ABSTRACT
Theodore Roosevelt’s changed image from that of a model of American distinction to that of a shifting beach-portrait in sand took place in such a swirl of academic and reference books and perfunctory essays as not to leave a clear trace for study. The plain fact was that Roosevelt, among his own people, had never been “Teddy.” In childhood, he had been “Teedie.” After that he had been Theodore, the colonel, the President, and, among intimates, Theo. Children wholly uninterested in war or progressivism or history generally heard somewhere that Theodore Roosevelt had been a sickly child and had, by sheer willpower, made himself an athlete. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., was a New York businessman and philanthropist who served the Union well during the Civil War, setting up a system to persuade federal troops to send their pay home instead of squandering it.
