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Title: Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Roy Jenkins, Richard Rohan ISBN: 1-55927-962-1 Publisher: Audio Renaissance Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 Format: Audio CD Volumes: 3 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Nice Compact Biography
Comment: * Roy Jenkins' FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT (FDR) provides a short biography of
Franklin Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. Jenkins traces
through FDR's upbringing as the only child of the domineering Sara Roosevelt;
his ambiguous relationship with his wife Eleanor, who was actually a niece
several times removed; and his rise in politics.
Jenkins paints FDR as the perfect politician, charismatic and charming,
something of an opportunist and a fence-straddler. Roosevelt was never a
very healthy man, possibly an effect of a sheltered upbringing, and he was
crippled by polio in 1921. However, he had a certain energy that made him
seem much more vital than he really was, the public impression of him summed
up in popular cartoons of him with a raised jaw, a self-assured smile, and a
cigarette in a holder clenched in his teeth.
That energy got him the governorship of New York State twice, confounding
those who thought he was a lightweight or could be manipulated, and then four
terms as President of the United States. There is little doubt that he was
one of the great American presidents, but true to his nature as a perfect
politician there was often less than met the eye in his actions. He was
certainly devious, but he was so good at it that it sometimes seemed like an
outright virtue. He generally wanted to do the right things, but sometimes
his methods for getting from here to there didn't bear too much close
inspection.
He was also certainly hated, particularly by the upper crust, who regarded
him as a traitor to his class. His efforts to help the common people gave
him the popularity to defy this hatred. He was also quick to denounce the
rise of authoritarian regimes abroad, but until war actually came denouncing
was almost all he did. He promised to keep the US out of war, but in 1940
began Lend-Lease, the name itself being a cover for what amounted to a pure
military assistance program to Britain, and then ordered the US Navy to
escort cargo vessels to mid-Atlantic to protect them from Hitler's U-boats,
characterizing this exercise with characteristic clever doubletalk as
"neutrality patrols".
There are those who believe that FDR actually knew about Pearl Harbor ahead
of time and let it happen to ensure that America would get into the fighting,
but Jenkins makes the case (not too hard to do) that this is nonsense. Pearl
Harbor was still convenient in that respect, and it was even more convenient
when Hitler, angry over Lend-Lease and the "neutrality patrols", declared war
on the US a few days later. In any case, FDR spent the war giving his people
free reign to conduct a mighty war effort and presiding over an uneasy Allied
alliance. Jenkins argues that only FDR had the stature to take such a
leadership position.
When FDR died in April 1945, the nation mourned, though he still remains to
an extent a controversial figure. Certainly his considerable expansion of
government involvement in American society has proven over the long run a
mixed blessing. In fact, the argument over the proper role of government in
society is one of the most important issues in American politics today.
Jenkin's FDR is a very tidy little biography, only about 175 pages long, and
mostly focused on FDR's political life. Those after dirt about his marriage
and his affairs will not get much out of this book. The fact that Jenkins
was a Britisher (he died of a heart attack just before completing this book)
and a member of parliament gives a bit of an interesting flavor to the work,
for example with Jenkins describing politicals dealing from the point of view
of someone who was clearly familiar with such things personally.
I will often say, if not exactly complain, that most biographies and
historical works give me more information than I need, but in the case of
Jenkin's FDR I would have liked to have seen maybe about 25 to 50 more pages
of anecdotal material, FDR's life having plenty of good stories to mine for
such things. However, that said, I have to recommend this little book as a
fine introduction to the fascinating, inspiring, complicated, and somewhat
shifty FDR.
Rating: 5
Summary: A much-needed introduction
Comment: The frustration expressed by the previous reviewer that a new full-length biography of FDR is needed is in fact answered by Conrad Black's massive biography out this year, at the same time of this book. It is fascinating that Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, a Liberal (former Labor) member of the British House of Lords, comes to a very similar conclusion about FDR as does Lord Black of Crossharbour: that FDR was one of the top three presidents of all time. Jenkins puts it very clearly from the start: "In any rating of presidents there could be no more than three of his predecessors who could be placed in contention with him, and of his successors there are so far none." (p. 1) It is important to remember that Reagan, one of the most successful and popular presidents in the postwar period, himself admired FDR all his life.
