FDR

Plain prose plainly read is the virtue of Marc Cashman's fine rendition of Smith's full-scale biography. Smith covers every aspect of FDR and Eleanor's public and private lives, with an admiration that clarifies rather than buffers the truth of these two complex personalities and their careers. The biography is also an effective prism with which to view two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the emergence of the American military and industrial state. That tall order is served well by the stamina and conviction of Cashman's voice, which has the distinctive inflection of a period radio voice. Appropriately, one of this book's themes is the role of the media--in this case, radio--in shaping modern politics and statecraft. FDR was the first U.S. president to have the ability to address the nation live, a skill at which he excelled above all presidents. D.A.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Starred review from February 12, 2007
Independent biographer Smith (1996's John Marshall: Definer of a Nation
and 2001's Grant
) crafts a magisterial biography of our most important modern president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Scores of books have been written about Roosevelt, exploring every nook and cranny of his experience, so Smith breaks no "news" and offers no previously undisclosed revelations concerning the man from Hyde Park. But the author's eloquent synthesis of FDR's complex and compelling life is remarkably executed and a joy to read. Drawing on the papers of the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library as well as Columbia University's oral history collection and other repositories, Smith minutely explores the arc of FDR's intertwined political and private lives. With regard to the political, the biographer seamlessly traces Roosevelt's evolution from gawky, aristocratic, political newcomer nibbling at the edges of the rough-and-tumble Dutchess County, N.Y., Democratic machine to the consummate though physically crippled political insider—a man without pretensions who acquired and performed the jobs of New York governor and then United States president with shrewd, and always joyous, efficiency. As is appropriate, more than half of Smith's narrative deals with FDR as president: the four terms (from 1933 until his death in 1945) during which he waged war, in turn, on the Depression and the Axis powers. As for the private Roosevelt, Smith reveals him as a devoted son; an unhappy husband who eventually settled into an uneasy peace and working partnership with his wife and cousin Eleanor; an emotionally absent father; and a man who for years devotedly loved two women other than his wife—Lucy Mercer Rutherford and Missy LeHand, the latter his secretary. This erudite but graceful volume illuminates FDR's life for scholars, history buffs and casual readers alike. Photos not seen by PW
.