It was a heroic age. Men believed exploration of the South Pole was heroic. They believed freezing to death was heroic. They believed fighting in wars was heroic. The awful carnage of the twentieth century had yet to prove the utter futilty of war. Winston Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt grew up in the heroic age and both men set out to prove themselves at a very young age.
Teddy lost his mother and wife the same day and went West for three years. He deliberately put himself in harms way and was nearly killed by a Grizzly Bear, shot by an armed man in a saloon, scalped by four Indians, and trampled by stampeding cattle. He was out to find the myth of the West and to that end he threw himself into one dangerous situation after another demanding that life give him back adventure and prove himself to himself.
Winston Churchill was not much different. He went off to the Boer War hoping to find adventure and to prove himself as a solider. What happened was he ended up a journalist but this didn't stop him from rescuing a train under attack and then getting captured by the Boers. Churchill believed he would survive when all around him were dying. He believed he was destined for greater things and that would see him through.
Both men demanded adventure from life and carried a sense of their own destiny. When one reads about Teddy out West or Winston in the Boer War in Africa you come away with a belief in destiny. How else can we explain survival against all odds.
Forging A President How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt
Teddy lost his mother and wife the same day and went West for three years. He deliberately put himself in harms way and was nearly killed by a Grizzly Bear, shot by an armed man in a saloon, scalped by four Indians, and trampled by stampeding cattle. He was out to find the myth of the West and to that end he threw himself into one dangerous situation after another demanding that life give him back adventure and prove himself to himself.
Winston Churchill was not much different. He went off to the Boer War hoping to find adventure and to prove himself as a solider. What happened was he ended up a journalist but this didn't stop him from rescuing a train under attack and then getting captured by the Boers. Churchill believed he would survive when all around him were dying. He believed he was destined for greater things and that would see him through.
Both men demanded adventure from life and carried a sense of their own destiny. When one reads about Teddy out West or Winston in the Boer War in Africa you come away with a belief in destiny. How else can we explain survival against all odds.
Forging A President How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt
