Governor Roosevelt, as he then was, made his famous "Strenuous Life" speech at a time when many people were worried that the United States was becoming weak due to rapid industrialization and urbanization. Strange as it may seem to us in this day and age, but many Americans, including the famous writer Henry James, raged against what they saw as the feminization of the United States. That being the case, it was considered imperative for a renewed assertion of masculine values to be made. Roosevelt's speech on "The Strenuous Life" was just such an assertion.

Having improved his own physical condition through all manner of strenuous exercises and vigorous outdoor pursuits, Roosevelt felt himself ideally placed to preach the virtues of a more active life. Once a weak and sickly child, the future president prided himself on being the epitome of all that was manly. And he wanted his fellow Americans to follow suit, not simply because it would improve their health, but because it would prepare them, physically as well as mentally, for the challenges involved with colonial administration.

At the time when Roosevelt made his speech, the United States was just beginning to establish overseas colonies in the wake of the Spanish-American War. And he believed that the kind of strenuous life that he advocated would make Americans mentally and psychically fit for imperialism. Like Rudyard Kipling, author of "The White Man's Burden," Roosevelt knew that colonial administration was no picnic and would require the kind of qualities that he believed would be cultivated by the pursuit of the so-called strenuous life.