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Then we spend more time on useless stuff like how beautiful FDR's voice was. This basically is a puff piece. Don't buy this book if you are looking for a detailed anaysis of FDR's achievements in his first 100 days. Does not contain any scholarily gravitas and does not even try to live up to it's title. My expectations were that he would devote a few pages per each 100 day. This book is totally and fundamentally filler.
So why include a cursory, badly done biography. A biography which was unnecessary since this book is supposed to be about the first hundred days. Ok. Whatever. Don't buy this book if you are looking for a good biography on FDR. I think it's chapter 34 or 35. This is totally ridiculous.
Going over all the staffing, legislation, and other accomplishements. Instead we get pages and pages of how Mrs Roosevelt was a lesbian. But no. It starts out with a very superficial biography of FDR. Finally at the very end we get some mention of social security.
Let's get to the 100 days. You have to wait until almost the end of the book before you finally get to day one in office. That's it. What a waste of time.
This is an incredibly prophetic book, considering today's political climate. The bold and decisive actions taken by FDR foreshadow the actions taken by President Obama, right down to the critics and cries of socialism. I wish I could have had this resource back when I was a high school history teacher.
This work, together with that of Adam Cohen ("Nothing to Fear") and the recent biographies by Jean Edward Smith ("FDR") and Conrad Black ("Champion of Freedom"), reinforce the view that while he was flawed (like all humans), FDR was THE political genius of the 20th century. Some have criticised the book for dwelling too much on Roosevelt's illness, youth and the political events which led him to the White House, but they are intrinsic to an understanding of his actions once he got there, particularly his ability to act boldly, decisively and most of all quickly. Through a combination of personal qualities, good fortune and circumstance, Roosevelt saved democracy in America, alleviated the worst suffering of the Depression and then saved western civilization from the fascists. Of course, the latter triumph is not the subject of this work, which deals with the events which shaped FDR's presidency and the decisions made during those monumental first 100 days. I enjoyed the author's journalistic, "chatty" style, backed up by thorough references and research (which you can ignore if you prefer). I love the book and its subject.
But Alter loves epical and sweeping conceits. If it is not bewildering enough to imagine how Alter managed to measure the libidinous energy of US presidents, his bald assertion is all the more remarkable because the alleged affair occurred before Roosevelt became president, even before he became governor of New York. But it requires narration and explication, not psychoanalysis from a distance of several decades.Likewise, Alter believes Roosevelt had an affair with his secretary Marguerite "Missy" LeHand. Readers will discover that generally when Alter's hypotheses are less psychological and more political, they are more plausible. While his polio would be inhibitory for many men, Alter argues, Roosevelt was unlike most men because (now get this) he would someday become president of the United States: "It's also evident that men who become president of the United States tend to have stronger than average libidos" (p.57).
Alter's most serious speculation, the one that constitutes Roosevelt's central defining moment, concerns Roosevelt's alleged refusal to resort to dictatorial powers upon assumption of the presidency. But it could easily mean something considerably more benign and even salutary: Roosevelt might have wanted the veterans to, say, pass out food or plant trees. Alter seems to forget that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. He explicitly cites Freud in his account of it, even though virtually no intellectuals take strict Freudianism seriously any more.
According to Alter, Roosevelt had a classical oedipal complex. Why Alter insists on using the singular "moment" in his title and throughout the book isn't clear since it is belied by the various moments he provides during which "the character or perception" of Roosevelt becomes increasing more "crystallized." While it is certainly true that "moment" has a more heroic tone, akin to an apotheosis, Alter would confuse the reader less by arguing that greatness evolves over time and, in some cases, is punctuated by occasional defining moments. Does this statement smack of Roosevelt preparing an army to institute martial law. He identifies the defining moment as the point in time in which "the character or perception of a political figure is crystallized." Yet in his discussion of Roosevelt's defining moment he seems to have in mind various episodes, starting with the assassination attempt on Roosevelt in the winter of 1933 and extending to his inaugural address on March 4, 1933 and beyond through the first 100 days of his presidency. 274). To be sure, the hold Roosevelt's mother had over him was extraordinary and important.
