A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt

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PPederson_ffirs.inddederson_ffirs.indd i 11/24/2011/24/2011 5:32:045:32:04 PMPM BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO AMERICAN HISTORY This series provides essential and authoritative overviews of the scholarship that has shaped our present understanding of the American past. Edited by eminent historians, each volume tackles one of the major periods or themes of American history, with individual topics authored by key scholars who have spent considerable time in research on the questions and controversies that have sparked debate in their field of interest. The volumes are accessible for the non-specialist, while also engaging scholars seeking a reference to the historiography or future concerns.

Published In preparation A Companion to the American Revolution A Companion to American Urban History Edited by Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole Edited by David Quigley A Companion to 19th-Century America PRESIDENTIAL COMPANIONS Edited by William L. Barney Published A Companion to the American South A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt Edited by John B. Boles Edited by William Pederson A Companion to American Indian History In preparation Edited by Philip J. Deloria and Neal Salisbury A Companion to Abraham Lincoln A Companion to American Women’s History Edited by Michael Green Edited by Nancy Hewitt A Companion to Thomas Jefferson A Companion to Post-1945 America Edited by Francis D. Cogliano Edited by Jean-Christophe Agnew and Roy A Companion to Benjamin Franklin Rosenzweig Edited by David Waldstreicher A Companion to the Vietnam War A Companion to Richard M. Nixon Edited by Marilyn Young and Robert Buzzanco Edited by Melvin Small A Companion to Colonial America Edited by Daniel Vickers A Companion to George Washington Edited by Edward G. Lengel A Companion to 20th-Century America Edited by Stephen J. Whitfield A Companion to Harry S. Truman Edited by Daniel S. Margolies A Companion to the American West A Companion to Theodore Roosevelt Edited by William Deverell Edited by Serge Ricard A Companion to American Foreign Relations A Companion to Lyndon B. Johnson Edited by Robert Schulzinger Edited by Mitchell Lerner A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction A Companion to Andrew Jackson Edited by Lacy K. Ford Edited by Sean Patrick Adams A Companion to American Technology A Companion to Woodrow Wilson Edited by Carroll Pursell Edited by Ross A. Kennedy A Companion to African-American History A Companion to Dwight D. Eisenhower Edited by Alton Hornsby Edited by Chester J. Pach A Companion to American Immigration A Companion to Ronald Reagan Edited by Reed Ueda Edited by Andrew L. Johns A Companion to American Cultural History A Companion to James Madison and James Monroe Edited by Karen Halttunen Edited by Stuart Leibiger A Companion to California History Edited by William Deverell and David Igler Planned A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy A Companion to American Military History Adams Edited by James Bradford A Companion to Alexander Hamilton A Companion Los Angeles Edited by William Deverell and Greg Hise A Companion to Gilded Age and Progressive Era Presidents A Companion to American Environmental History A Companion to the Reconstruction Presidents Edited by Douglas Cazaux Sackman A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents

PPederson_ffirs.inddederson_ffirs.indd iiii 11/24/2011/24/2011 5:32:045:32:04 PMPM A COMPANION TO FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

Edited by William D. Pederson

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication

PPederson_ffirs.inddederson_ffirs.indd iiiiii 11/24/2011/24/2011 5:32:045:32:04 PMPM This edition first published 2011 © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley. com/wiley-blackwell. The right of William D. Pederson to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt / edited by William D. Pederson. p. cm. – (Blackwell companions to American history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4443-3016-8 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882–1945. 2. Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882–1945–Political and social views. 3. United States–Politics and government–1933–1945. 4. United States–Foreign relations–1933–1945. 5. United States–Social conditions–1933–1945. 6. Presidents–United States–Biography. I. Pederson, William D., 1946– E807.C563 2011 973.917092–dc22 2010038988 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Set in 11/13pt Galliard by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India

01 2011

PPederson_ffirs.inddederson_ffirs.indd iviv 11/24/2011/24/2011 5:32:045:32:04 PMPM MacGregor Burns

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List of Figures x Preface xi Notes on Contributors xiv

1 FDR Biographies 1 Kenneth E. Hendrickson, Jr 2 Eleanor Roosevelt Biographies 15 Norman W. Provizer 3 Pre-Presidential Career 34 Timothy W. Kneeland 4 Physical and Psychological Health 59 Robert P. Watson 5 The Election of 1932 77 Donald A. Ritchie 6 The 1936–1944 Campaigns 96 Sean J. Savage 7 Urban and Regional Interests 114 Stefano Luconi 8 Minorities 135 Cherisse Jones-Branch 9 Labor 155 Martin Halpern 10 Business 186 Patrick D. Reagan

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11 Opponents at Home and Abroad 206 Joseph Edward Lee 12 FDR as a Communicator 222 Betty Houchin Winfield 13 The New Deal 238 June Hopkins 14 The Banking Crisis 259 James S. Olson and Brian Domitrovic 15 FDR and Agriculture 279 Jean Choate 16 Conservation 298 Byron W. Daynes 17 Political Culture 318 Richard M. Fried 18 Human Rights 340 Wesley K. Mosier 19 The Institutional Presidency 362 Rodney A. Grunes 20 Political and Administrative Style 385 Margaret C. Rung 21 The Congress 405 John Thomas McGuire 22 The Supreme Court 427 Stephen K. Shaw 23 The American Military 443 Lance Janda 24 Science and Technology 459 Peter K. Parides 25 Intelligence 480 R. Blake Dunnavent 26 Relations with the British and French 493 Kevin E. Smith 27 Relations with Canada 517 Galen Roger Perras 28 The Good Neighbor Policy and the Americas 542 Michael R. Hall 29 Relations with the Soviet Union 564 William E. Kinsella, Jr

