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    FDR
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    FDR
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    FDR
    Audiobook (abridged)10 hours

    FDR

    Written by Jean Edward Smith

    Narrated by Richard McGonagle

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER - "A model presidential biography... Now, at last, we have a biography that is right for the man" - Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 15, 2007
    ISBN9780739343456
    Unavailable
    FDR
    Author

    Jean Edward Smith

    Jean Edward Smith taught at the University of Toronto for thirty-five years, and at Marshall University for twelve. He was also a visiting scholar at Columbia, Princeton, and Georgetown. He is the author of Bush, a biography of the 43rd president; Eisenhower in War and Peace; FDR, winner of the 2008 Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians; Grant, a 2002 Pulitzer Prize finalist; John Marshall: Definer of a Nation; and The Liberation of Paris.

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    Reviews for FDR

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      Another fantastic book by author Jean Edward Smith. He has moved to near the top of my favorite historical writers. This book covers the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and does an admirable job of fitting in his amazing experiences into a one volume biography. I feel that as usual, the author was fair to FDR by both praising his actions, but acknowledging the faults and poor decisions when they were present. I learned a great deal about the man.

      On a personal note, I did not find that I became a great admirer of FDR as I did Grant and Eisenhower after reading Smith's books. To me, he came across as a great politician more than a great man and I would say the opposite for the other two historical figures. That is not to say I do not have great respect for FDR, but I did not develop a love of his historical person through this biography.
    • 5/5
      Jean Edward Smith's biography of FDR is one of the most complete and compelling reads on the life of one of the greatest presidents of the United States. Largely chronological, Smith's biography keeps the different aspects of FDR's life in perspective. This is no easy task given that the time period in which FDR was in power was the most tumultuous in living memory. Where some biographies of FDR get understandably pulled in the direction of any number of the supporting characters, many of whom could and do have biographies in their own right, Smith maintains the steady path of telling FDR's own story.

      As impenetrable as FDR was and remains to his contemporaries and historians, Smith ads light touches of personal insights into the private life of a political master. Admired for his stoicism in the face of his personal trauma of paralysis, we see rare occasions where FDR lets his guard down such as upon the death of his doting mother Sara and his leaving a large portion of his estate in his will to his secretary Missy LeHand.

      While Smith pulls no punches in looking at FDR's numerous errors, such as the court packing fiasco and the unconstitutional internment of Japanese Americans, he tells FDR's story in such a way that it is much easier to consider the whole instead of the errors isolated in and of themselves and to judge him accordingly. For example, his often criticized lack of response to the genocide of the Jews of Europe was clearly not a lack of response or concern on FDR's part but a real inability to do much about it with military means once the truth became known. We see FDR's health failing while he simultaneously runs international affairs in the midst of the worst conflict of the 20th Century as well as running for reelection and keeping an eye on domestic issues.

      Smith does a tremendous service for FDR's legacy in helping us all to understand more thoroughly the great leadership and the great sacrifice that FDR made. In a fitting final tribute at the end of this fantastic biography, Smith quotes Senator Robert Taft who sums up best the life of FDR "He dies a hero of the war, for he literally worked himself to death in the service of the American people."
    • 4/5
      A very strong read. I did find the first third to be a bit slow. FDR and his ilk had a very privileged upbringing, and some of that was a bit tedious. I do think contracting Polio had a overwhelming effect on his perspective - perhaps even a humbling impact. Once he becomes President, it really picks up. Trump says he is getting so much done in his first 100 days (what a fantasy), but hardly anyone can hold a candle to FDR's early days. He barnstormed DC with legistration.

      Recommended.
    • 5/5
      Great read! Everything I look for in a biography! Great narrator!
    • 4/5
      Good description of FDR's history.
    • 5/5
      One of the great challenges of writing a biography of America's 32nd president is encapsulating such a challenging character, complex life, and momentous career into the pages of a single volume. Doing so successfully requires incorporating his patrician background and upbringing, his marriage to one of the most remarkable women in American history, his early career in state and national politics, his affliction and adaptation to polio, his successful ascent to the presidency, and his management of two of the greatest challenges the United States and the world has ever faced. Though many have tried, few have pulled it off as well as Jean Edward Smith. A longtime political scientist and biographer, he draws upon both an enormous documentary record and the numerous studies that have been published to describe Franklin Roosevelt's life and achievements within the context of a changing America. Though he uncovers little that s new, he examines it with a critical eye that discovers quite a few insights missed by previous chroniclers. Thanks in no small measure to this, Smith's book stands among the finest biographies of Franklin Roosevelt ever written, one that can be read with profit both by the experienced reader and by anyone seeking a thorough yet accessible account of Franklin Roosevelt and his presidency.
    • 4/5
      A truly comprehensive account of FDR's life could take up volumes. The author did a great job of synthesizing that material into one excellent volume.