It is in nothing that Roosevelt wrote, nor is there one memorialized discussion that he had on the subject with any trusted aide or confidant. Not all of Alter's speculations are doubtful. Jonathan Alter is smitten with the "defining moment" of presidents and presidential candidates. Alter presents highly tangential evidence that Roosevelt would have been tempted to institute a benevolent dictatorship, mostly on the order that many people wanted him to institute one (e.g., William Randolph Hearst). Alter's best evidence is a line from a list of "suggested additions" for a radio speech Roosevelt was to give primarily to veterans belonging to the American Legion:"As new commander-in-chief under oath to which you are still bound I reserve to myself the right to command you in any phase of the situation which now confronts us." How this suggested sentence, whose authorship is unknown and which Roosevelt didn't use in any case, is tantamount to a declaration of dictatorship is anyone's guess.
On an imaginative reading, perhaps.
He points out that most of the enduring "landmark" accomplishments of the New Deal--the SEC, Social Security, the Wagner Act--occurred after the first 100 days of the Roosevelt presidency.
At the most, it was an "option" that was on the mind of others, but Alter gives us no compelling reason to believe that it was ever a lively option for Roosevelt.
For example, it is not enough to say Roosevelt had a controlling and dominating mother and that, understandably, had predictable consequences for his behavior.
But that doesn't keep Alter from exclaiming:"But on March 5, 1943, an astonishing thing happened--or more precisely, did not happen.
Political good fortune guarantees undaunted potency.
He then opines interestingly that if the actions of the first hundred days had been more successful in whipping the Depression, these "social advances" might not have been advanced and made available to future generations (p.
Nowhere do we see any evidence that Roosevelt seriously considered the idea of assuming dictatorial powers.
The draft of the American Legion radio address was destined not for the ears of millions of veterans and other Americans, but for nothing more than the speech files of the Roosevelt library, where it lay unexamined for more than 70 years" (p.7).Something discarded becomes evidence of something momentous--a "defining moment." Now that is a stretch.
Many of the ideas were first suggested by members of the failed Hoover administration but it was FDR's New Dealers who put them to work for the American people. He knew American history and government like the back of his hand. TVA brought rural electrification to the South and confidence was restored in finance following the banking holiday and efforts to stabalize the fragile economy. FDR was a cousin of his hero Theodore Roosevelt. In his fireside chats and newsreels he entered into the homes and hearts of the public.
Not everything FDR tried worked but he kept plugging away as slow progress was made. FDR had a long term affair with Lucy Rutherford. With the help of Louie Howe his political guru he served as New York governor from 1928-1932 breaking with former governor Al E. Among the programs were the CCC which put thousands of men to work; the NRA and the Social Security Act of 1935. The Roosevelt children suffered through nineteen divorces. He was a sly politician who kept his innermost thoughts to himself.
He grew up at Hyde Park on the Hudson; graduated from Eton and Harvard with time spent at Columbia Law School. FDR also had federal government experience serving as assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Woodrow Wilson administration. It's author is Jonathan Alter a columnist for Newsweek magazine. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) was the greatest U.S. After he took office within those days over 15 bills were turned into law. The couple had six children being indulgent parents. His rise to the presidency began with his fourth ballot victory at the 1932 Democratic Convention in Chicago. His was an activist mode of leadership.
FDR pushed the Congress of the US into making effective law in a time of crisis. Jonathan Alter's book is the kind of political history which could easily whet a young person's desire to become a historian. Alter spends half the book examining the pre-presidential life of the great man. Alter focuses on the first 100 days of FDR's administration.
These events made him a stronger personality. Roosevelt is well served by this entertaining and informative book. Smith. He was a wealthy only son of Sarah his doting mother and his much older father James.
Alter contends that it was his polio affliction in 1921 that put steel in Roosevelt. FDR was the first major political figure to use the media. president of the twentieth century. Some of his plans failed while others succeeded. FDR was a liberal progressive who wanted to put America back to work. FDR eschewed dictatorship and stood for democratic government in the worst crisis in American history since the Civil War. It is witty, anecdotal, easy to read and informative. He later worked with polio victims in Warm Springs Georgia also becoming acquainted with common farmers and ordinary people.
America was given hope to rise like a phoenix from the dregs of the horrible Depression. FDR's defining moment came in the first inaugural and the first 100 days when he told the people "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." (based on a quote from Henry David Thoreau). His wife Eleanor discovered the infidelity but remained in the marriage. The former New York Assemblymam, former US Vice-Presidential candidate in 1920 learned a good deal about suffering through the ordeal. He spoke in a friendly way beginning his speeches by saying "My friends." He conducted 998 press conferences and used Eleanor's wide travels to keep his ear close to the ground of public opinion. Alter's great book is about a great man who saved our nation in its hour of greatest need.
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