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30 Relations with China and India 590 William Ashbaugh 31 Relations with Japan 612 William Ashbaugh 32 Relations with Italy and Nazi Germany 636 Regina U. Gramer 33 Relations with Spain and European Neutrals 653 David A. Messenger 34 International Legacy 672 Mary Stockwell 35 Political Reputation 690 Patrick J. Maney Bibliography 710 Index 732

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3.1 Franklin D. Roosevelt at Campobello, 1907. Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library website; version date 2009 35 4.1 Franklin D. Roosevelt golfing in Campobello, 1907. Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library website; version date 2009 60 6.1 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Fala, 1943. Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library website; version date 2009 97 19.1 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Grace Tully on the Inspection Train, 1942. Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library website; version date 2009 363 27.1 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Princess Alice, and the Earl of Athlone in Ottowa, Canada 1943. Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library website; version date 2009 518 30.1 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Churchill, Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek), and his wife, Soong Mai-ling, in Cairo, Egypt, 1943. Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library website; version date 2009 591 34.1 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia at Great Bitter Lake, Egypt, 1945. Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library website; version date 2009 673

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Scholars consistently rank Franklin D. Roosevelt among the greatest presidents in American history and as the greatest president of the twentieth century (Pederson and McLaurin 1987; Murray and Blessing 1994). His ranking is based, no doubt, on his successful leadership of the United States during the nation’s two great, back-to-back crises of the twentieth century: the Great Depression and World War II. Myriad books have explored aspects of his leadership and presidency. This proliferation of scholarly examination in turn has resulted in reference works providing both general and specialized information about Roosevelt and his contemporaries. Among the best of these reference works are encyclopedias (e.g., Olson 1985; Beasley, Shulman, and Beasley 2001; Ciment 2001) and annotated bibliographies (e.g., Hendrickson 2005). This Companion is designed to supplement existing works by adding works published since these reference standards were issued (e.g., the bibliography at the end of the volume focuses on works published after 1993, the ending date for those included in Hendrickson’s annotated bibliography). The historiographical essays assess what is known about each topic, the ongoing debates on these topics, and suggestions for future research. As a result, students should be able to quickly gain insights into each of the topics covered in the volume, ranging from biographies, policies, institutional changes, diplomacy, and area studies. I extend thanks to the contributors to the volume. My thanks also to Peter Coveney, Executive Editor, History, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing in Massachusetts, for suggesting it, and to Galen Smith, Editorial Assistant at Wiley-Blackwell, US History, Classics and Ancient History. Special appre- ciation goes to Donna Byrd for her multiple research talents, computer skills, and knowledge of FDR.

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This book is dedicated to James MacGregor Burns, who in 1983 helped to launch the American Studies program at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. A decade later, he participated in the inaugural presidential conference series that the American Studies program hosts triennially. He was keynote speaker at the 1995 FDR conference, a three-day conference held during the 50th anniversary year of FDR’s death. It was the largest such conference on FDR ever held. The fertile scholarship from that1995 conference was a catalyst for expansion of the literature about FDR. More books resulted from that conference than from any other presidential conference (e.g., Daynes, Pederson, and Riccards 1998; Young, Pederson, and Daynes 2001; Wolf, Pederson, and Daynes 2001; Howard and Pederson 2003; Pederson and Williams 2003; Pederson 2006). A number of the participants at the 1995 conference are either among the contributors to this volume or their works are cited herein.

REFERENCES

Beasley, M. H., Shulman, H. C., and Beasley, H. R., eds., 2001. Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Ciment, J., ed., 2001. Encyclopedia of the Great Depression and the New Deal, 2 vols. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Daynes, B. W., Pederson, W. D., and Riccards, M. P., eds., 1998. The New Deal and Public Policy. New York: St Martin’s Press. Hendrickson, K. E., Jr, 2005. Life and Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. An Annotated Bibliography. 3 vols. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Howard, T. C. and Pederson, W. D., eds., 2003. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Formation of the Modern World. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Murray, R. K. and Blessing, T. H., eds., 1994. Greatness in the White House. Rating the Presidents, Washington through Reagan, 2nd updated edn. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. Olson, J. S., ed., 1985. Historical Dictionary of the New Deal. From Inauguration to Preparation for War. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Pederson, W. D. and McLaurin, A., eds., 1987. Rating Game in American Politics. New York: Irvington. Pederson, W. D. and Williams, F. J., eds., 2003. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Competing Perspectives on Two Great Presidencies. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Pederson, W. D., 2006. The FDR Years. New York: Facts on File. Wolf, T. P., Pederson, W. D., and Daynes, B. W., eds., 2001. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress. The New Deal and Its Aftermath. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Young, N. B., Pederson, W. D., and Daynes, B. W., eds., 2001. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shaping of American Political Culture. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

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FURTHER READING

Rozell, M. and Pederson, W. D., eds., 1997. FDR and the Modern Presidency. Leadership and Legacy. Westport, CT: Praeger. Shaw, S. K., Pederson, W. D., and Williams, F. J., eds., 2004. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Transformation of the Supreme Court. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

