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Title: Franklin Delano Roosevelt : (The American Presidents Series) by Roy Jenkins, Arthur M. Schlesinger ISBN: 0-8050-6959-3 Publisher: Times Books Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: An Elegant Little Life
Comment: Roy Jenkins, the prolific biographer of British Prime Ministers Gladstone and Churchill (as well as American President Harry Truman), died early last year, before this slim biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was completed. But even in its flawed state (it was completed by Richard E. Neustadt), this is an impressive book by an author of great knowledge and erudition that illuminates in intriguingly quirky ways the epochal life of its subject.
Jenkins was an Englishman active in Labour politics for half a century, and his is a very British take on Roosevelt's life, which both works and doesn't work to Jenkins' advantage. It is always problematic when an author is not of the same nationality as the person he's writing about (William Manchester's still-to-be-completed biography of Churchill, for example, was much criticized by the British). Where Jenkins gains in giving us a new perspective on a oft-told tale, he sometimes loses in dragging in references to the subjects of his previous books (an occupational hazard of the prolific biographer) or comparing some American political situation to its British equivalent when the comparison is tenuous at best.
Some of his more British asides are lost on the average American reader (as when he opines that the style and appearance of Groton, the prep school that Roosevelt attended, supposedly an imitation of Eton, "were much more like Cheltenham's or Marlborough's"). Also, because the author died before he had the chance to read proof, the text is not as precise as it might have been had the author lived longer (there is at least one sentence that defeats my attempt to make sense of it grammatically - it starts on the 19th line of page 73 and begins with the words "In consequence...").
These reservations aside, I am impressed with Jenkins' ability to take a long and complicated life and condense it into the brief span of this American Presidents series, while still making it comprehensible. The shelves of libraries groan under the weight of the F.D.R. biographies out there, but if you're looking for a concise life that tells the story of the 32nd President from a unique point of view, you might want to try this book before tackling one of the heftier volumes.
Rating: 5
Summary: An excellent final book for a quality biographer.
Comment: The author, in this his final book, is British with an illustrious career as a biographer of such figures as Gladstone, Churchill, and Truman. He also served in his country's ministry. At first glance, it may seem controversial to assign to a foreigner the task of writing about one of America's greatest presidents. However, Lord Jenkins gives a perspective of Roosevelt without the tint of American politics.
It is amazing and disturbing to me the amount of enmity that some in this country express towards Roosevelt, bordering on delusional. What Roosevelt did for this country cannot be adequately expressed in a short biography, or in any book. Much of his pre-war accomplishments translated into an emotion of hope and optimism that moved to a sense of security during the war years.
The author addresses and logically dismisses the paranoid charges that either Roosevelt and/or Churchill allowed Pearl Harbor to occur. As one who lived in Britain during the war, he demonstrates Roosevelt's importance to freeing the world of fascism, and unsettling Churchill's colonialist interests. Fanatical right wingers condemn Roosevelt for the Yalta agreement's failure to rid Poland of the Soviets. The author (actually the co-author who wrote the last few pages after the main author's death) notes that neither Roosevelt or Churchill are at fault since Stalin was already in full control of Poland with no intention of peacefully moving.
My only criticism is the abruptness in which Eleanor Roosevelt is left out of the story. Of course, Mrs. Roosevelt is deserving of her own book that is not the point of this presidential series.
It is a shame that more people will not read this book. I recently wrote a review of the NY Times plagiarist Jayson Blair's book and that received a few dozen responses. This is perhaps my fourth or fifth review of an American President series book and the total responses number only a handful. I reason that much more can be gotten out of reading quality biographies of worthy individuals than concerning ourselves with an immature nobody.
Rating: 4
Summary: Nice Compact Biography
Comment: * Roy Jenkins' FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT (FDR) provides a short biography of
Franklin Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. Jenkins traces
through FDR's upbringing as the only child of the domineering Sara Roosevelt;
his ambiguous relationship with his wife Eleanor, who was actually a niece
several times removed; and his rise in politics.
Jenkins paints FDR as the perfect politician, charismatic and charming,
something of an opportunist and a fence-straddler. Roosevelt was never a
very healthy man, possibly an effect of a sheltered upbringing, and he was
crippled by polio in 1921. However, he had a certain energy that made him
seem much more vital than he really was, the public impression of him summed
up in popular cartoons of him with a raised jaw, a self-assured smile, and a
cigarette in a holder clenched in his teeth.
That energy got him the governorship of New York State twice, confounding
those who thought he was a lightweight or could be manipulated, and then four
terms as President of the United States. There is little doubt that he was
one of the great American presidents, but true to his nature as a perfect
politician there was often less than met the eye in his actions. He was
certainly devious, but he was so good at it that it sometimes seemed like an
outright virtue. He generally wanted to do the right things, but sometimes
his methods for getting from here to there didn't bear too much close
inspection.
He was also certainly hated, particularly by the upper crust, who regarded
him as a traitor to his class. His efforts to help the common people gave
him the popularity to defy this hatred. He was also quick to denounce the
rise of authoritarian regimes abroad, but until war actually came denouncing
was almost all he did. He promised to keep the US out of war, but in 1940
began Lend-Lease, the name itself being a cover for what amounted to a pure
military assistance program to Britain, and then ordered the US Navy to
escort cargo vessels to mid-Atlantic to protect them from Hitler's U-boats,
characterizing this exercise with characteristic clever doubletalk as
"neutrality patrols".
There are those who believe that FDR actually knew about Pearl Harbor ahead
of time and let it happen to ensure that America would get into the fighting,
but Jenkins makes the case (not too hard to do) that this is nonsense. Pearl
Harbor was still convenient in that respect, and it was even more convenient
when Hitler, angry over Lend-Lease and the "neutrality patrols", declared war
on the US a few days later. In any case, FDR spent the war giving his people
free reign to conduct a mighty war effort and presiding over an uneasy Allied
alliance. Jenkins argues that only FDR had the stature to take such a
leadership position.
When FDR died in April 1945, the nation mourned, though he still remains to
an extent a controversial figure. Certainly his considerable expansion of
government involvement in American society has proven over the long run a
mixed blessing. In fact, the argument over the proper role of government in
society is one of the most important issues in American politics today.
Jenkin's FDR is a very tidy little biography, only about 175 pages long, and
mostly focused on FDR's political life. Those after dirt about his marriage
and his affairs will not get much out of this book. The fact that Jenkins
was a Britisher (he died of a heart attack just before completing this book)
and a member of parliament gives a bit of an interesting flavor to the work,
for example with Jenkins describing politicals dealing from the point of view
of someone who was clearly familiar with such things personally.
I will often say, if not exactly complain, that most biographies and
historical works give me more information than I need, but in the case of
Jenkin's FDR I would have liked to have seen maybe about 25 to 50 more pages
of anecdotal material, FDR's life having plenty of good stories to mine for
such things. However, that said, I have to recommend this little book as a
fine introduction to the fascinating, inspiring, complicated, and somewhat
shifty FDR.
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Title: James K. Polk: 1845 - 1849: The American Presidents Series by John Seigenthaler, Arthur M. Schlesinger ISBN: 0805069429 Publisher: Times Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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