      Two things of which I was of course aware, are really put into stark relief in this book.

      First, that FDR really did fundamentally, and forever, change the relationship between Americans and their government...for the good in my opinion.

      Second, the monumental physical toll WWII took on him. I think many probably assume his bout with polio made him feeble to begin with, and that it was a natural progression from that disease that ultimately caused his death. In fact, other than not having the use of his legs, FDR was in excellent health at the beginning of his Presidency. He could have taken any number of measures to restore his health near the end (high blood pressure was the ultimate cause of his death). Instead he quite literally worked himself to death.

      An excellent book about an amazing man!
    • 5/5
      This book is just amazing! When I read biographies of politician, I usually find boring the parts where they talk about the period where he or she is not yet in politics (especially the childhood years). However, the writing style of the author of this book is so good that he makes you very interested in each and every part of FDR's life from his birth until his death. He provides interesting trivias as well as good analysis behind FDR'S political actions. An added bonus for me is that he cites (complete with case summaries and analysis) several landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases, which as a law student myself, I find very interesting! This is really an outstanding biography. Having read so many biographies, The only thing better for me is Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals( which is in a class of its own)
    • 4/5
      Excellent one volume book on FDR by Smith. The book demonstrates why he is considered one of our top five presidents. Medicare, Social Security, the GI Bill, the WPA, the CCC, etc. are his accomplishments. He also chose the leaders: George Marshall, Stimson, Leahy, Eisenhower, etc. that won WW II. He gave the USA hope during the Great Depression with his programs and optimism. Finally, he saved the UK with his Lend Lease and other programs (overcoming the forces of isolationism like the America First Party). He overcame polio to be an effective leader. He was not without faults. He raised taxes in 1937 which threw the country back into a recession. He lost almost his entire political clout by trying to pack the Supreme Court. He was vindictive to his foes especially Herbert Hoover and Lindbergh. He imprisoned the American Japanese during WW II. He did nothing on civil rights. He was too sick to be an effective president after 1944. All in all, Smith does make a strong case for FDR still being at the top of the pantheon with Lincoln and Washington. To be a great leader you have to face an overcome a great crisis. FDR had to face two of them: the Great Depression and WW II. He did not conquer the Great Depression but he did alleviate many of its worse aspects. He did not win WW II but as I said he helped save the UK and he was skilled enough to appoint the right leaders like Lincoln appointed Grant. The book does end without an epilogue or a summary (which is a bit strange). He died. The end.
    • 5/5
      One of the best books I've read, period. I love this guy's writing and I love the people he writes about.
    • 4/5
      A good read, not overly critical bio of the man and president. Many interesting and illuminating facts and insights.
    • 5/5
      "The literature on the Roosevelt era is immense," Jean Edward Smith notes in his preface to "FDR," "there is little that has not been said, somewhere, about the president." So why another biography? Because "Roosevelt himself has become a mythic figure, looming indistinctly out of the mist of the past."Mr. Smith aims to write not only history but also Plutarchian biography:The "children's hour" every evening when the president mixed martinis for his guests, the poker games with cabinet cronies, the weekly sojourns on the presidential yacht Potomac, and his personal relations with family and friends warrant extended treatment. Roosevelt enjoyed life to the full, and his unquenchable optimism never faded.The biographer builds such an intricate network of personal detail that toward the end of the war, when President Franklin Roosevelt asks Eleanor to mix the martinis, we know Roosevelt is about to die. Anecdotes in this biography unmask FDR the man, with his shrewd ability to size up subordinates.When the preening Douglas MacArthur kept Roosevelt waiting during the President's trip to Pearl Harbor, FDR mildly asked the senior military advisers, "Where's Douglas?" MacArthur then arrived seated in a very long, open touring car with sirens screaming and a motorcycle phalanx. "Hello, Doug," Roosevelt said. "What are you doing with that leather jacket on? It's darn hot today."Every Roosevelt biographer has to come to terms with how FDR's polio affected the man and his policies. As Mr. Smith notes, for the last 23 years of his life FDR could not stand unassisted, let alone walk even a brief distance without the aid of heavy leg braces. How is it that this "Hudson River aristocrat, a son of privilege who never depended on a paycheck, became