For the past few days, I’ve been studying a little American history.

Little is a bit misleading here, since my study comes from a PBS series on the Roosevelt family, and the Roosevelts’ place in American life is hardly little. On the contrary, the two Roosevelts dominated the first half of the 20th century and left a giant footprint on our history as a nation.

Theodore Roosevelt became president at the beginning of the 20th century and dominated the century’s first decade. His distant nephew Franklin, who famously ignored tradition and was elected to four terms, wrote his name on a decade and a half of American life, and would have served almost to the middle of the century had he not died early in his fourth term.

Their influence continues to this day, for between the two of them, they created a much larger and more activist federal government that conservatives are still trying to modify or unravel.

In many ways, Powell owes its existence to Theodore Roosevelt, whose administration created the Bureau of Reclamation, which enabled farming in the desert we occupy as well as the national forests where we recreate.

Franklin Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Administration brought power to those farms, and the Social Security system allows many of us to live above the poverty line.

These and other programs the Roosevelts established were controversial at their creation and continue to be at issue today and our government debates that size and scope of the government.

Watching this series, though, I have been more interested in the humanity of the two men than their politics. They are fascinating characters who harbored great weaknesses as well as great strengths. Whatever you think of their politics, you have to admire them for the obstacles they overcame and question them for some of their behavior.

Theodore Roosevelt is one of the most fascinating men in our history. He was a naturally curious man who read voraciously.

By some accounts, he read a book a day during his lifetime while finding time to author 18 of his own. He was a man of tremendous energy and courage, which he famously displayed when a would-be assassin shot him just before he was to make a speech.

With the bullet lodged just inches from his heart, he delivered his hour-long address before seeking medical aid.

That same courage, though, sometimes led to reckless behavior, as it did during his famous charge in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

Moreover, he glorified war and pushed his three sons into volunteering for front-line duty during World War I, which resulted in the death of his youngest son and crippling injuries to another.

Franklin Roosevelt’s strong suit was his determination to achieve the goals he set for himself, including his desire to follow his cousin Theodore into the White House. That determination, as well as the courage required to endure great pain, helped him overcome the paralysis he suffered through a bout with polio.

That same determination and courage helped him take firm action to deal with the banking crisis in the early weeks of his presidency and push through other legislation in his efforts to deal with the Depression.

But that determination had its down side, leading Franklin to overstep his power, as he did with his attempt to remake the Supreme Court in the interest of pushing his program. Nor was he admirable in the cavalier way he treated his marriage, depending on his wife to help him deal with his handicap while maintaining a long affair with her personal secretary.

Many members of the Roosevelt family were subject to depression, and more than one man in the family fell victim to that mental disorder and the alcohol they used to medicate it. Elliot Roosevelt, Theodore’s brother and the father of Franklin’s wife (and fifth cousin) Eleanor, was a victim, as was Theodore’s son Kermit.

The tendency may have affected both Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt as well, and some historians think they avoided depression by focusing on big goals. Theodore, for example, took off for North Dakota to take up ranching after losing his first wife and his mother on the same day. When he lost his attempt to move back into the White House in 1912, he set out on a huge expedition to an unexplored river deep in the Amazon jungle, taking Kermit along, possibly hoping the trip would help him as well.

After Franklin’s bout with polio, it would have been understandable had he lapsed into depression. Instead, he focused on his ambition to be president and embarked on a determined effort to walk again in pursuit of that goal. The effort led to his purchase of a resort at Warm Springs, Georgia, where he founded the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, an organization still in business today.

Learning about the achievements and failures of the Roosevelts and other major historical figures is important, but looking into their humanity, the engine that makes a person tick, is important as well. Knowing the personal and family factors that influenced them throughout their lives gives us a better grasp of how and why events happened as they did.

That’s important, because in reality, the individuals who govern us will all have strengths and weaknesses, and those strengths and weaknesses are the key to knowing how each will govern.

And knowing how they will govern is the key to electing good candidates.