Book: Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life - Robert Dallek

[bucolic_frolic]

https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-D-Roosevelt-Political-Life/dp/0525427902

Amazing that biographers and historians are still pumping out new biographies of FDR. I've read Doris Kearns Goodwin's "No Ordinary Time" and Jean Edward Smith's "FDR" and this volume compares favorably. Dallek gives extensive chapter references, and relies heavily on on private letters, notes, and diaries of those surrounding Roosevelt. This gives a more complex reading of the decisions, dilemmas, and ups-and-downs of Roosevelt's reasoning and judgment as he navigated through the political landscape. Many many nuances emerge that I was unaware of, such as his strategy to purge the party of conservative Democrats in 1938, and the frequent vacations he enjoyed at sea on various yachts and ships. He was able to escape the whirlwind of Washington and only be in touch by twice daily radio and letters, sometimes for 2-3 weeks. Did you know Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as President, visited the Galapagos Islands? It was news to me.

The book may not be the smoothest wordsmith of several biographies, yet it is rather deep in perspective. Amazing also is the panoply of issues that liberals and conservatives fought over in the 1930s, all of them being repeated again today in the Trump year and a half in office - on steroids! Conservatives have been brewing this witch's cauldron for many decades, is Trump just the front man?

[BigmanPigman]

1. Thanks, my sister is a big FDR fan

and has read several books about him. I just sent her your review.