Biography Help

Posts Tagged ‘audio’

Question: Is there a full length biography of FDR that isn't an "Auto-hagiography?"?

Many books going back to the days of FDR's presidency("The Roosevelt Myth","The People's Pottage") have revealed a man at complete odds with his public image. Others have been published on his mismanagement of the depression ("FDR's Folly"), his shocking lack of concern for the constitution and international law and his complete misreading of Stalin ("R&S:A Failed Courtship"), as well as his egomaniacal running for a fourth term when terminal ill, still less his forknowledge of Pearl Harbor("Infamy"). Is there a single biography that takes all this on? Most all that I've seen are embarrassingly partisan and make don't even make an pretense at objectivity. The man's been dead 50 years, let's hear the unvarnished truth!

Answer: I understand what you mean. I'd highly recommend "FDR" by Jean Edward Smith. It's exceptionally well researched and evenhanded. Unlike other biographers, Smith has no axe to grind, and in previous biographies has demonstrated a wonderful capacity for both scholarship and readability.

An irrepressible and daring storyteller

Hazel Rowley, 1951 - 2011.

FDR AND THE NEW DEAL FOR BEGINNERS trailer