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William Ashbaugh is Associate State University in Huntsville. He is Professor and Chair of the Depart- the author of Econoclasts: The Rebels ment of History at the State University Who Sparked the Supply-Side Revolution of New York, College at Oneonta, and Restored American Prosperity where he won the 2008 Chancellor’s (2009). Award for Excellence in Teaching. R. Blake Dunnavent is Associate Jean Choate is Professor of History Professor of History at Louisiana at the College of Coastal Georgia. State University in Shreveport. His She is the author of Disputed the author of Brownwater Warfare Ground: Farm Groups that Opposed (2003) and The River War (2011). the New Deal Agricultural Program Richard M. Fried is Professor of (2002), Eliza Johnson, Unknown History Emeritus at the University First Lady (2006), and a soon to be of Illinois at Chicago. He is the published collection of accounts of author, most recently, of The Man impressed sailors. Everyone Knew: Bruce Barton and Byron W. Daynes is Professor of the Making of Modern America Political Science at Brigham Young (2005), and The Russians are University. He is the co-author of Coming! The Russians are Coming! 14 books on American government, Pageantry and Patriotism in Cold- the American presidency (Franklin War America (1998). D. Roosevelt and the Shaping of Regina U. Gramer received her American Political Culture, 2001), doctorate in history from Rutgers and social policy (The New Deal and University, New Brunswick. She Public Policy, 1998). teaches in the Liberal Studies Brian Domitrovic is Assistant Program at New York University. Professor of History at Sam Houston Her work has appeared in a variety

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of books and journals, including Harry Hopkins: Sudden Hero, Brash Diplomatic History and Reviews on Reformer (1999), and co-editor of American History. Jewish, First Wife, Divorced: Selected Letters and Papers of Ethel Gross and Rodney A. Grunes is Professor of Harry Hopkins (2003). Political Science and Chair of History and Political Science at Centenary Lance Janda is Associate Professor College of Louisiana. His numerous and Chair of the Department of articles have appeared most recently History and Government at in White House Studies, Encyclopedia Cameron University. He is the of American Civil Rights and author of Stronger Than Custom: Liberties, and the University of San West Point and the Admission of Francisco Law Review. Women (2001), and articles entitled “The Flying Tigers” and The United Michael R. Hall is Professor of States Marine Corps in the Pacific, History at Armstrong Atlantic State 1941–1945” in Timothy Dowling’s University. Past president of the Personal Perspectives: World War II Association of Third World Studies, (2005) among other works. he is the author of Sugar and Power in the Dominican Republic (2000). Cherisse Jones-Branch is Associate From 1984 to 1987, he served as a Professor of History at Arkansas Peace Corps volunteer in the State University. She has written Dominican Republic. numerous articles and is completing Martin Halpern is Professor of a manuscript entitled “ ‘Repairers of History at Henderson State the Breach’: Black and White University in Arkansas. He is the Women and Racism Activism in author of Unions, Radicals and South Carolina, 1940s–1960.” Democratic Presidents: Seeking Social William E. Kinsella, Jr is Assistant Change in the Twentieth Century Dean and Professor of History in (2003), and UAW Politics in the the Liberal Arts Division of North- Cold War Era (1988). ern Virginia Community College Kenneth E. Hendrickson, Jr is (Annandale Campus). He has pub- Regent’s and Hardin Distinguished lished numerous articles on Franklin Professor of American History, Roosevelt and American diplomatic Emeritus, at Midwestern State history, and Leadership in Isolation: University, Wichita Falls, Texas. FDR and the Origins of the Second Among his 12 books is The Life and World War (1978). Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt: Timothy W. Kneeland is Associate An Annotated Bibliography (2005). Professor of History and Political June Hopkins is Professor of Science at Nazareth College. He is History and Chair of the Department the author of Push Button Psychiatry. of History at Armstrong Atlanta A Cultural History of Electroshock State University. She is the author of (2008).

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Joseph Edward Lee is Professor of author of L’Espagne Republicaine: History at Winthrop University. French Policy and Spanish He is past president of the South Republicanism in Liberated France Carolina Historical Association, and (2008), and currently completing the mayor of the City of York, South another book, Dangerous Germans Carolina, and the author of 14 in Franco’s Spain: The Allied books, including Yorkville to York Program of Forced Repatriation of (1998). German Criminals after the Second World War. Stefano Luconi teaches US history at the University of Padua in Italy. He Wesley K. Mosier is a doctorate is the author of many books includ- student in history at Oklahoma State ing Little Italies e New Deal (2002), University. His research interests The Italian–American Vote on Pro- include the American West, federal vidence, Rhode Island, 1916–1948 Indian policy, human rights and (2004), and La faglia dell’anti- social reform in the twentieth cen- semitismo: Italiani ed ebrei negli Stati- tury. Uniti, 1920–1941 (2007). James S. Olson is Texas State John Thomas McGuire is Adjunct University System Regent’s Professor Associate Professor of History at of History. He is the author of Herbert Tompkins Cortland Community Hoover and the Reconstruction College, State University of New Finance Corporation (1977); Saving York. He is the recipient of the 2005 Capitalism: The Reconstruction Philip S. Klein Pennsylvania History Finance Corporation and the New Prize for his article on Mary Williams Deal (1988); and editor of Historical (Molly) Dawson and her conflicts Dictionary of the New Deal. From with Emma Guffey Miller. His cur- Inauguration to Preparation for War rent book project is on the Women’s (1985). Division of the Democratic National Peter K. Parides is Associate Committee during the New Deal. Professor of History at New York Patrick J. Maney is Professor of City College of Technology, The History and Dean of the College of City University of New York. His Arts and Sciences at Boston College. recent work appeared in Rosemary He is the author of “Young Bob” La B. Mariner and G. Kurt Piehler, Follette: A Biography of Robert M. La eds., The Atomic Bomb and American Follette, Jr., 1895–1953 (1978, Society (2009), and is currently 2003) and The Roosevelt Presence: working on a book Atomic Brothers: The Life and Legacy of FDR (1993, The Anglo-American Alliance and 1998). the Birth of the Nuclear Age, 1939– 1945. David A. Messenger is Assistant Professor of European and Galen Roger Perras is Associate International History at the Professor of American History at University of Wyoming. He is the the University of Ottawa. His books

