Cataract--Diagnosis

Milton Bruce Shields and Louis Victor Priebe examine the topic of Theodore Roosevelt’s vision and how his myopia, or nearsightedness, affected his life from his inability to see clearly as a youth to his stockpiling eyeglasses before his service in Cuba and his safari in Africa. Shields and Priebe also discuss the injury to Roosevelt’s left eye suffered during a boxing match with an Army officer, and they speculate on whether the injury resulted from a detached retina or a cataract. Shields and Priebe also consider how Roosevelt’s vision may have determined other aspects of his life and personality from his heightened sense of hearing to his love of books and reading. 

 

Four photographs supplement the text, including two of 1904 campaign buttons in the shape of pince-nez glasses.