FDR
by Jean Edward Smith
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jean Edward SmithEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-13
ISBN: 0812970497
Number of pages: 880
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book Reviews of FDR
Book Review: Perpetuates myths - breaks no new ground
Summary: 3 Stars
FDR/Jean Edward Smith
Random House Audio; Abridged edition (May 15, 2007)
Few dispute the value of fresh perspective on historical personages. However, this work is just a repackaging of the same old worn out myths about F.D.R.
Factually correct, where this book is found wanting is in what it doesn't explain to the reader - especially facts relating to outcomes of F.D.R.'s policies, and different ways of interpreting events in terms of the light those events shed on F.D.R.'s character and motives.
Take outcomes: F.D.R. ran against Hoover for his F.D.R.'s first term as President but left intact Hoover's regressive taxation scheme that relied primarily on excise taxes to fund New Deal programs. One of those taxes was the F.D.R.-introduced (and unconstitutional) food processing tax that paid for farmers to not raise crops, and allowed the government to buy up and destroy farm surpluses. The outcome - The "forgotten man" got stuck with higher food prices passed on by highly taxed processors, so that government could limit food production and surpluses, resulting in even higher food prices and food scarcity at a time when many Americans were standing in bread lines. So which came first, the bread lines or F.D.R.'s disastrous excise taxes and farm polices?
Another outcome: In the Introduction, this author maintains that one key to Roosevelt's supposed compassion was the experience F.D.R. had of the rural poor during the years he spent around Warm Springs, Georgia. The real outcome was that in truth, Roosevelt personally directed Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds to regions of the country primarily for political gain, and not where the need was the greatest. Since the Solid South was politically secure for Roosevelt's multiple re-election bids, even though it's poverty was great, in got less WPA funds per capita than less depressed northern states. So much for "compassion".
Interpreting events: The author does a good job of exposing the little-known reality that despite being elected by a landslide to a second term as President, F.D.R. - through a series of serious missteps - was a lame duck by the end of the second year of his second term in office. Facing the formidable Wendell Lewis Willkie in a bid for a third term as President, plus the enormous barrier posed by the two-term tradition established by George Washington, F.D.R. might have gone done in lopsided defeat. The author devotes no time to exploring the possibility that F.D.R.'s then shift to emphasis on foreign policy - leading to American entry in WWII - may have been largely politically motivated. Since the nation was largely opposed to involvement in any foreign war by the latter half of F.D.R.'s second term, it is certainly worth exploring why this consummate politician set himself on a course that seemed charted to make him only more unpopular. Is it possible F.D.R. knew that he could manage events such that a surge of patriotism would propel him into a third term?
Another interpretation - Without citing one scrap of evidence, Smith attributes the "Roosevelt Depression" of 1937 - in which industrial production plummeted at the most rapid rate in U.S. history and unemployment soared to levels exceeding those F.D.R inherited from Hoover - to "premature cut-backs in government deficit spending". This is a strange interpretation since F.D.R. took credit for improvement in the economy during his first term as something his administration had "planned". It is far more likely that stridently anti-wealthy and anti-business rhetoric and taxation policies leading up to and following F.D.R.'s second term re-election campaign had something - probably much - to do with the Roosevelt Depression.
For persons interested in having old myths reconfirmed by yet another fawning tribute to the life of F.D.R., this is the book for you. For those aiming to get at the truth, one would be better off looking elsewhere.
Summary of FDR
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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