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include Franklin Roosevelt and the The New Deal Campaign of 1932 Origins of the Canadian-American (2007). Security Alliance, 1933–1945: Margaret C. Rung is Assistant Necessary But Not Necessary Enough Professor of History and Director (1988), and Stepping Stones to of the Center for New Deal Studies Nowhere: The Aleutian Islands, at Roosevelt University. She is the Alaska, and American Military author of numerous articles and Strategy, 1867–1945 (2003). Servant of the State: Managing William D. Pederson is the Diversity and Democracy in the American Studies Endowed Chair Federal Workforce, 1933–1953 and Director of the International (2002). Her interests include the Lincoln Center at Louisiana State relationship of gender and race to University in Shreveport. Among the development of the administra- his many books are The FDR Years tive state, especially during the New (2006), Franklin D. Roosevelt and Deal, World War II, and the early Abraham Lincoln (2003), FDR and years of the Cold War. the Modern Presidency (1997), and Sean J. Savage is Professor of The Rating Game in American Political Science at Saint Mary’s Politics (1987). College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Norman W. Provizer is Professor He is the author of Roosevelt: The of Political Science and Director Party Leader (1991), Truman and of the Golda Meir Center for Polit- the Democratic Party (1997), and ical Leadership at Metropolitan JFK, LBJ, and the Democratic Party State College of Denver. His books (2004). include Leaders of the Pack (2003), Stephen K. Shaw is Professor of Great Justices of the U.S. Supreme Political Science, and Director, Court (1993), Grassroots Constitu- University Honors Program at tionalism (1988), and Analyzing the Northwest Nazarene University. He Third World (1978). is the editor of Franklin D. Roosevelt Patrick D. Reagan is Assistant and the Transformation of the Professor of History at Tennessee Supreme Court (2004) and author Technological University in of The Ninth Amendment: Preser- Cookeville. His most recent books vation of the Constitutional Mind include Designing a New America: (1990). The Origins of New Deal Planning, Kevin E. Smith is Associate 1890–1943 (2000); American Professor of History and Department Journal: World War I and the Jazz Chair at Ball State University in Age (2000); and History and the Muncie, Indiana. He is the author Internet: A Guide (2002). of Conflict over Convoys: Anglo- Donald A. Ritchie is the Historian American Logistics Diplomacy in of the United States Senate. His the Second World War (1996). His recent book is Electing FDR: current research deals with the role

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of “Hossier” statesmen in American University in Florida. He is the foreign policy during the 1930s. author or editor of 30 books and numerous articles. Mary Stockwell is Professor of History and Department Chair at Betty Houchin Winfield is Lourdes College. The author of University of Missouri Curators’ Woodrow Wilson: The Last Romantic Professor in the Missouri School of (2009) and many articles, she is the Journalism, Department of Political recipient of a Gilder–Lehrman Science and the Harry S. Truman Research Fellowship (2006) and the School of Public Affairs Professor. Association of Educational She is the author of many articles on Publisher’s Golden Lamp Award FDR as well as four books, includ- (2005). ing FDR and the News Media (1990, Robert P. Watson is Professor of 1994), which received a Frank Political Science and Coordinator Luther Mott award for a best mass of American Studies at Lynn media history book (1991).

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FDR BIOGRAPHIES

Kenneth E. Hendrickson, Jr

Historians have long debated whether history is a science or an art, and some have concluded that the question is moot because science and art are closely related. In History as Art and as Science: Twin Vistas of the Past (Hughes 1964: 2), E. K. Carr argued that, “Scientists … and historians are … engaged in different branches of the same study: the study of man and his environment … the object … is the same: to increase man’s understanding and mastery over his environment.” While this assessment may seem logical and persuasive at first glance, it is, in fact unsustainable. True, there may be some similarities between the goals of historians and scientists, but the similarities are, at best, superficial and in no way tie the two disciplines together. There is nothing scientific about history. It is a form of literature; it is a highly sophisticated but utterly unscientific art. Unlike the scientific process where objectivity is the essential ingredient and all examinations of the same evidence must produce the same result, the historical process is inevitably subjective. All historians – sometimes by design, sometimes unintentionally, but nevertheless in all cases – impose themselves upon their subjects and the cumulative result is often chaos. That is, the outcomes produced by various historians dealing with the same topic are never the same and thus result in confu- sion. Put another way, if one examines all the historical literature on a given topic, the answers to the fundamental question of how human beings seek to understand and control their environment are never clear. Moreover, in no subdiscipline of history is this phenomenon more obvious than in biography, and no subject of biography has generated more literary chaos than Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

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Roosevelt became the subject of historians and other writers long before his death, has continued to attract attention to the present time, and without doubt will be targeted by many writers with various agendas well into the future. The total number of books on Roosevelt is staggering. In addition to biographies, there are works dealing with topics such as the Great Depression, World War II, and general politics, and all of them, of course, include some biographical material. But this chapter, for the most part, deals only with those works intended to be biographical in the strictest sense of the word. Even this approach leads to more than 80 books, and not all of them are discussed. Instead, the most important biographies are selected and divided into four categories: those written by professional historians, journalists, close associates, and relatives. The discussion of them suggests the imperfect nature of Roosevelt biographical literature.

