Franklin D. Roosevelt

In an era of great national divisiveness, there could not be a more timely biography of one of our greatest presidents than one that focuses on his unparalleled strategic skills as a unifier and a consensus maker. A one-volume biography of Roosevelt by the bestselling biographer of JFK, focusing on his career as an incomparable politician, uniter, and dealmaker.

Zusatztext 67592236 Informationen zum Autor Robert Dallek is the author of Camelot's Court , An Unfinished Life , and Nixon and Kissinger , among other books. His writing has appeared in The New York Times , The Washington Post , The Atlantic Monthly , and Vanity Fair . He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Society of American Historians, for which he served as president in 20042005. He lives in Washington, D.C. Klappentext Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post and NPR "We come to see in FDR the magisterial, central figure in the greatest and richest political tapestry of our nation's entire history" -Nigel Hamilton, Boston Globe "Meticulously researched and authoritative" -Douglas Brinkley, The Washington Post "A workmanlike addition to the literature on Roosevelt." -David Nasaw, The New York Times "Dallek offers an FDR relevant to our sharply divided nation" -Michael Kazin "Will rank among the standard biographies of its subject" -Publishers Weekly A one-volume biography of Roosevelt by the #1 New York Times bestselling biographer of JFK, focusing on his career as an incomparable politician, uniter, and deal maker In an era of such great national divisiveness, there could be no more timely biography of one of our greatest presidents than one that focuses on his unparalleled political ability as a uniter and consensus maker. Robert Dallek's Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life takes a fresh look at the many compelling questions that have attracted all his biographers: how did a man who came from so privileged a background become the greatest presidential champion of the country's needy? How did someone who never won recognition for his intellect foster revolutionary changes in the country's economic and social institutions? How did Roosevelt work such a profound change in the country's foreign relations? For FDR, politics was a far more interesting and fulfilling pursuit than the management of family fortunes or the indulgence of personal pleasure, and by the time he became president, he had commanded the love and affection of millions of people. While all Roosevelt's biographers agree that the onset of polio at the age of thirty-nine endowed him with a much greater sense of humanity, Dallek sees the affliction as an insufficient explanation for his transformation into a masterful politician who would win an unprecedented four presidential terms, initiate landmark reforms that changed the American industrial system, and transform an isolationist country into an international superpower. Dallek attributes FDR's success to two remarkable political insights. First, unlike any other president, he understood that effectiveness in the American political system depended on building a national consensus and commanding stable long-term popular support. Second, he made the presidency the central, most influential institution in modern America's political system. In addressing the country's international and domestic problems, Roosevelt recognized the vital importance of remaining closely attentive to the full range of public sentiment around policy-making decisions-perhaps FDR's most enduring lesson in effective leadership. Leseprobe Chapter 1 The Making of a Patrician In the two-hundred-and-thirty-year history of the United States, forty-five Americans have become president. Unlike in royal kingdoms, no noble family line anoints the men who enter the highest office, and no common characteristics distinguish them from millions and millions of their fellow native-born citizens. They have come from every corner of the country-south and north, east and west-and have included a variety of ethnicities, religious denominations (including a Catholic), and, most surprisingly, given the country's long histo...

"Assuredly the best single-volume Roosevelt biography."
—Eric Rauchway, Times Literary Supplement

“Meticulously researched and authoritative. . . . Adequate single-volume biographies about FDR abound. But none are as heroically objective and wide-angled as this fine Dallek effort. . . . By tapping into the vast correspondence between Churchill and Roosevelt, Dallek discerns a more strained relationship between the leaders than presupposed. . . . Luckily for us, Roosevelt is with us again in Dallek’s outstanding cradle-to-grave study. When it comes to choosing the two indispensable presidents in U.S. history, Dallek places Roosevelt alongside Abraham Lincoln, the other great improviser with Providence on his side.”
—Douglas Brinkley, The Washington Post
 
“Dallek fully incorporates into his narrative Roosevelt’s complicated, conflicted relationship with the several women in his life and is especially good on the role Eleanor played, as goad and political advisor. He also makes it clear, in a way other biographers do not, that almost from the moment he entered office, Roosevelt set out to educate the nation to the fact that the United States was threatened not only by economic depression at home, but also by fascist aggressions abroad. . . . Dallek’s is a workmanlike addition to the literature on Roosevelt.”
—David Nasaw, The New York Times

“Dallek constantly seeks to find an answer to FDR’s political trajectory: What fueled his ambition to serve in the political arena and with what political aims? Also the extent to which it was FDR’s experiences—abroad as a child, then at school, at Harvard, in the New York legislature—that determined his later progress in the real world. Undergirding all of these, Dallek sees Roosevelt’s moral war on deceit and corruption. In an era in which moral, linguistic, and financial corruption hold sway, this story could not be more timely. . . . From beginning to end Dallek has earnestly followed his own curiosity as a citizen and as a teacher, so that at last we come to see in FDR the magisterial, central figure in the greatest and richest political tapestry of our nation’s entire history.”
—Nigel Hamilton, Boston Globe
 
“[Dallek] believes that FDR was a born politician of ferocious and very nearly infallible instincts, and through a combination of extensive research and first-rate storyteller’s gifts, he makes the reader believe it, too. His Roosevelt is a man of great but always complicated drives, a worrier and second-guesser who nonetheless often believed the intensely stirring things he so often said and wrote. . . . Dallek relates in fine and compelling detail all the thorniest scandals of the FDR years. . . . But far more prominent than scandal in these pages—and far more welcome—are Dallek’s frequent examinations of the now-forgotten political opposition FDR faced at every stage of his long tenure as president. . . . We see FDR afresh, which is an amazing feat in its own right.”
—Steve Donoghue, Christian Science Monitor

“An insightful, incisive and intelligent one-volume work of biography and history—and a pointed primer on how things in Washington get done. In a period defined by division, gridlock and tweet storms, Dallek crafts a pointillist portrait of the four-term president, who knew almost intuitively how to use the power of his office and how to reach consensus.”
—Peter M. Gianotti, Newsday

“Few scholars have the qualifications of Robert Dallek to tell this story. . . . *Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Politica…