they have read “Citizenship in a Republic.” Every fresh reading of the speech brings something new into bold relief. His original listeners must have been struck by Roosevelt’s sheer versatility and wide-ranging intelligence, unpacking topics as disparate as work, education, truth, family, politics, journalism, community, and more all in one speech. With this vivid image painted in his listeners’ minds, he launched into an address of perennial significance and astounding breadth. Before his eyes pass the shadows of mighty kings and war-like nobles, of great masters of law and theology through the shining dust of the dead centuries he sees crowded figures that tell of the power and learning and splendor of times gone by and he sees also the innumerable host of humble students to whom clerkship meant emancipation, to whom it was well-nigh the only outlet from the dark thralldom of the Middle Ages.

Strange and impressive associations rise in the mind of a man from the New World who speaks before this august body in this ancient institution of learning. As Roosevelt prepared to begin, the vice-rector of the Sorbonne announced that the greatest voice in the New World was about to speak, and as he looked at Roosevelt, his final words of introduction epitomized the man: “you unite morality with politics, and right with might.” The address that followed would attempt to do just that. There in Paris, at the Sorbonne in the Grand Amphitheater of the ancient University of Paris, Roosevelt delivered an oration he entitled “Citizenship in a Republic,” but which the world would soon come to call “The Man in the Arena.” The amphitheater was packed with professors, nine-hundred plus students, ministers of state in courtly attire, navy officers in full uniform, and an additional two thousand ticket-holders. The public was fascinated with his trip and Scribner’s Magazine pounced on the opportunity by financing the trip in exchange for rights to a series of articles Roosevelt wrote during the trip. He had arrived in Paris just days before with his entourage in the midst of a whirlwind tour across Europe and Africa that included everything from visits to major capitals and heads of state, to expeditions into African jungles to collect specimens for the Smithsonian Institute.

A little over one hundred years ago, on April 23, 1910, former President Theodore Roosevelt spoke at one of the oldest universities in existence.

The man in the arena teddy roosevelt