Historians

Emil Ludwig comes first in the discussion. A Pole who lived at various times in Poland, Switzerland, the United States, and Germany, he could be classified as either a historian or a journalist, but I have chosen to include him with the former because of the quantity and quality of his biographical and historical works. His biography, Roosevelt: A Study in Fortune and Power (Ludwig 1938 – English translation by Maurice Samuel), was released in the United States in 1938. Though he attempted to enshrine Roosevelt’s greatness as the savior of the capitalist system and democracy, the result is overly sentimental and not especially persuasive. Nearly a decade and a half lapsed before another historian attempted a Roosevelt biography, but once Frank Freidel began, he maintained his interest in Roosevelt for the remainder of his life After spending most of his academic career at Harvard, he concluded it at the University of Washington. His four-volume biography appeared over the course of 20 years. First was Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Apprenticeship (1952), followed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt: The Ordeal (1954), Franklin Delano Roosevelt: The Triumph (1956), and FDR: Launching the New Deal (1973). The delay in the publication of the fourth volume was caused by the controversy that blazed about the New Deal during the Red Scare of the 1950s and the search for additional documents. While generally sympathetic to Roosevelt, Freidel’s work is also critical when the need is obvious, in such cases, for example, as the Supreme Court fiasco and his intervention in the congres- sional election of 1938. It is one of the best written and most comprehen- sive of all the FDR biographies and remains today an excellent example of biographical literature, although it is not definitive. The next historian to publish a Roosevelt biography was James McGregor Burns. Professor Burns is a well-known presidential biographer and an

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authority on leadership studies, serving as the Woodrow Wilson Professor Emeritus, of Political Science at Williams College. His two-volume biography is Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956) and Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 1940–45 (1970) The second volume won a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1971. The former is a fine example of historical literature, in which Burns evaluates FDR as a leader and politician during the Great Depression. Finding both weakness and strength, many fans of the president did not like the book; nevertheless, it was for the most part well received by reviewers. In Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, Burns once again exhibited his skill as a literary craftsman. More critical of FDR than in the first volume, he describes the president as a deeply divided man who provided inadequate leadership to a fragmented nation. He censures Roosevelt especially for his treatment of the Japanese Americans and his insensitivity to civil liberties. Professor Dexter Perkins was known throughout the western world as a prominent authority on US history. During his long career, he taught at the University of Rochester, Cornell University, the University of London, and Cambridge. He was the official US historian at the San Francisco Security Conference that preceded the organization of the United Nations in 1945. His biography, entitled The New Age of Franklin Roosevelt, 1932–1945 (1956), is an account of FDR’s leadership through the Great Depression and World War II. Though only 193 pages, mostly anecdotal, not based on primary sources, and bereft of anything unknown up to its date of publication, it is a well-balanced, fair-minded summary of what many have styled the beginning of America’s modern era. It is also beautifully written and thus attracted many readers who were not likely to seek out the massive multi-volume works of other well-known authors. One of those who, like Frank Freidel, successfully attempted a huge multi-volume biography was Kenneth S. Davis, who graduated from Kansas State University in 1934 with a degree in journalism and received a Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1935. He taught journalism at New York University, was a war correspondent during World War II, and later taught history at both Kansas State and the University of Kansas. Though a biographer of Charles Lindbergh, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Adlai Stevenson, his best known biography is on FDR. Davis intended to produce five volumes, but the last was never completed due to his illness and death in 1999. Volume I, FDR: The Beckoning of Destiny, 1882–1928 (1972) is based largely on secondary sources, mainly from Burns and Freidel, but also includes some new information. The major thesis of this book is that character develops and persists; it does not appear full blown at birth, nor does it change to meet each new responsibility. He pictures Roosevelt not as a hero, but as a man whose character exhibited significant flaws. FDR: The New York Years, 1928–1932 (1985) features Roosevelt as governor of New York and as candidate for the Democratic

