cover image FDR: New York Years

FDR: New York Years

Kenneth Sydney Davis. Random House (NY), $19.95 (512pp) ISBN 978-0-394-51671-4

Davis, prize-winning historian of FDR: The Beckoning of Destiny, 18821928, continues his interpretive, multi-volume biography with a rich, expansive account of Roosevelt's New York governorship and his election to the presidency by a Depression-wracked nation. While covering the controversies of FDR's two Albany terms (electric power, Tammany corruption, etc.), Davis gives us the New Deal leader in the making, a much-underrated charmer, mastering the arts of politics and publicity, open to new experiences, and convinced his actions were intended by God. There are incisive views, too, of the ""hurt, love-seeking'' Eleanor; of Louis Howe, FDR's sickly, tormented and indispensable alter ego; and of the growing ``Brains Trust.'' Davis, a gifted writer and member of the New Deal administration, makes this a compelling tale that will appeal to readers of popular history. November 26