the champion of the common man"? The conventional explanation, Mr. Smith notes, is that overcoming personal adversity gave Roosevelt "insight into the nature of suffering." True enough, but that analysis hardly explains the specific nature of FDR's politics. Mr. Smith contends that the decisive influence was FDR's exposure to the "brutal reality of rural poverty" in Warm Springs, GA., an experience that prompted him to help that third of the nation that was "ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished," to quote one of his most famous speeches.It seems to me after reading Mr. Smith's deeply moving biography that there is yet another reason for FDR's empathy for the less fortunate: Here was a man with a powerful physique (massive shoulders, arms, and chest) who could not propel himself upward or forward, and who risked falling as he stood to greet world figures such as Stalin and Churchill. He expended more energy getting up than most people did in an entire day. He had the money to disguise his disability, to create the illusion that he could walk. But what of most other people who did not have his resources? That was the question that dominated Roosevelt's politics and the reason he believed government had a role in providing equal opportunity for all.Mr. Smith ranks Roosevelt with Presidents Washington and Lincoln as among this country's greatest leaders. FDR's creation of programs such as social security and the G.I. Bill have ensured his high position among presidents. But Roosevelt was also a great wartime leader. Mr. Smith credits FDR's eight years as second-in-command in the Navy Department during the Wilson administration for FDR's understanding of military organization, allowing him to make key decisions quickly and effectively. Better yet, he had taken the measure of figures such as George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, and Douglas MacArthur. By the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, FDR knew that these three men were indispensable, even though many other commanders outranked Marshall and Eisenhower.Although FDR's greatness is an indisputable theme in Mr. Smith's book, this is no hagiography. If FDR did not invite the attack on Pearl Harbor, he certainly neglected the Pacific theater and pursued policies that, in retrospect, made the Japanese attack all too feasible, Mr. Smith argues. And about FDR's court packing scheme — his attempt to add members to a recalcitrant Supreme Court that declared many New Deal measures unconstitutional — Mr. Smith is scathing. The issue was not a reactionary court, not a group of nine old men not up to the job, but a power-grab by a president who had overreached himself. Similarly, Mr. Smith is in no mood to exonerate FDR from the deplorable decision to intern Japanese residents during wartime.FDR's flaws notwithstanding, the epigraph to Mr. Smith's biography, taken from Governor Cuomo's keynote address to the 1984 Democratic National Convention, beautifully captures the greatness of the man and the leader: "He lifted himself from his wheelchair to lift this nation from its knees."
    • 4/5
      Nicely written and well-doucumented, a fitting tribute to the gretest American president of the 20th century.
    • 5/5
      Excellent biography for the general reader. There have been many books on Roosevelt recently, several about his relationship with Churchill specifically, but not a complete biography. Smith sees Roosevelt as, with Washington and Lincoln, in the top echelon of influential American presidents and her book is intended to show why. But she is also sensitive to his faults and doesn’t hesitate to condemn a number of his actions and attitudes, not the least of which was his attempt to "pack" the Supreme Court by mandating another justice for every justice who turned 70. The reader has a sense of a factual and balanced view of an extraordinary man.This isn’t a biography with startlingly new information. I’ve read a lot of books about Roosevelt and a lot of histories in which Roosevelt figures prominently and was surprised by nothing but still delighted with the book because of Smith's ability to analyze Roosevelt’s attitudes and actions in detail, free of political and popular bias. The one section of the book that seemed to me particularly good was her analysis of the build up to the attack on Pearl Harbor which revisionist historians recently have construed to suggest that Roosevelt deliberately allowed to happen in order to have an excuse for the US to enter the war. Certainly Roosevelt saw that necessity before the country as a whole was willing to abandon its isolationism, but after reading Smith’s account I’m convinced that the revisionist’s were wrong about Roosevelt. One particularly interesting facet was the attempt of Ambassador Joseph C. Grew to broker a rapprochement with Japan through the Japanese prime minister who did not want war but who was facing an ever-more-militant party within the government. Grew cabled the prime minister’s offer of talks to Roosevelt, but Roosevelt was in Placentia Bay at the time meeting with Churchill and drafting what became the Atlantic Charter. Evidently Grew’s cable was dealt with by more militant and anti-Japanese