FDR

In this superlative volume, Jean Edward Smith combines fresh scholarship and a broad range of primary source material to chronicle the epic life 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, and effortless grace permitted him to master countless personal and political challenges throughout his life; how his skill as a campaigner, particularly his mastery of the burgeoning mass media, revolutionized the fundamental bond between the American people and their government; and how his vital relationships with women-romantic and otherwise-helped to mold his personality and inform his worldview.

In FDR, Smith gives us a powerful account that adds fresh perspectives and draws profound conclusions about a man whose story is widely known but far less well understood, and the clearest look yet at how a man who never had to depend on a paycheck became the savior of the common man. The result is a stunning biography in every way worthy of its subject.

ISBN-13: 9780812970494
Author : Jean Edward Smith
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication date: 05/13/2008

Editorial Reviews - From Barnes & Noble

This magisterial, gracefully crafted biography immerses us again in the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), a chief executive generally regarded as one of the foremost in our history. Only Lincoln and Washington are the subjects of more biographies than FDR, but Smith manages to present the epoch of the four-term president with refreshing adroitness. Never descending into mere hagiography, he recounts Roosevelt's grievous mistakes (the packing of the Supreme Court, Japanese-American internments) as well as his numerous domestic and wartime achievements. He tracks his subject as FDR sheds his Duchess County provincialism and becomes a national political figure, despite crippling poliomyelitis. A timely addition to the debates about presidential legacies.

Jonathan Yardley

Though the fruits of his legacy certainly warrant reconsideration, the relative neglect into which he has fallen is an injustice. So it is good indeed to have Smith's new biography of him. That he has managed to compress the whole sweep of Roosevelt's life into a bit more than 600 pages may seem in and of itself miraculous, but his achievement is far larger than that. His FDR is at once a careful, intelligent synopsis of the existing Roosevelt scholarship (the sheer bulk of which is huge) and a meticulous re-interpretation of the man and his record. Smith pays more attention to Roosevelt's personal life than have most previous biographers. He is openly sympathetic yet ready to criticize when that is warranted, and to do so in sharp terms; he conveys the full flavor and import of Roosevelt's career without ever bogging down in detail. - The Washington Post

Meet the Author

Jean Edward Smith is the author of twelve books, including the highly acclaimed biographies Grant (a 2002 Pulitzer Prize finalist and a New York Times Notable Book), John Marshall: Definer of a Nation (a New York Times Notable Book), and Lucius D. Clay: An American Life (a New York Times Notable Book). A graduate of Princeton University and Columbia University, Smith taught at the University of Toronto thirty-five years before joining the faculty at Marshall University, where he is the John Marshall Professor of Political Science.