cover image Man of Destiny: FDR and the Making of the American Century

Man of Destiny: FDR and the Making of the American Century

Alonzo L. Hamby. Basic, $35 (512p) ISBN 978-0-465-02860-3

For those unfamiliar with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s carefully calculated journey to the Oval Office, Hamby (Man of the People) presents a reliable one-volume introduction to the ebullient New York governor who became the 32nd president of the U.S. Hamby, an Ohio University emeritus professor of history, hues closely to the well-established outlines of the Roosevelt’s life and times, sketching out how the highborn New Yorker plowed ahead in the backslapping world of New York state politics to emerge as an effective, almost iconic leader during America’s darkest times: the Great Depression and WWII. Much of the book is well-trod territory: F.D.R.’s domestic overreach in his alphabet soup of new federal agencies, his attempt to “pack” the Supreme Court, and his misplaced trust in Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s handling of Eastern Europe. Roosevelt’s personal sacrifices receive brief treatments: after contracting polio, F.D.R. set up a spa for polio victims in Georgia; he also managed to maintain a professional relationship with his emotionally distant wife, Eleanor, while seeking solace from long-time mistress Lucy Mercer Rutherford. Hamby’s work feels oddly old-fashioned, particularly in its outdated language, but it could be of use to some readers. [em]Agent: Donald Lamm, Fletcher & Company. (Sept.) [/em]