Unless we are thorough going Americans and unless our patriotism is part of the very fiber of our being, we can neither serve God nor take our own part.~~~Fear God and Take Your Own Part is a collection of articles Theodore Roosevelt wrote, largely for Metropolitan Magazine, some six years after he left the presidency. The title is another way of saying that a nation must have the power and will for self-sacrifice as well as the power and will for self-protection. In the book, Roosevelt, who also wrote extensively on the outdoors, vigorously sets forth the "principles of true Americanism" that still reverberate throughout the nation today. THEODORE ROOSEVELT (1858-1919) was a heroic figure who served as the 26th president of the United States. During his eight years in office, he steered the United States more actively into world politics. Teddy "Rough Riders" Roosevelt was also a military leader, a prosecutor, a naturalist, and a prolific writer.