Download or read book FDR s Splendid Deception written by Hugh Gregory Gallagher and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FDR's Splendid Deception is an intensely personal view of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This truly remarkable biography of SBR has been widely acclaimed by reviewers and historians alike as a new look at a complex inner Roosevelt. Revised and updated, this moving story of FBR's massive disability -- and the intense efforts to conceal it from the public -- has been widely acknowledged as revising the understanding of Roosevelt's personality and decision-making process. Completely apolitical, the book offers a unique, intimate, and compassionate reappraisal of America's most successful disabled person -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR was a paraplegic polio who could not stand without braces nor walk without skilled assistance. Yet he was elected president of the United States four times. The public knew that FDR was lame from polio, but they were never told of the true extent of his disability. No press photo was ever published of the president in a wheelchair or in any situation that emphasized his paralysis. Likewise, the Secret Service saw to it that the president was never allowed to appear crippled in public. To a certain extent the public preferred not to see the degree of his handicap, and Roosevelt refused to admit even to himself the extent of his disability. This was FDR's "splendid deception." - Jacket flap.

Download or read book BTTM FDRS written by Ezra Claytan Daniels and published by Fantagraphics Books. This book was released on 2019-06-26 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once a thriving working class neighborhood on Chicago’s south side, the “Bottomyards” is now the definition of urban blight. When an aspiring fashion designer named Darla and her image-obsessed friend, Cynthia, descend upon the neighborhood in search of cheap rent, they soon discover something far more seductive and sinister lurking behind the walls of their new home. Like a cross between Jordan Peele’s Get Out and John Carpenter’s The Thing, Daniels and Passmore’s BTTM FDRS (pronounced “bottomfeeders”) offers a vision of horror that is gross and gory in all the right ways. At turns funny, scary, and thought provoking, it unflinchingly confronts the monsters―both metaphoric and real―that are displacing cultures in urban neighborhoods today.

Download or read book FDR s Funeral Train written by Robert Klara and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2010-03-16 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The April 1945 journey of FDR's funeral train became a thousand-mile odyssey, fraught with heartbreak and scandal. As it passed through the night, few of the grieving onlookers gave thought to what might be happening behind the Pullman shades, where women whispered and men tossed back highballs. Inside was a Soviet spy, a newly widowed Eleanor Roosevelt, who had just discovered that her husband's mistress was in the room with him when he died, all the Supreme Court justices, and incoming president Harry S. Truman who was scrambling to learn secrets FDR had never shared with him. Weaving together information from long-forgotten diaries and declassified Secret Service documents, journalist and historian Robert Klara enters the private world on board that famous train. He chronicles the three days during which the country grieved and despaired as never before, and a new president hammered out the policies that would galvanize a country in mourning and win the Second World War.

Download or read book FDR s Folly written by Jim Powell and published by Crown. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Depression and the New Deal. For generations, the collective American consciousness has believed that the former ruined the country and the latter saved it. Endless praise has been heaped upon President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for masterfully reining in the Depression’s destructive effects and propping up the country on his New Deal platform. In fact, FDR has achieved mythical status in American history and is considered to be, along with Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, one of the greatest presidents of all time. But would the Great Depression have been so catastrophic had the New Deal never been implemented? In FDR’s Folly, historian Jim Powell argues that it was in fact the New Deal itself, with its shortsighted programs, that deepened the Great Depression, swelled the federal government, and prevented the country from turning around quickly. You’ll discover in alarming detail how FDR’s federal programs hurt America more than helped it, with effects we still feel today, including: • How Social Security actually increased unemployment • How higher taxes undermined good businesses • How new labor laws threw people out of work • And much more This groundbreaking book pulls back the shroud of awe and the cloak of time enveloping FDR to prove convincingly how flawed his economic policies actually were, despite his good intentions and the astounding intellect of his circle of advisers. In today’s turbulent domestic and global environment, eerily similar to that of the 1930s, it’s more important than ever before to uncover and understand the truth of our history, lest we be doomed to repeat it.