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presidential nomination. Again, the author is both sympathetic and critical. The best parts of this volume are the description of Roosevelt’s assembling of the Brains Trust and its persuasive argument that Roosevelt represented a significant political alternative in 1932. He entitled volume III FDR: The New Deal Years, 1933–1937 (1986). Here, he focused on the period known to historians as the First New Deal, considering issues such as currency reform, banking, agriculture, labor, the regulation of labor relations, wel- fare, and especially social security. Roosevelt, says Davis, was essentially conservative in his outlook and succeeded not because of any particular piece of legislation, but because of his grasp of his historic role. His approach to practically all problems was both pragmatic and erratic. FDR: Into the Storm, 1937–1941 (1993), was Davis’s fourth and last volume. It covers the efforts to sustain the New Deal, the Supreme Court controversy, the failed purge of conservative Democrats, the successful bat- tles over wages and hours, farm tenancy, housing bills, and the third-term struggle. With respect to the latter, Davis is at his best as an analyst. For example, he shows that Roosevelt knew Wendell Willkie represented a serious threat, but was mistaken in his belief that Willkie was a puppet of the far right. Davis is very critical of the president for his handling of events leading up to US entry into World War II. He pictures Roosevelt as a cau- tious and ineffective leader, who had an opportunity to deter Hitler and failed. How Davis would have interpreted Roosevelt’s wartime leadership will never be known, but it was obvious that as each volume appeared, Davis’s work became more critical and more controversial. At the same time it received significant recognition. Volume I won the Francis Parkman Prize in 1973 and was nominated for the National Book Award. The New York Times ranked volumes I and II among the 10 best books of the years when they appeared. Gerald D. Nash, Distinguished Professor of History at the University of New Mexico, produced a biographical work entitled Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1967), not written by himself but consisting of excerpts from the works of other authors, including Richard Hofstadter, James McGregor Burns, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr, and Roosevelt himself. The president’s section, Part I, features comments about the first 50 years of his life and career. Part II consists of comments by people who knew Roosevelt, including his mother, American politicians, journalists, and world leaders. Part III includes well-known interpretations by Hofstadter, Burns, Schlesinger, and John Gunther. All the entries are very brief, running from a few paragraphs to five or six pages. Nash’s goal was to combine the intimacy of autobiog- raphy, the immediacy of eyewitness observations, and the “objectivity” of modern scholarship. Whether or not he was successful can be determined only by the reader. John Morton Blum has long been regarded as one of the preeminent political historians in the United States. One of his best known works is a

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college textbook, The American Experience, still in use by many universi- ties, but he also was the author of another important work, The Progressive Presidents: Roosevelt, Wilson, Roosevelt, and Johnson (1980). Blum, an out- spoken liberal, argues that the progressive presidents, including FDR, successfully protected capitalism from both right and left wing extremists by pushing successfully for significant domestic reforms. Their achievements, he declares, far outweigh any of their activities that might be regarded as abuses of power. They performed well despite their imperfections. One of the best one-volume Roosevelt biographies came from the pen of “Ted Morgan,” the pseudonym of a French-American writer whose real name is Comte St Charles Armand Gabriel de Gramont. In 1977, he became an American citizen and adopted the name “Ted Morgan,” which is an anagram of De Garmont. In addition to his biography of FDR, he has written much admired biographies of Winston Churchill and Somerset Maugham. In FDR: A Biography (1985), he covers Roosevelt’s entire life and career in 800 pages. He is neither a great admirer nor a hateful critic, but attempts to capture the character of a man he saw as at once judicious, rash, cunning, naive, mean, and generous. To do this, he reconstructs the atmosphere of Roosevelt’s day, recounts anecdotes, recreates events, and by implication asks readers to judge for themselves. This technique is interesting, but of course produces mixed results. Geoffrey C. Ward is both an historian and a screenwriter. Early in his career he was an editor for American Heritage magazine, and he later col- laborated with Ken Burns on the television mini-series The Civil War and several documentaries, including Jazz, Baseball, The War, and The West. His biography of FDR, Before the Trumpet: Young Franklin Roosevelt, 1882–1905 (1985), won the National Book Critics Award and the Francis Parkman Award. It begins with FDR’s birth and concludes with his marriage to Eleanor. He intended to add a second volume but never did, although he published several articles dealing with various aspects of Roosevelt’s life and career. Among the best parts of Before the Trumpet are Ward’s discussions of Roosevelt’s relationship with his mother, and his courtship of Eleanor. He also focuses on the source of certain aspects of Roosevelt’s character, especially his boldness, caution, deviousness, charm, and self-assurance. Professor Patrick J. Maney contributed his Roosevelt biography in 1992. Maney received his PhD from the University of Maryland in 1976. He taught for several years at the University of South Carolina and Tulane, and later at Boston College. In The Roosevelt Presence: The Life and Legacy of FDR (1992), he pictures Roosevelt as a decisive figure in American history largely because, in one way or another, he influenced many of his successors – Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Clinton, and even Reagan. The Roosevelt administration contributed, among other things, social security, unem- ployment insurance, minimum wage law, public housing, bankruptcy insurance, farm subsidies, and regulation of the stock market. These became