elements within the State Department.Smith devoted more attention to the New Deal, both its successes and its failures, than to WWII which seemed odd to me, but after all, those years constituted a larger proportion of FDR’s presidency and the war years have been covered so thoroughly in the recent spate of books on WWII and Roosevelt’s role and influence. I was particularly convinced of Roosevelt’s power as a politician and leader when Smith showed how his positive attitude and ability to communicate with all Americans appealed to the people who had heard nothing but doom and gloom from Hoover who was not an inspiring communicator. In fact, with the US facing a Presidential choice at this time, it reminds me that sometimes the ability to communicate a vision is the most important job of a national leader.This book clarified in my mind that Obama was the one to support in 2009.
    • 5/5
      I found this a supremely satisfactory reading experience. Smith is appropriately admiratory of FDR, though he does not fail to point out defects and failures which occurred. It is ampler for the years before World War II, but adequate for the final years. I did not find a dull or uninteresting page in the whole book. There are 636 pages of text, 153 pages of notes, and 35 pages of bibliography.
    • 4/5
      Great biography on an American Hero! You may not agree with many of his ideas but Democrat or Republican, you must acknowledge him as a great leader. I picked up the book for tips on how to be a leader while having the physical challenges of polio (I was diagnosed with MS last year and was looking for inspiration to continue to be a enduring leader). The book mirrors his life. His talents and extraordinary leadership skills so over shadow his handicap that you have to force yourself to remember his physical challenges. Very good read.Chuck Wood
    • 5/5
      With all the recent economic distress confronting the nation, I thought it might be interesting to read an FDR biography. Jean Edward Smith's FDR is a great addition the FDR scholarship. Smith clearly has a soft spot in his heart for FDR but he takes great pains to show Roosevelt warts and all. He tastefully relates FDR's extramarital affairs and his estrangement from Eleanor. He portrays the president as a somewhat shallow, superficial man yet also capable of greatness and deep understanding of human motivation. Reading the book, I finished ambivalent about the man FDR.In terms of policy, Smith again presents a balanced view. He rightly rejects the current argument that the New Deal did nothing to combat the Depression (unemployment in fact fell dramatically). He also shows how when FDR trimmed spending under some pressure from conservative critics, the economy tanked and caused the 1937 recession. Roosevelt's lack of interest in racial justice comes across as well - he was no segregationist, but he clearly didn't fight it either. There were too many Southerners in his coalition to make this an effective political strategy. For a man with as profound a political sense as Roosevelt, it just didn't make sense to him.I think the later sections of the book -- those dealing with WWII -- are a bit flat. That may be because that particular topic is too well-covered to make any impact on my understanding of the period. Smith did, however, covey the sense that Roosevelt had little choice but to accommodate Stalin. The Cold War argument that he caved in at Yalta just doesn't match reality.As FDR's legacy comes under increasing attack by conservative historians, politicians, and pundits, Jean Edward Smith's FDR serves as a balanced and scholarly corrective to some of the polemical screeds that serve as scholarship.
    • 5/5
      This book was perfect reading for the times. You can see how a democratic president figured out how to bring the United States back to her proper position in the world. A must read.
    • 4/5
      This is an excellent time for this book to come out, and to have read it, when, in the U.S., we have an incoming President who faces challenges almost as severe as FDR did and who is being compared to FDR. It makes it a great time to analyze FDR's strengths and mistakes, to see what lessons can be drawn from them.There wasn't a lot in FDR's early life to suggest his extraordinary gift for leadership. In his early years he was intelligent and charming, full of life and vigor, but rather callow. Frances Perkins, for one, was not impressed by him as he was in his early political days, though she grew to very much admire the President he became.Nothing prepared him more for the Presidency than his years as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. It taught him about the military and about Washington politics.Oddly enough, the polio that struck him in 1021, paralyzing his hips, may have been a source of his growth as a human being. He had always been confident, and remained so, but he was courageous and determined in his fight against the disability.It was his confidence and courage that allowed him to face the deep crises of his Presidency, to be willing to try new ideas, knowing some might fail, in which case he would try something else. By the time he became President he had been to Warm Springs, Georgia, to