Book excerpt: The epic story of how one man shaped events, people, and himself to forever change a country. President Theodore Roosevelt forever transformed America, ushering the country into the arena of world supremacy. His brand of leadership is entirely American: confident, compassionate, energetic, diverse, visionary. But Roosevelt was not a born leader; his ascent to the apex of power was not a foregone conclusion. He made himself a leader of consequence and it is his epic journey to the White House—a road filled with terrific failures, intimate introspection, and self-made luck—will inspire readers anew. While a graduate student at Harvard, author Jon Knokey, a Roosevelt historian and business leader, unearthed hundreds of unpublished letters and interview notes from Roosevelt contemporaries. These long-forgotten documents provide a fresh and stunning ringside seat along the 26th President’s journey to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The stories from Harvard chaps, idealistic political reformers, coarse cowboys from the Badlands, and rough and tumble Rough Riders from the nation’s interior, all combine to illuminate the maturation process of a man learning to lead at every stage of his life. Fast paced and written as a biographical narrative, Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of American Leadership places the reader alongside a young Theodore Roosevelt as he learns what he stands for and how he will lead. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.