FDR did not live to see D-Day, but he saw the wings of victory (as Churchill put it). Jenkins did not live to complete this short book, though he finished 148 out of 173 pages, leaving the last 25 pages to the eminent presidential historian, Richard Neustadt, whose competence and perspective did not let Jenkins or Schlesinger down.
This book is a contrast with Black's in length, but not in quality. In each case the judgment of the author surpasses the originality of the research, and yet both are highly-recommended.
Rating: 5
Summary: A fine final work by a preeminent political biographer
Comment: Sadly, English politician and biographer Roy Jenkins died just before finishing this book, which was finished by Richard E. Neustadt, who himself recently passed away. In many ways, it is unfortunate that Jenkins wrote this particular biography of Roosevelt, instead of a different, much fuller one. There is a considerable need at the present for a substantial, single-volume biography of Roosevelt that covers his entire life. There are multi-volume biographies, and a wealth of single volume studies on a wide range of his career, but not an obvious choice for a one-volume work. A biography along the lines of Jenkins's GLADSTONE or CHURCHILL would have been a delight indeed. Furthermore, the format of this series does not ideally suit Jenkins's virtues as a biographer. He is at his best when he is free to ramble far a field, summoning up obscure comparisons between various individuals, slowly mulling over various possible motives for an action or belief. Unfortunately, the brief format of this series places great restraints on Jenkins.
Surprisingly, these restrictions hamper Jenkins less than one might expect. Although I would have preferred a much longer biography from him, what we have here is a highly serviceable biography that reflects Jenkins unique and mildly eccentric point of view. Jenkins, as in his other books, is far more concerned with conflict of personality than with intellectual or policy disputes. He is always at his best when describing how two individuals mesh or clash, the alchemy of personality. As a result, this book is more of a biography of Roosevelt's relationships than his policies and ideas. This is true also of his books on Gladstone and Churchill, and is both his virtue and vice as a writer. Jenkins also is hurt somewhat by not having the encyclopedic knowledge of American politics that he possesses of political life in England. He has a grasp of the most elusive subtleties of apparently every British politician of the past couple of centuries, and to a somewhat unnerving degree. He sometimes displays a similar knowledge of the American scene, but not universally.
Still, this is an impressive short biography of the dominant American president of the 20th century. Jenkins, in fact, would nominate him one of the two great political figures of the century, along with Churchill. He does ably show how under Roosevelt the American presidency evolved into what it is today: the most influential political office in the world. Roosevelt is the first president of whom that is the case. The book is also outstanding for its balance. Jenkins is simultaneously aware of both his enormous virtues and his lamentable shortcomings. The former embraces his enormous self-confidence (which others found infectious), his charismatic personality, he profound gift for political maneuvering (here construed as a virtue and not a vice, i.e., not "mere" politics), the enormous role he played in shaping not merely the United States as it exists today but also the world as a whole, and the dual achievements of both having helped the country avert collapse during the Depression and leading it capably through WW II. The shortcomings include his deplorable treatment of Eleanor in their marriage (of which there is much early in the book, far less later), his tendency to avoid conflict and confrontation on a personal (if not military) level, and his unfortunate (and needless, as Jenkins shows) scheme to pack the Supreme Court. This balance is one of the book's greatest strengths, and perhaps only a non-American could have struck it, since Roosevelt is subject to much partisan bickering today.
The book does show slight signs of not having been completely finished. For instance, when describing Churchill and Roosevelt's first meeting in the Atlantic, he writes of the former arriving on a much larger ship, and describes the poignancy that many of the crewmen would later die when the ship sunk. He does not, however, name the ship. I know from other sources that it was the HMS Prince of Wales, but the text omits this fact. Probably Jenkins in looking over the galleys would have spotted this. Neustadt, a formidable presidential historian in his own right, wrote the final fifteen pages, and while they certainly represent no disruption in the flow of ideas, they do contrast with Jenkins own style, which was both brilliant and unique.
In short, this is an admirable addition to a fine series of brief presidential biographies, and a fitting culmination of the writing career of one of the finest political biographers of our time.
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