help treat his polio, and he was much struck by the poverty of the area. His enthusiasm for rural electrification was informed in part by his time there.By 1940, Roosevelt was tired and, were it not for the worsening international situation, may not have run again for President. He dd run, he won, and led an isolationist public opinion into supporting Britain and then into the absolutely incredible level of military and industrial mobilization required for WWII. He worked particularly well with Churchill and the two had a lot of similarities in their approach, and he was also able to work with Stalin once events forced them into alliance.Joe Biden had, in my opinion, the best line of the 2008 campaign when he said we need not just a good soldier, but a wise leader. FDR was a wise leader. He was also human, and made mistakes, such as the attempt to pack the Supreme Court and to balance the federal budget in 1937, which caused a recession. Other times he was held back from doing better things by political realities, such as the need for the voes of the Southern Democrats, when otherwise he might have moved forward more on civil rights issues.All of these things provide good lessons for President-elect Obama.Jean Edward Smith is an experienced writer of biographies, and she handles this one well. It is long, with voluminous notes. At times reading it one feels bogged down by detail, and at other times sees only a glimpse of interesting material that can't be fully covered in this book.... most strikingly, there is surprisingly little of Eleanor's story during her most interesting and productive years for the simple reason that by that point she and Franklin had little to do with each other. Their lives had become quite separate, to the point that each had love affairs with other people, and worked in their own sphere of influence.Overall, a long book but worth the read. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      The author of this hefty tome hails FDR as one of the greatest American Presidents, and one of the saviors of the Western world. She might or might not be correct, but her biography is detailed an engaging. It focuses mainly on his presidential years, and mainly on his political life, rather than his personal life. However, since FDR also focused mainly on his political life, sometimes to the exclusion of anything else, that is probably appropriate. This is a complex biography of a complex man.
    • 3/5
      Much better book on tape, but so interesting about him.
    • 5/5
      Biography at its best. Packed with scholarship but yet so readable and enjoyable that it was one of those "can't put it down," reads. I now know so much more, and admire FDR so much more than I did before reading this. I also really like how Smith adds in all those little fascinating tid-bits down as footnotes on the page so you don't have to turn to the back to read them. One small warning -- this bio won't please fans of Eleanor; Smith gives her short shrift and actually she comes off looking prudish and annoying. I loved this book so much that I actually turned it in late at the library and paid the fine! -- this is unheard of for me. I just purchased his biography of Grant because I don't want to have the pressure of the library due date when I read it! Highly, highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a political genius and arguably the best President of the United States in the 20th century. FDR came from a family that could trace its beginnings in the New World back to the early Dutch settlers of New York, making him a member of the "Knickerbocker aristocracy". However, an upbringing surrounded by wealth and privilege did not prevent him, through a combination of circumstances, personal adversity and a compassionate nature, from identifying with the underprivileged--the ill-fed, ill-housed, ill-clothed of Depression America. The series of social programs that he launched in his first term as President to deal in an immediate and pragmatic fashion with the economic collapse and consequent suffering of millions collectively became the New Deal. Some of those programs, such as Social Security, Federal deposit insurance, and others, form the bedrock of what social safety net the US possesses today.Yet in their time, many of these programs were predicted to be the end of democracy, the end of society, the beginning of dictatorship and worse. Roosevelt was a controversial president particularly in his second term. Crippled by a major error in attempting to change the composition of the Supreme Court, he faced serious opposition to his social agenda at that time. The outbreak of World War 2 and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor united the country behind him. He was the most effective leader in time of war since Lincoln. When he died on April 12, 1945, the world mourned.Roosevelt's life was so rich, so complex that this is but a bare bones synopsis of the book's coverage of just his public life. His private life was no less involved. According to Smith (and others), Roosevelt's life was shaped and influence by four women: his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt; his wife Eleanor (ER); Lucy Mercer (probably the great love