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Franklin Roosevelt is a paradoxical study of a man who was born to wealth and privilege, yet was able to relate to a suffering population during the greatest economic turmoil in the history of our Republic. While the impact of his New Deal policies are debated, even today, there is no doubt that the majority of Americans who lived under his three plus terms as President developed an almost blind loyalty to the man they looked at as the one who was fighting for them. The Roosevelt presidency was the culmination of a 40 year march that started under his Uncle Teddy to more progressive policies. As a general, one volume biography, H. W. Brands does a nice job of reviewing FDR's youth, his battle with polio, and his ascent to the presidency. Unfortunately, this is also the book's fundamental flaw. It is simple not possible to write one volume on FDR's presidency, much less his whole life, without marginalizing details that help give perspective to his thought process. What caused his "radicalization"? Was it his illness? Was it Eleanor's influence? Was it a political ploy to keep winning elections? Brands never reveals enough to give the reader a chance to develop their own conclusions. Maybe this is because Roosevelt, a notoriously lax writer, left virtually nothing of his thought process behind. Intimates come and go, and even Eleanor is reduced to a bit player, having almost no interaction with her husband. Every avenue seems to be cut short in the interest of conserving space. Finally, good biographies tell life stories, great ones put you in the mind of the subject. "Traitor" does a fine job with the former, but fails with the latter. The first person perspective is never revealed, and leaves the reader wanting more. Edmund Morris wrote a fantastic trilogy on Theodore Roosevelt. It is my hope that Brands eventually does the same with FDR......

2022-10-29 03:39