| Product Summary | | Format: Paperback | | ISBN: 9780812970494 | | Publisher: Random House Trade | | Publish Date: 5/13/2008 | | Buy.com Sku: 206705569 | | Item#: | | Dimensions (in Inches) 9H x 6.5L x 2T | | Pages: 912 |
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| | | In this superlative volume, Smith combines contemporary scholarship and a broad range of primary source material to provide an engrossing narrative of one of America''s greatest presidents.
Annotation:
In this magisterial, one-volume biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, historian Jean Edward Smith provides a fair and full account of one of the great presidents of the 20th century. Smith provides a portrait of a robust man, from an aristocratic background, who overcame obstacles, and championed the common man. He focuses on the key roles played by Roosevelt's mother, Sara, his wife, Eleanor, his mistress Lucy Mercer, and his confidential secretary and aide, Missy Lehand--all of whom deserve credit for influencing FDR as a person. ||Smith assesses how Roosevelt increased presidential power and reshaped the government, yet stumbled in his brazen attempt to pack the Supreme Court. He acknowledges the internment of Japanese-Americans and discusses FDR's failure to see, understand, and act on the Holocaust. Finally, Smith recounts how FDR's deft use of the media changed politics and the campaigns that followed. Highly readable, Smith's life of Roosevelt shows there is still much to say about this much-written about man.
| Praise| "This erudite but graceful volume illuminates FDR's life for scholars, history buffs and casual readers alike." 02/12/2007 "Although FDR's greatness is an indisputable theme in Mr. Smith's book, this is no hagiography." - Carl Rollyson 05/23/2007 "[A] remarkable, sympathetic biography....The Roosevelt who emerges here--neither a stranger nor a painted icon--is flawed and magnificent." 07/09/2007 "This is a terrific one volume, comprehensive look at an extraordinary life....Smith never bogs down." - Deirdre Donahue 07/10/2007 "This excellent biography provides a fresh, readable interpretation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's life and presidency as well as a careful synthesis of the vast scholarship about him." 07/20/2008 |
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