Frank and Al

July 1, 2018
Two giants of 20th-century American politics receive an insightful dual biography.Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945) is no stranger to historians, but Politico senior editor Golway (Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics, 2014, etc.) wisely wraps matters up after he became president in 1933. Until then, fellow New Yorker Al Smith (1873-1944) was better known. Born on the Lower East Side, Smith struggled financially, but he impressed the local Tammany boss, who sent him to Albany in 1904 as assemblyman. Though initially frustrated by bureaucracy, he hid "his frustration behind a mask of good cheer" and became a leading reformer. Wealthy and bored by practicing law, Roosevelt fell in love with politics. Winning a state Senate seat in 1910, he concentrated on national affairs, supporting Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and earning appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Golway dates the "alliance" to the 1920 Democratic presidential convention, when Smith, then the governor of New York, asked Roosevelt to second his nomination. Quiescent for years after his 1921 paralysis, Roosevelt supported Smith for governor in 1922, 1924, and 1926. Running for president in 1928, Smith convinced Roosevelt to run for governor. Roosevelt's victory immediately made him a contender for 1932. It also ended their alliance. Crushed by his defeat, Smith felt ignored by the new governor. Detesting Roosevelt's New Deal, he supported Alfred Landon in 1936 and Wendell Willkie in 1940. Historians, Golway included, agree that Smith was the more forthright, unwilling to sacrifice ideals for political gain. Thus, both men hated Prohibition. Roosevelt gets credit for repeal in 1933 when support had weakened, but he waffled when it would lose votes during the 1920s. Smith never wavered, but it cost him.A fine account of FDR's rise to power combined with a cradle-to-grave biography of the man who made it possible.

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August 13, 2018
Golway, a senior editor at Politico and a former member of the editorial board of the New York Times, explores the relationship and political alliance between future president Franklin Roosevelt, the upper-class patrician, and powerful New York politician Al Smith, child of the Tammany Hall machine, which he credits with providing the political base that enabled the New Deal. The two men met in 1911, when Roosevelt joined Smith in the New York legislature, and continued crossing paths for the next 30 years, most often as allies but sometimes as bitter competitors—both vied for the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination. Golway highlights Roosevelt’s support of Smith’s first run for governor and 1928 campaign for president (likely lost because of widespread prejudice against Smith’s Catholicism). Smith’s career is more interesting—he served three terms as governor of New York, during which he engineered numerous progressive policies around such issues as worker protections—and it provides the opportunity to delve into New York machine politics. Smith is portrayed as rough around the edges, with an eighth-grade education, “workingman’s bellow,” and loud suits, but also as a likable, admirable politician. The Roosevelt-Smith relationship is a well-chosen prism through which to view the foundational political alliance of the Democratic Party. Agent: John Wright, John W. Wright Literary.

August 1, 2018
Golway, senior editor at Politico, convincingly asserts that the unlikely alliance between Franklin Roosevelt and Al Smith formed the core of the Democratic coalition that dominated national politics in subsequent decades. Smith was born in humble circumstances on New York's Lower East Side and had little formal education. With a strong work ethic and the sponsorship of the notoriously corrupt Tammany Hall machine, he rose rapidly, championed socially progressive causes, and served four terms as governor of New York. Roosevelt, of course, was the scion of Hudson Valley aristocrats, and his family disdained the gritty urban politics Smith excelled at. But Smith and Roosevelt were both dedicated to social and political reform and united the Democratic Party. Smith is portrayed as a tragic figure after running as the first Catholic candidate for president and being defeated by anti-Catholic bigotry, leaving him embittered and, after his eventual strident opposition to Roosevelt's New Deal, politically irrelevant. Golway has written a fine account of a surprising, effective, and sometimes sad partnership that shaped much of the national politics in twentieth-century America. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2018

Historian Golway (history, Kean Univ.; Machine Made) presents a fuller story of the sometimes supportive, at other times antagonistic, relationship at the state and national levels between politicians Al Smith and Franklin Roosevelt. Relying largely on correspondence found at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, supplemented by other archival and secondary sources, Golway traces how these two New York governors and presidential candidates shaped the Democratic party, both when they collaborated throughout the 1920s and when they split after 1932. This focused work offers cross-cutting accounts of the progress of these men--one a grade school drop out but practiced amateur actor, the other a privileged Harvard grad. With Roosevelt the subject of numerous books, the influence of the lesser-studied Smith is arguably more compelling and enlightening. Most of Smith's advisors eventually rallied for Roosevelt, while a few, notably Belle Moskowitz and Robert Moses, emphatically did not. Curiously, the author maintains that Eleanor Roosevelt campaigned for presidential candidate Smith in 1928, not her husband, that year's gubernatorial candidate. VERDICT Golway's clear, at times humorous, prose will entice all readers interested in this political rivalry. The author's diligent research will impress historical practitioners.--Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Lib. of Congress, Washington, DC

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2018

Comprising urban, mostly Catholic and Jewish workers and populists and patricians rooted in old-timey values, the Democratic Party of the early 1900s suffered from a massive split. Golway argues that the split was healed when Tammany Hall heir Al Smith and upper-crust country gentleman Franklin D. Roosevelt formed an alliance, transforming and modernizing the party. From the senior editor at POLITICO.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.