of his life); and Missy LeHand--secretary, devoted companion, and one of the two people in FDR's life who was never afraid to confront him with what they saw as reality.Smith is not an exciting writer, but he presents his material well and shows flashes of sardonic humor at times. Given the thorough scholarship and the material itself, that's all that's needed; particularly in the early phases of FDR's political career, including hiis time in albany as state senator and later governor, the book reads like a page-turning thriller, as you race along, marveling at the details of the life of a man who has passed almost into myth. Smith obviously has great affection for Roosevelt; this shows, but does not prevent him from thoroughly exploring Roosevelt's mistakes as well as his successes. Given FDR, those mistakes were not trivial. Some have had negative consequences almost to this day.The names associated forever with FDR--Louis Howe, Harry Hopkins, Cordell Hull, Jim Farley, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Frances Perkins and others--come alive in Smith's treatment. The reader gets a real feel for who these people were and what their contributions were. Through it all, FDR himself stands as a self-confident leader of tremendous vision who had incredible intuitive insight into people, instinctively choosing those of talent and putting them to work in areas perfectly suited to their abilities. This was especially true in wartime--again, he had an uncanny ability to select the right men for the job. Marshall, Eisenhower, Nimitz all appear as they rose to influence and leadership under FDR.This is a biography of FDR. Yet, Smith deals extensively with Sara Roosevelt and ER. Both played prominent roles in FDR's career. Smith goes into the affair with Lucy Mercer and shows how that influenced FDR's public and private life for over 40 years. ER's life is documented as appropriate, but Smith rightfully doesn't attempt her biography. Yet, he gives enough detail to give the reader more than a glimpse into an immensely complicated, productive, and influential life.Basically, Smith presents FDR's family life as a remarkable political partnership between FDR and ER, but a dismal failure in both the marriage itself and as far as their 5 children were concerned. FDR ahd the interest in his children, but no time; ER is portrayed as having neither, just a sense of duty.The run-up to World War 2 and American entry is breathtaking. The tension, as events unfold, is as good as any best-selling mystery thriller, probably better.The pace of the book slows down somewhat after American entry into the war. Personally, I think that's due simply to the task of trying to select and condense the enormous amount of relevant material into what was meant to be a one-volume biography of FDR and not a detailed exploration of everything he did as Commander-in-Chief. I believe Smith has suceeded admirably.The photos included in the book are excellent. Partiicularly striking are the ones taken in July and August, 1944. Comparing the two, the difference in Roosevelt's appearance is shocking, showing the rapid decline in his physical health. Roosevelt's death was probably preventable, and was due to a combination of medical ignorance and arrogance and incompetence on the part of his personal physician.There is one flaw in the book as far as I'm concerned, although it's a very minor one. In the chapter "Heritage", Smith goes into the geneology on both sides of FDR's family. Given the number of ancestors involved, there are a LOT of names. Family trees would have been extremely helpful--can't tell the players without a score card--but unfortunatley there aren't any. However, I consider this lack a trivial annoyance. One of the overwhelming impressions a reader takes from the book is Roosevelt's confidence in the American people. When I read possibly the most famous sentence among many he uttered during his career, given towards the end of his first Inaugural Address: "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."When I asked myself which of today's leading political figures in 2007 has the faith in the American people and the American system to make such a statement, I couldn't think of one.There is almost no way to adequately convey the excitement of this book. Suffice it to say that there has to be something engrossing about it if the account of FDR's attempt to pack the Supreme Court and the political battle that followed is gripping enough to keep a reader up past 1 am!Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      This is by far one of the best biographies on FDR I have ever read. It is a long read, but the writing flows. The author brings to life FDR's entire life, flaws and all. It is obvious from the beginning that the author is a fan FDR but Jean Smith still tells the flaws of FDR, such as his two affairs. The unique marriage situation FDR had with his wife is expertly shown in the book. The author uses new historical documents that have surfaces and makes some amazing conclusions. The entire political life of FDR is examined from his early days prior to when he had polio, to the FDR we now know and love. I highly recommend this book for people who like, and hate, FDR.