Synopses & Reviews
Franklin Delano Roosevelt stands astride American history like a colossus, having pulled the nation out of the Great Depression and led it to victory in the Second World War. Elected to four terms as president, he transformed an inward-looking country into the greatest superpower the world had ever known. Only Abraham Lincoln did more to save America from destruction. But FDR is such a large figure that historians tend to take him as part of the landscape, focusing on smaller aspects of his achievements or carping about where he ought to have done things differently. Few have tried to assess the totality of FDR's life and career.
Conrad Black rises to the challenge. In this magisterial biography, Black makes the case that FDR was the most important person of the twentieth century, transforming his nation and the world through his unparalleled skill as a domestic politician, war leader, strategist, and global visionary all of which he accomplished despite a physical infirmity that could easily have ended his public life at age thirty-nine. Black also takes on the great critics of FDR, especially those who accuse him of betraying the West at Yalta. Black opens a new chapter in our understanding of this great man, whose example is even more inspiring as a new generation embarks on its own rendezvous with destiny.
Review
"Massive and moving, barbed yet balanced, it is scrupulously objective and coldly unsparing of agenda-ridden earlier biographers and historians." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Encyclopedic in detail, Lord Black's work is also packed with droit du seigneur conceit and abandon. It gives off the familiar air of vanity publishing." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"[C]omprehensive, balanced, and thoughtful a magnificent book that deserves a wide readership." Terry Hartle, Christian Science Monitor
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 1187-1214) and index.
About the Author
Conrad Black is the chairman and chief executive officer of Hollinger International Inc., among whose newspaper holdings are the Daily and Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator in London, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Jerusalem Post. He is the author of two previous books published in Canada and became a member of the British House of Lords as Lord Black of Crossharbour in 2001. He divides his time between London, Toronto, and New York.
Table of Contents
The predestined squire, 1882-1932 -- The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1932-1938 -- Toward the rendezvous with destiny- undeclared war, 1938-1941 -- Day of infamy and years of courage, 1941-1944 -- Pax Americana, 1944- .