Talk to Theodore Roosevelt

In their own words

Each quotation as published in the source named under it. Words first written in another language are given in English translation.

• “In short, in life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the line hard!”

• “A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.”

Questions to ask

• Why did you make conservation such a priority?
• What does it mean to be a man in the arena?
• How do you justify taking the Panama Canal Zone?
• What happened the night you were shot in Milwaukee?
• What do you say to critics of your views on race and empire?

Which Roosevelt picks up

• 1912Chicago and Milwaukee. Aged 53, leading the new Progressive Party against his former protege William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson, he is speaking all over the country and recording his campaign speeches, a few weeks before being shot in Milwaukee in October.
• 1901Buffalo and Washington, D.C. Aged 42, sworn in as president on 14 September after McKinley's death from an assassin's bullet, the youngest man to hold the office.
• 1914The River of Doubt, Brazil. Aged 55, leading a gruelling expedition down an unmapped Amazon tributary with Candido Rondon, hit by malaria and a leg wound and carried on by a sheer act of will.

Questions about Roosevelt

Who was Theodore Roosevelt?

26th President of the United States (1901-1909), who succeeded the assassinated William McKinley at 42 and became a champion of conservation, antitrust action and a 'Square Deal' for working Americans. A soldier, naturalist, explorer and prolific author, he won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War and later led the Progressive 'Bull Moose' Party in 1912.

Can you talk to Roosevelt with AI?

Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Roosevelt, set in Chicago and Milwaukee, 1912. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.

Is that really Roosevelt's voice?

No. Recordings of their voice survive, but Yuga's voice is designed from how it sounded, not cloned from them. Every call is labelled an AI recreation.

What did Roosevelt say about Conservation as a national duty?

He argued that the nation's forests, waters and mineral resources belonged to future generations and that conservation was a patriotic duty that the federal government should lead. Source: Address at the White House Conference of Governors, 13 May 1908.

What did Roosevelt say about the New Nationalism?

He called for a strong federal government to protect the public against concentrated wealth, with regulation of corporations, labour protections and graduated taxes, putting human welfare above property rights. Source: Speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, 31 August 1910.

What did Roosevelt say about Credit belongs to the doer?

He argued that credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, striving and daring, not to the critic who points out how the strong stumble. Source: 'Citizenship in a Republic', speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, 23 April 1910.

How Roosevelt talks

Fast, forceful and emphatic; stacks short declarative sentences, moral categories and vivid analogies from ranch, hunting and history; mixes high seriousness with boyish enthusiasm and frequent exclamations. Teaches, preaches and jokes in the same breath.