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permanent fixtures in American society and have remained so whether supported, ignored, or opposed by those leaders who came after Roosevelt. After a hiatus of a decade, historians once again turned their attention to Roosevelt and produced some interesting work. One of the first authors in this group was the Englishman, Roy Jenkins, the author of many books, including the prize-winning Winston Churchill. He was a politician, having served in the House of Commons as Minister of Aviation, Home Secretary, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, as well as Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and was raised to the House of Lords in 1987. His biography of FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (2003), was unfinished at the time of his death, but was completed by Richard E. Neustadt. Although only 208 pages, it is insightful. In very stylish prose, Jenkins deals with the peculiari- ties of Roosevelt’s character, his skill and flexibility as a politician, and his ability to charm and dazzle both close associates and casual acquaintances, while at the same time keeping them at arms length. He gives Roosevelt high marks as commander-in-chief, arguing that he successfully oversaw the complex mobilization of the economy and the military during World War II. Emphasizing the importance of Roosevelt’s relationship with Eleanor – who, he reminds readers – was not only his wife but an important adviser, despite their peculiar relationship. Two historians, Allan Winkler and Jeffery W. Coker, published Roosevelt biographies in 2005. Coker’s work, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: A Biography (2005), appeared in May, and Winkler’s Franklin Delano Roosevelt (2005) came out in July. Coker, an Assistant Professor of History at Belmont University, had two books to his credit before embarking on the Roosevelt project. His work is part of Greenwood’s Biographies Series and is brief. Nevertheless, he traces Roosevelt’s life from his childhood through the New Deal and the war, and concludes with a discussion of the various controversies concerning his legacy. Though critical of Roosevelt and not ranking him as one of the greatest presidents, at the same time he admits that Roosevelt was one of the most influential presidents; that influence being not entirely positive. Allan Winkler is Distinguished Professor of History at Miami University in Ohio. His work, an addition to Longman’s Library of American Biography Series, is also brief. Though little more than a summary from earlier, more extensive studies, it is clear and concise and much less judgmental than Coker’s volume. Two longer Roosevelt biographies by Jean Edward Smith and H. W. Brands appeared in 2008. Professor Brands is the Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin, who has also published biographies of Andrew Jackson and Benjamin Franklin, among others. Professor Smith is the author of 12 books, including biographies of Ulysses S. Grant, John Marshall, and Lucius D. Clay. He taught at the University of Toronto for 35 years before joining the faculty at Marshall University, where he is the John Marshall Professor of Political Science.

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Brands’s volume, Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (2008), is a big book weighing in at 896 pages. Based on both primary and secondary sources and featuring attractive prose, Brands deals with the president’s early life, of course, and devotes two-thirds of the book to the New Deal and World War II, but adds little that is new to the Roosevelt story. So, his work attracted some unfriendly evaluations. For example, in its November 4, 2008 edition, Publishers’ Weekly summarized the overall value of Brands’s effort as fol- lows: “It’s fitting that Roosevelt commands the amount of scholarly attention that he does, but sad that so much is wholly redundant with what has come before.” FDR (2008) is Professor Smith’s contribution. In summing up Roosevelt’s legacy, Smith argues that the president engineered fundamental changes in the relationship between the American people and the government, revolu- tionized the art of campaigning, and used the media more effectively than anyone else to gain the support of the public and at the same time calm their fears. Very persuasive in arguing its conclusions, Smith’s work is one of the most powerful accounts of Roosevelt’s career. One of the most unusual and engaging contributions to Roosevelt literature is Joseph E. Persico’s Franklin and Lucy: President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd, and the Other Remarkable Women in His Life (2009). Using never before revealed documents from Lucy Rutherfurd’s estate, Persico demonstrates that Roosevelt’s affair with her was much more intense and much longer than has been generally believed. He also explains more clearly than any of his predecessors how Roosevelt’s infidelity transformed his wife from a repressed Victorian girl into one of the greatest women of the twentieth century. By focusing on Roosevelt’s relationship with the women in his life, Persico creates a unique portrait of this complex American leader. The most recent Roosevelt biography is the work of Alan Brinkley, Allan Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University. His Franklin Delano Roosevelt (2009) is brief (128 pages) and features an unusual twist. He summarizes FDR’s entire career with an emphasis on the New Deal, referring not to its impact on American society and the size of the federal bureaucracy during the 1930s, but its relationship to the efforts of later administrations and the implementation of deficit spending. Although strictly speaking not a biography, one cannot ignore the mag- nificent work of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr, who did his graduate work in history at Harvard, but never completed a PhD. During World War II, he served in the Office of War Information and the Office of Strategic Services. He began his teaching career at Harvard in 1939, returned after the war, and stayed there until 1961. After serving as an adviser to the Kennedy administration, he again returned to teaching in 1966, as Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, retiring in 1994. Between 1939 and 2007, he produced 29

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books, two of which won the Pulitzer Prize, but his best known work is his three-volume study of Roosevelt and the New Deal. The titles are: The Crisis of the Old Order: 1919–1933 (1957), The Coming of the New Deal: 1933– 1935 (1958), and The Politics of Upheaval: 1935–1936 (1960). Schlesinger meant to complete his study of Roosevelt with two additional volumes cov- ering the last days of the New Deal and the war, but instead went to work as an adviser to JFK in 1961 and never returned to this project. Throughout his life, Schlesinger remained an unapologetic liberal and his written works reflect that stance. These three lengthy volumes (1976 pages), devote considerable space to both the life and career of Roosevelt and are, for the most part, biased in favor of the president. He notes Roosevelt’s shortcomings, but is more understanding than many of his biographers. As a result, conservatives do not care much for Schlesinger, but be that as it may, all serious students of recent American history must reckon with him, whether they like him or not.

