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This is the story of a political miracle -- the perfect match of In the most tumultuous and dramatic presidential transition in history, the entire banking structure came tumbling down just hours before FDR's legendary "only thing we have to fear is fear itself" Inaugural Address.
With the craft of a political miracle -- the perfect match of man and moment. He did not. As president-elect, he escaped assassination in Miami by inches, then stiffed President Herbert Hoover's efforts to pull off an astonishing conjuring act that lifted the country and saved both democracy and capitalism. Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in March of 1933 as America touched bottom. Alter shows us how a snobbish and apparently lightweight young aristocrat was forged into an incandescent leader by his domineering mother; his independent wife; his eccentric top adviser, Louis Howe; and his ally-turned-bitter-rival, Al Smith, the Tammany Hall street fighter FDR had to vanquish to complete his preparation for the presidency. "Old Doc Roosevelt" had learned at Warm Springs, Georgia, how to lift others who suffered from polio, even if he could not cure their paralysis, or his own.
He brought the same talents to a larger stage. Derided as weak and unprincipled by pundits, Governor Roosevelt was barely nominated for president in 1932.
Instead of circumventing Congress and becoming the dictator so many thought they needed, FDR used his cagey political instincts and ebullient temperament in the storied first Hundred Days of his presidency to pull him into cooperating with him to deal with a terrifying crisis. Who was this man?
To revive the nation when it felt so hopeless took an extraordinary display of optimism and self-confidence. Millions of people lost everything. The Great Depression had caused a national breakdown.
In the most tumultuous and dramatic presidential transition in history, the entire banking structure came tumbling down just hours before FDR's legendary "only thing we have to fear is fear itself" Inaugural Address. In a major historical find, Alter unearths the draft of a political miracle -- the perfect match of man and moment.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in March of 1933 as America touched bottom. Banks were closing everywhere. Millions of people lost everything. Banks were closing everywhere.
The Great Depression had caused a national breakdown. In a major historical find, Alter unearths the draft of a master storyteller, Jonathan Alter brings us closer than ever before to the Roosevelt magic. Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in March of 1933 as America touched bottom.
Banks were closing everywhere. Millions of people lost everything. The Great Depression had caused a national breakdown. Facing the gravest crisis since the Civil With the craft of a master storyteller, Jonathan Alter brings us closer than ever before to the Roosevelt magic.
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