The Defining Moment The Defining Moment

The Defining Moment

FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope

    • $11.99
    • $11.99

Publisher Description

This is the story 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. The Great Depression had caused a national breakdown. With the craft of a master storyteller, Jonathan Alter brings us closer than ever before to the Roosevelt magic. Facing the gravest crisis since the Civil War, FDR used his cagey political instincts and ebullient temperament in the storied first Hundred Days of his presidency to pull off an astonishing conjuring act that lifted the country and saved both democracy and capitalism.

Who was this man? To revive the nation when it felt so hopeless took an extraordinary display of optimism and self-confidence. 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. As president-elect, he escaped assassination in Miami by inches, then stiffed President Herbert Hoover's efforts to pull him into cooperating with him to deal with a terrifying crisis. 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 radio speech in which Roosevelt considered enlisting a private army of American Legion veterans on his first day in office. He did not. Instead of circumventing Congress and becoming the dictator so many thought they needed, FDR used his stunning debut to experiment. He rescued banks, put men to work immediately, and revolutionized mass communications with pioneering press conferences and the first Fireside Chat. As he moved both right and left, Roosevelt's insistence on "action now" did little to cure the Depression, but he began to rewrite the nation's social contract and lay the groundwork for his most ambitious achievements, including Social Security.

From one of America's most respected journalists, rich in insights and with fresh documentation and colorful detail, this thrilling story of presidential leadership -- of what government is for -- resonates through the events of today. It deepens our understanding of how Franklin Delano Roosevelt restored hope and transformed America.

The Defining Moment will take its place among our most compelling works of political history.

GENRE
History
RELEASED
2006
October 31
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
432
Pages
PUBLISHER
Simon & Schuster
SELLER
Simon & Schuster Canada
SIZE
1.4
MB

More Books Like This

Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court
2011
Three Days at the Brink Three Days at the Brink
2019
Star-Spangled Men Star-Spangled Men
2008
Nothing to Fear Nothing to Fear
2009
1932 1932
2023
One-Night Stands with American History One-Night Stands with American History
2011

More Books by Jonathan Alter

His Very Best His Very Best
2020
The Center Holds The Center Holds
2013
The Promise The Promise
2010

Customers Also Bought

Madam Secretary Madam Secretary
2013
Judgment at Tokyo Judgment at Tokyo
2023
Lincoln on the Verge Lincoln on the Verge
2020
Last Best Hope Last Best Hope
2021
People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent
2019
Lessons from the Edge Lessons from the Edge
2022