Journalists

Ernest K. Lindley was an internationally known journalist and foreign affairs expert. He and his wife, Elizabeth, were friends with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, so Lindley was chosen as the first authorized Roosevelt biographer. Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Career in Progressive Democracy (1932) was, of course, a campaign biography, which stressed Roosevelt’s service during the Wilson administration and his physical fitness in public service. At about the same time that Lindley was at work, reporter Earle Looker, who had been a friend of the Oyster Bay Roosevelts, challenged Franklin to undergo a thorough examination to determine his physical fitness and, satisfied, he wrote several articles and produced two pro-Roosevelt books. This Man Roosevelt (1932) is another campaign biography, and a very good one. It is vivacious in style, but not maudlin or hopelessly eulogistic. FDR liked it. Two years later, Looker published The American Way: Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Action (1934). Here, he begins with a description of the earliest efforts of the National Recovery Administration, but he also devotes considerable space – two-thirds of the book, in fact – to Roosevelt’s life before the presidency. Even though Looker was a lifelong Republican, he continued his praise for FDR. Gerald White Johnson was a journalist, editor, essayist, historian, biographer, and novelist. A professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina, who worked at the Baltimore Evening Sun for many years, he was a friend of H. L. Mencken. In 1941, he published a review of the Roosevelt administration entitled Roosevelt: Dictator or Democrat?, which was the first major defense of the New Deal in American historical literature. The work is skillfully done, the arguments are persuasive, and the writing style is

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appealing. Johnson’s work is included in the realm of biography because, in addition to his analysis of the New Deal, he considers Roosevelt’s early life and career. Among those who hated Roosevelt, the most virulent was John T. Flynn. By the time of Roosevelt’s drive for the White House, Flynn was one of the best known political commentators in the country and at first he supported the New York governor. But soon after the election he began to criticize the New Deal, and by 1936 he had broken completely with Roosevelt and began to call him a fascist. Flynn also detested Roosevelt’s foreign policy and was one of the founders of the America First Committee. After that group disbanded in 1941, Flynn renewed his savage attacks on the New Deal, referring to it as a degenerate form of socialism. In 1948, he published The Roosevelt Myth (1948), the most scandalous attack to appear to that date. In it, Flynn accused FDR of ruining the nation with the New Deal and plunging it into the war in a quest for personal power and glory. His book was little more than a study in pathological hatred, but Roosevelt was not his only target. Later in his life, he supported Senator Joe McCarthy, was rejected by such reasonable conservatives as William F. Buckley, and joined forces with the John Birch Society. Two years after the appearance of Flynn’s assault on FDR, the renowned journalist John Gunther published Roosevelt in Retrospect (1950). Despite his fame as a journalist, Gunther had only met FDR socially on four or five occasions. Nevertheless, his book is replete with details, pertinent anecdotes, and interesting sidelights that appear to reflect significant personal contact but in fact represent an affective culling of the previously published works of those who were close to the president. Like most of Gunther’s writings, it is beautifully done and was happily received by Roosevelt admirers, but as Gunther himself stated, it was not intended to be definitive. Instead, he saw it as a preliminary sketch summarizing the existing journalistic and personal literature on Roosevelt, and encouraging further research. After the appearance of Gunther’s work, there would not be another Roosevelt biography by a journalist for 11 years. Then, in 1961, Nicholas Halasz published Roosevelt through Foreign Eyes (1961). A native of Slovakia, which was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time of his birth, Halasz was trained in both the law and journalism but devoted himself to a writing career after coming to the United States in 1941. The purpose of his book was to analyze Roosevelt in light of his impact on world opinion. He succeeded in producing a reasonably accurate appraisal of the interest in and the understanding of the New Deal among serious writers in England, France, Switzerland, and even Germany, at least until the late 1930s. The result was useful, but by no means complete. In 1982, Joseph Alsop published FDR, 1882–1940: A Century Remem- bered (1982), a sentimental celebration of Roosevelt’s centennial birthday. The following year, a journalist attempted a more serious biography. This

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time it was Nathan Miller, an award-winning author of 12 books of biography and history. FDR: An Intimate History (1983), a lengthy tome (563 pages), is based largely on well-documented secondary sources and thus adds no new facts or interpretations that would be of interest to Roosevelt scholars. However, it is skillfully written and was popular with the general reading public when it appeared. The major problem with the book is its lack of balance. More than 300 pages are devoted to the period before the presidency and only 40 pages to World War II. By far the best Roosevelt biography by a journalist, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom (2005), has come from Conrad Black. Formerly the chairman and chief executive officer of Hollinger International, Inc., whose newspaper holdings include the Daily and Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator in London, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Jerusalem Post, Black entered the British House of Lords as Lord Black of Crossharbour in 2001. Although his political views are generally conservative, he is a great fan of Roosevelt. He argues that FDR was the most important person of the twentieth century because he transformed the United States and the world with unequaled skill as a politician, war leader, strategist, and vision- ary. His interpretation offers a stark and persuasive contrast to those of Burns and Davis.

Associates

The first of Roosevelt’s closest associates to attempt a biography was Frances Perkins, in The Roosevelt I Knew (1946). The first woman to hold a cabinet position, serving as Secretary of Labor, Perkins was a loyal Roosevelt sup- porter who helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition and worked hard supporting most New Deal reform legislation. She was one of only two cabinet members – the other being Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior – who remained in office through Roosevelt’s entire presidency. Her book is divided into four parts: “The Man,” “The State,” “The Nation,” and “The World,” where she places the president, his character, and his polices in the relevant context. Her writing is clear and strong, and even though she was openly biased, she was by no means uncritical of Roosevelt as a man or a leader. But whether he was right or wrong, she believed that Roosevelt’s leadership was the means by which the people’s voice was heard. The Perkins biography was followed by Grace Tully’s effort. Tully went to work for Eleanor Roosevelt when FDR was running for governor of New York in 1928. When he was elected, she became assistant to Roosevelt’s personal secretary, Marguerite “Missy” LeHand. Tully was ill at the time of Roosevelt’s move to the White House, but joined the staff in 1934 and became the president’s personal secretary in 1941. She remained in that

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