The Man He Became
How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Here, from James Tobin, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in biography, is the story of the greatest comeback in American political history, a saga long buried in half-truth, distortion, and myth—Franklin Roosevelt’s ten-year climb from paralysis to the White House.
In 1921, at the age of thirty-nine, Roosevelt was the brightest young star in the Democratic Party. One day he was racing his children around their summer home. Two days later he could not stand up. Hopes of a quick recovery faded fast. “He’s through,” said allies and enemies alike. Even his family and close friends misjudged their man, as they and the nation would learn in time.
With a painstaking reexamination of original documents, James Tobin uncovers the twisted chain of accidents that left FDR paralyzed; he reveals how polio recast Roosevelt’s fateful partnership with his wife, Eleanor; and he shows that FDR’s true victory was not over paralysis but over the ancient stigma attached to the disabled. Tobin also explodes the conventional wisdom of recent years—that FDR deceived the public about his condition. In fact, Roosevelt and his chief aide, Louis Howe, understood that only by displaying himself as a man who had come back from a knockout punch could FDR erase the perception that had followed him from childhood—that he was a pampered, too smooth pretty boy without the strength to lead the nation. As Tobin persuasively argues, FDR became president less in spite of polio than because of polio.
The Man He Became affirms that true character emerges only in crisis and that in the shaping of this great American leader character was all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Many books have been written about Franklin Roosevelt's life in politics, but here Tobin (Ernie Pyle's War) takes a risk by telling the story of one of the country's most popular presidents from a largely unexplored angle. As the subtitle suggests, this book looks at Roosevelt's life from the time he contracted polio to the time he became president, and does so with a compassionate view. To keep the book from becoming a maudlin sympathy tale, Tobin considers some obvious but important questions: How did Roosevelt overcome his "handicap" to become president? Would he have become president had he not contracted polio? What effect did his affliction have on him personally? How did his accomplishments affect the perception of handicapped persons generally? The conclusion may be surprising to many: "that he became president because of polio" and the advantages it afforded him during a turbulent period in Democratic Party politics. Personal items are not glossed over Tobin makes it clear that F.D.R. was not always kindest to those closest to him and that his family life was tense and the myriad medical and political details are coupled with glimpses of his vulnerable moments. Tobin's balanced and detailed approach offers a well-rounded look at a slice of F.D.R.'s life generally obscured from popular accounts, and it makes for fascinating reading.