Download or read book FDR s Body Politics written by Davis W. Houck and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Franklin Roosevelt instinctively understood that a politician of his era who was unable to control his own body would be perceived as unable to control the body politic. He therefore took great care to hide his polioinduced lameness both visually and verbally. In FDR's Body Politics, Davis W. Houck and Amos Kiewe draw on never-before-used primary sources to analyze the silences surrounding Roosevelt's disability, the words he chose to portray himself and his policies as powerful and health-giving, and the methods he used to maximize the appearance of physical strength. They examine his broad strategies, as well as the speeches Roosevelt delivered during his political comeback after polio struck, to understand how he overcame the whispering campaign against him in 1928 and 1932. Ultimately, this is a story of triumph and courage that reveals a master politician's understanding of the body politic in the most fundamental of ways.

Download or read book FDR written by Jean Edward Smith and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2008-05-13 with total page 914 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER - "A model presidential biography... Now, at last, we have a biography that is right for the man" - Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World 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.

Download or read book Sumner Welles FDR s Global Strategist written by Benjamin Welles and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2022-07-11 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Sumner Welles (1892-1961) ranks among the half-dozen most influential American career diplomats of this century. And among high officials brought down by sexual scandal, he has no rivals. This long-awaited biography by his son Benjamin blends an adequate narrative of diplomatic achievement with a candid and painful description of the subject’s alcohol-fueled bisexual excess in an era when unconventional sexual behavior was often a matter of criminal prosecution... As a diplomat and shaper of foreign policy, Welles, like Roosevelt, showed an appreciation of the importance of power, a liberal commitment to the Good Neighbor policy toward Latin America, cautious support for the establishment of the United Nations and a belief that difficult problems with the Soviet Union could be worked out. He wrote and spoke with educated precision and was able to do more work in a day than most people could do in a week... as a candid, sympathetic portrait of a great and tragic figure in a bygone era of aristocratic privilege, the biography succeeds admirably.” — The New York Times “An absorbing study of an enigmatic character who for nearly a decade after 1933, as Franklin Roosevelt’s trusted adviser, wielded great influence over American foreign policy... While the author treats convincingly the diplomatic episodes in which his father played a significant role, it is as a study in character that the book makes its most important contribution.” — Foreign Affairs “Affectionate yet scrupulously candid, this biography by his son... is an act of homage.” — Publishers Weekly “This is one of the saddest stories of a good soldier that I have ever read. Until 1943, Sumner Welles, an often arrogant patrician who had attended Groton School and Harvard College a decade after Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was one of the most distinguished members of the interwar foreign service, rising to become undersecretary of state in Roosevelt’s administration. He had elaborated the Good Neighbor Policy in the 1930s... he wrote the Atlantic Charter, which Roosevelt and Winston Churchill endorsed in 1941... he drafted the United Nations charter and supported the creation of Israel as a national homeland for Jews... Unfortunately, scandal destroyed Welles’ career... a compassionate but ruthlessly honest biography... Neither harsh nor apologetic, Benjamin Welles shows a deep understanding of his father’s character.” — The Los Angeles Times “Benjamin Welles has provided a very complete portrait, a significant contribution to scholarship in its own right... “ — The National Interest “A fascinating look at a little-remembered contributor to 20th-century history... [Benjamin Welles] is also to be commended for seeing his father’s weaknesses and not pulling punches when discussing them.” — Kirkus “A detailed and sympathetic portrait that does not disguise the flaws of its subject... Benjamin Welles’s book should stand as the definitive biography for a long time.” — Latin American Research Review “This is a graceful ‘life and times’ summary as well as a look at the sometimes troubled personal life of an important figure — a personal life that did affect Welles’s public life. A son’s perspective is unique.” — The International History Review “Benjamin Welles has written the best biography and account of Sumner Welles and his diplomatic career... the scope of research is extensive and impressive... the author has conscientiously laid out his father’s painful personal issues — alcoholism, adultery, and homosexuality — which adversely affected Welles’s career... Welles, the author, has written the best account about his father’s diplomatic career.” — The Americas “The diplomat’s son has done a remarkable job of seeking to present a balanced picture of his father’s service. The book is an important one.” — Presidential Studies Quarterly

Download or read book FDR s Ambassadors and the Diplomacy of Crisis written by David Mayers and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating history of American diplomacy in the Second World War and the ways US ambassadors shaped formal foreign policy.

