FDR | 
 enlarge | Author: Jean Edward Smith
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
Buy New: $11.69
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Avg. Customer Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 13721
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 880
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 2.1
ISBN: 0812970497
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780812970494
ASIN: 0812970497
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
One of today’s premier biographers has written a modern, comprehensive, indeed ultimate book on the epic life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In this superlative volume, Jean Edward Smith combines contemporary scholarship and a broad range of primary source material to provide an engrossing narrative of one of America’s greatest presidents.
This is a portrait painted in broad strokes and fine details. We see how Roosevelt’s restless energy, fierce intellect, personal magnetism, and ability to project effortless grace permitted him to master countless challenges throughout his life. Smith recounts FDR’s battles with polio and physical disability, and how these experiences helped forge the resolve that FDR used to surmount the economic turmoil of the Great Depression and the wartime threat of totalitarianism. Here also is FDR’s private life depicted with unprecedented candor and nuance, with close attention paid to the four women who molded his personality and helped to inform his worldview: His mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, formidable yet ever supportive and tender; his wife, Eleanor, whose counsel and affection were instrumental to FDR’s public and individual achievements; Lucy Mercer, the great romantic love of FDR’s life; and Missy LeHand, FDR’s longtime secretary, companion, and confidante, whose adoration of her boss was practically limitless.
Smith also tackles head-on and in-depth the numerous failures and miscues of Roosevelt’s public career, including his disastrous attempt to reconstruct the Judiciary; the shameful internment of Japanese-Americans; and Roosevelt’s occasionally self-defeating Executive overreach. Additionally, Smith offers a sensitive and balanced assessment of Roosevelt’s response to the Holocaust, noting its breakthroughs and shortcomings.
Summing up Roosevelt’s legacy, Jean Smith declares that FDR, more than any other individual, changed the relationship between the American people and their government. It was Roosevelt who revolutionized the art of campaigning and used the burgeoning mass media to garner public support and allay fears. But more important, Smith gives us the clearest picture yet of how this quintessential Knickerbocker aristocrat, a man who never had to depend on a paycheck, became the common man’s president. The result is a powerful account that adds fresh perspectives and draws profound conclusions about a man whose story is widely known but far less well understood. Written for the general reader and scholars alike, FDR is a stunning biography in every way worthy of its subject.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 History enhanced August 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I purchased this book on my Kindle because I felt woefully uninformed about FDR. My parents, born after the turn of the 19th century felt that FDR literally saved them and this country from a fate that had been launched by government policies of lassez faire that left everyone to their own devices. On the other hand, for years I have heard FDR put down as someone who opened up the country to big government and set the country up for a spend expansion that lives on to this day.
While this book does not put an end to that debate, it does shed remarkable light on FDR the person - the good, the bad, and otherwise. Some of my key take-aways are that all strong leaders have some aspects to their life and personality that are not to be admired. On the other hand, FDR had a wonderful ability to pick great people, give them a job, and watch great things happen. In addition, FDR exemplified a capability sorely needed today - try, experiment, if you fail, change and try something else.
I honestly was not ready for the story to end, nor for FDR to pass from the scene.
 well-written but somewhat superficial August 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
FDR was well-written and it did not seem like a chore to plod through like a lot of other historical nonfiction. Smith does a great job with research and puts together a cohesive story. However, I feel that in many points, she could have gone deeper and attempted to shed light on what went on behind the scenes. You do not get the sense that you really know how FDR worked his political magic beyond the legends that are common knowledge. I would have liked to hear a bit more about the back-room deals and political battles FDR fought, even if she would have had to speculate and do some guesswork to tell the story.
A Most Readable Biography August 4, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is not the first, and won't be the last bio I will read about FDR. It is, simply the most readable one I've encountered. The author crafts the prose to fit the mood at the time. If you read only one bio of this great man, read this one!
Brilliant!! July 8, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
FDR comes to life, his greatness and his flaws. Mr. Smith has constructed a marvelous one volume portrait of one of America's greatest Presidents. Like Lincoln he was the right man, at the right time for his moment in history. Tears welled in my eyes as I read the final passages about his passing. Highly Recommended!!
 Move along, nothing to see here May 22, 2008
9 out of 24 found this review helpful
I bought this book because I wanted more knowledge of how a successful presidency is achieved. Historians have consistently ranked FDR in third place among presidents, behind Washington and Lincoln. I also wanted updated research, and a modern writing style.
When I received the book, and saw conservative commentator George F. Will's praise on the dust jacket, I knew something was wrong.
It went downhill from Mr. Will's comment.
According to the book, Roosevelt rode in on his wealth and cousin Teddy's popularity. He was swept along by his political handlers.
The book concentrates on FDR's failures and glosses over his legacy. For example, it devotes many pages to the court packing attempt, and scant paragraphs to the WPA or TVA or Social Security (or to the entirety of the New Deal for that matter).
It discusses the minutia of his daily life, but provides no insight into the man. It discusses what time he got up in the morning (late) and what time was happy hour. Yet it gives no insight of how Roosevelt formed his political or social views, how he effectively worked with foe and friend to achieve his agenda, how he stabilized the financial institutions, and lifted America from the Great Depression.
If you're looking for such a book, move along, there's nothing here to see.
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