Download or read book FDR and Chief Justice Hughes written by James F. Simon and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-02-07 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the author of acclaimed books on the bitter clashes between Jefferson and Chief Justice Marshall on the shaping of the nation’s constitutional future, and between Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney over slavery, secession, and the presidential war powers. Roosevelt and Chief Justice Hughes's fight over the New Deal was the most critical struggle between an American president and a chief justice in the twentieth century. The confrontation threatened the New Deal in the middle of the nation’s worst depression. The activist president bombarded the Democratic Congress with a fusillade of legislative remedies that shut down insolvent banks, regulated stocks, imposed industrial codes, rationed agricultural production, and employed a quarter million young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps. But the legislation faced constitutional challenges by a conservative bloc on the Court determined to undercut the president. Chief Justice Hughes often joined the Court’s conservatives to strike down major New Deal legislation. Frustrated, FDR proposed a Court-packing plan. His true purpose was to undermine the ability of the life-tenured Justices to thwart his popular mandate. Hughes proved more than a match for Roosevelt in the ensuing battle. In grudging admiration for Hughes, FDR said that the Chief Justice was the best politician in the country. Despite the defeat of his plan, Roosevelt never lost his confidence and, like Hughes, never ceded leadership. He outmaneuvered isolationist senators, many of whom had opposed his Court-packing plan, to expedite aid to Great Britain as the Allies hovered on the brink of defeat. He then led his country through World War II.

Download or read book FDR in American Memory written by Sara Polak and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How was FDR's image constructed—by himself and others—as such a powerful icon in American memory? In polls of historians and political scientists, Franklin Delano Roosevelt consistently ranks among the top three American presidents. Roosevelt enjoyed an enormous political and cultural reach, one that stretched past his presidency and across the world. A grand narrative of Roosevelt's crucial role in the twentieth century persists: the notion that American ideology, embodied by FDR, overcame the Depression and won World War II, while fascism, communism, and imperialism—and their ignoble figureheads—fought one another to death in Europe. This grand narrative is flawed and problematic, legitimizing the United States's cultural, diplomatic, and military role in the world order, but it has meant that FDR continues to loom large in American culture. In FDR in American Memory, Sara Polak analyzes Roosevelt's construction as a cultural icon in American memory from two perspectives. First, she examines him as a historical leader, one who carefully and intentionally built his public image. Focusing on FDR's use of media and his negotiation of the world as a disabled person, she shows how he consistently aligned himself with modernity and future-proof narratives and modes of rhetoric. Second, Polak looks at portrayals and negotiations of the FDR icon in cultural memory from the vantage point of the early twenty-first century. Drawing on recent and well-known cultural artifacts—including novels, movies, documentaries, popular biographies, museums, and memorials—she demonstrates how FDR positioned himself as a rhetorically modern and powerful but ideologically almost empty container. That deliberate positioning, Polak writes, continues to allow almost any narrative to adopt him as a relevant historical example even now. As a study of presidential image-fashioning, FDR in American Memory will be of immediate relevance to present-day readers.

Download or read book The FDR Years written by William D. Pederson and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born in 1882 in New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt entered public service through the encouragement of the Democratic Party and won the election to the New York Senate in 1910. This book details his administration at the height of the Great Depression as he valiantly led the nation with the phrase, The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Download or read book FDR s Alphabet Soup written by Tonya Bolden and published by Knopf Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2010 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines Franklin Roosevelt's first 100 days in office and his unveiling of his New Deal to combat the Great Depression.

Download or read book FDR s Mentors written by Michael J. Gerhardt and published by Citadel Press. This book was released on 2024-04-23 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique and illuminating exploration of the key relationships that shaped Franklin Delano Roosevelt into one of America’s most definitive leaders and impacted his influence on the world stage, from presidential historian Michael J. Gerhardt, the acclaimed author of Lincoln’s Mentors and principal adviser in the official annotation of the Constitution at the Library of Congress. Franklin Delano Roosevelt wasn’t a born leader. He became one. As a boy he was in poor health, was insecure, and an average student at best. Growing into manhood, the lessons he learned came not from books but from influencers of his lifetime, beginning with Endicott Peabody, the most renowned US headmaster of the twentieth century. He instilled in Roosevelt a confidence and strength that empowered the young student and propelled him to greatness as one of the most revered presidents of the United States. For Roosevelt, Peabody was only one of a small number of people who helped him develop the skills and temperament that enabled him to overcome the devastating effects of polio, to lead the nation through two crises, and to secure America’s leadership in the world. In FDR’s Mentors, Michael Gerhardt tells the extraordinary stories of the men and women who had a vital impact on Roosevelt’s life, career, and pragmatic personality: his distant cousin Teddy; his wife Eleanor; President Woodrow Wilson; journalist Lewis Howe; Winston Churchill; and New York Democratic Party leader Al Smith. Form the creation of the New Deal through Roosevelt’s war with the Supreme Court to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt persevered with never-ending grit, grace, limitless optimistism, and patience. It is thanks to the invaluable personal connections, inspiration, and wisdom of those who shaped and informed FDR’s historic presidency—one that has become a model of resilience and, in turn, an influence on every president who has followed in his path.

Download or read book FDR s America written by and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Traitor to His Class written by H. W. Brands and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2009-09-08 with total page 914 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A brilliant evocation of one of the greatest presidents in American history by the two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bestselling historian, and author of Our First Civil War "It may well be the best general biography of Franklin Roosevelt we will see for many years to come.” —The Christian Science Monitor Drawing on archival material, public speeches, correspondence and accounts by those closest to Roosevelt early in his career and during his presidency, H. W. Brands shows how Roosevelt transformed American government during the Depression with his New Deal legislation, and carefully managed the country's prelude to war. Brands shows how Roosevelt's friendship and regard for Winston Churchill helped to forge one of the greatest alliances in history, as Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin maneuvered to defeat Germany and prepare for post-war Europe.

Download or read book FDR s Utopian written by Roy Talbert and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book FDR s Gambit written by Laura Kalman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-13 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive, engaging, and revisionist account of the Court fight that ties it to contemporary policy debates. In the last past few years, liberals concerned about the prospect of long-term conservative dominance of the federal courts have revived an idea that famously crashed and burned in the 1930s: court packing. Not surprisingly, today's court packing advocates have run into a wall of opposition, with most citing the 1930s episode as one FDR's greatest failures. In early 1937, Roosevelt-fresh off a landslide victory-stunned the country when he proposed a plan to expand the size of the court by up to six justices. Today, that scheme is generally seen as an act of hubris-an instance where FDR failed to read Congress and the public properly. In FDR's Gambit, the eminent legal historian Laura Kalman challenges the conventional wisdom by telling the story as it unfolded, without the distortions of hindsight. Indeed, while scholars have portrayed the Court Bill as the ill-fated brainchild of a hubristic President made overbold by victory, Kalman argues to the contrary that acumen, not arrogance, accounted for Roosevelt's actions. Far from erring tragically from the beginning, FDR came very close to getting additional justices, and the Court itself changed course. As Kalman shows, the episode suggests that proposing a change in the Court might give the justices reason to consider whether their present course is endangering the institution and its vital role in a liberal democracy. Based on extensive archival research, FDR's Gambit offers a novel perspective on the long-term effects of court packing's failure, as a legacy that remains with us today. Whether or not it is the right remedy for today's troubles, Kalman argues that court packing does not deserve to be recalled as one fated for failure in 1937.