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Enriching FDR Biographies that Explore the President's Impactful Life and Legacy

Roosevelt led the United States through some of its most trying decades.

• Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A remarkable leader, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the longest serving U.S. president, elected to serve four terms. In his time in office, he navigated the United States through some of the most difficult occasions in its history.

Succeeding Herbert Hoover, FDR was tasked with pulling the country out of the Great Depression . Contending with the worst economic depression the United States has ever faced, Roosevelt created the New Deal, a package of radical relief and reform policies, aimed righting the economy and lifting up those in need. Bold and idealistic, many of FDR's measures, from insurance programs like Social Security, to regulatory bodies like the SEC, still exist today. 

Though monumental in its challenges, the Great Depression gave way to an even more daunting trial, as World War II broke out in Europe and the Pacific. Guiding the United States into war following the bombing of Pearl Harbor , FDR mobilized the country like never before. Calling up millions of troops and throwing the full resources of the home front into the war effort, FDR’s partnership and leadership proved invaluable to the Allied forces. 

Passing away just after he began his fourth term, FDR left a lasting impact on the United States and the world, more broadly. Despite disgraces that cannot be overlooked, like Japanese internment policies, Roosevelt remains one of America's most admired presidents and one of history's most fascinating figures. The books below are some of the best FDR biographies that help to illuminate 32nd president; his life, his politics, and his mark on history. 

The Definitive FDR

By James MacGregor Burns

A two-volume set containing James Macgregor Burns’s Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1882 – 1940) and Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (1940–1945) , The Definite FDR gives readers a revealing look into the life of FDR and his unwavering leadership through unprecedented and unimaginable trials. 

Chronicling his upbringing, early years in politics, and first two terms as president, The Lion and the Fox recounts how FDR moved through his formative years and came to be an adept politician capable of reaching the presidency and addressing the problems that awaited him in office. Comprehensive and engaging, Burns writes “a sensitive, shrewd, and challenging book” ( New York Times ). 

Picking up after his first two terms, the Pulitzer prize and National Book Award winning, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom looks deeply at FDR as he confronted the tumultuous years of WWII and prepared for the uncertainty that would follow in the post-war years. Offering a fascinating portrait of a leader faced with unthinkable decisions, the award winning book shares a profound and riveting account of Franklin Roosevelt. 

The Three Roosevelts

By James MacGregor Burns, Susan Dunn

Chronicling the impacts Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt had on one another, The Three Roosevelts provides a unique look into the prominent political family. From their background within the upper echelons of New York society, to their decisions of national and international importance, The Three Roosevelts traces the relatives through decades of shared history in "a detailed study ... written with impeccable scholarship” ( Houston Chronicle).

Related: Theodore Roosevelt's Strenuous Life Extended Far Beyond a Single Speech

The Coming of the New Deal

By Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

The second volume of Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.’s three-book series, The Age of Roosevelt , The Coming of the New Deal focuses on FDR’s transition into the presidency. Elected amidst the Great Depression, Roosevelt tried untested means to save the country from economic collapse. Tracing his reforms and his hopeful visions, Schlesinger offers a detailed look into the politics and processes FDR leveraged to move the nation toward recovery. Described by The New York Times as “monumental… authoritative… spirited… one of the major works in American historical literature,” The Coming New Deal places the politics before the person in its examination into a critical period of FDR’s life.

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By Susan Dunn

In 1940, the world was on an edge. The Nazis had begun to invade Europe and divisions within the United States grew more intense. As the hysteria of the war reached new heights, FDR faced off against the Republican candidate Wendell Wilkie in the year's presidential elections. In a vibrant and exciting book, Dunn explains the context of the 1940 elections, maps the trajectories of the competing campaigns, and underscores the significance the race's culmination to provide a unique examination of a critical stretch of American history and a revealing snapshot of President Roosevelt. 

Related: 12 Books That Offer Perspectives on the Presidents

By Jean Edward Smith

A national bestseller, praised as the go-to biography for the memorable president, Jean Edward Smith’s FDR goes beyond the surface, to share Roosevelt’s life story in rich detail. Smith brings FDR to life by exploring his relationships with close confidantes, like Eleanor Roosevelt and Missy LeHand; challenges he overcame, like his struggles with disability; and failures that remain controversial, like Japanese internment, his attempt to pack the Supreme Court, and his tenacious use of executive power. Following his entire life through, Smith's FDR creates a full and balanced picture of the remarkable man.

Traitor to His Class

By H.W. Brands

Another national bestseller, Traitor to His Class pulls together archival documents, speeches, letters, and the records of those who knew him well to offer a perceptive and well-researched account of FDR. Brands’ Traitor to His Class offers a wealth of information on FDR’s political life, from his start in politics, to his handling of the Great Depression, to his choices during World War II and relationships with world leaders, like Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin.

Franklin and Winston

By Jon Meecham

On opposite sides of the Atlantic, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill came together with the fate of the free world and the outcome of WWII in the balance. Sharing a unique and world changing friendship, the two remarkable leaders met and corresponded frequently. They mapped the course of the war, shared the weight of their place in history, and built a close-knit alliance. In a narrative that is as human as it moving, Jon Meecham recounts their strikingly similar backgrounds, their family ties, and their dynamic relationship. 

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

By Robert Dallek

Chosen as a best book of the year by NPR and The Washington Post, Robert Dallek's Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life examines the personal and political insights that helped FDR effectively shape the presidency, the nation, and his own enduring legacy. Dallek argues that FDR became a successful politician and president by recognizing the importance of consensus, the benefits of a long-term approach to governance, and the power wielded by the executive. 

No Ordinary Time

By Doris Kearns Goodwin

In a story that is as touching as it is compelling, Doris Kearns Goodwin's Pulitzer Prize winning No Ordinary Time covers the lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during the second World War. Offering perspective on their individual lives, their marriage, and their respective work during the war, Goodwin tells a richly textured and fully detailed account of happenings within the White House and America's homefront as FDR led the country through WWII.

Related: 20 Influential Women in History You Need to Know About

Supreme Power

By Jeff Shesol

Once again a contentious topic within the news, court packing has a long history, most notably associated with FDR. Describing his battle to pack the Supreme Court with appointees who similarly believed in a "living constitution," Jeff Shesol traces FDR's efforts to expand the court following its dismantling of his New Deal programs in 1935. Diving into a significant and controversial chapter of Roosevelt's presidency, Shesol's Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. The Supreme Court was named a Notable Book by the New York Times.

A First Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt

By Geoffrey C. Ward

Following up on his account of FDR's youth in Before the Trumpet: Young Franklin Roosevelt , Geoffrey C. Ward's A First Class Temperament describes FDR's ascendance to the presidency. It follows FDR's journey from a sheltered upbringing, through his, at times, harsh political dealings, to his election to highest office in the land. Going beyond his public profile, A First Class Temperament also shares FDR's personal struggles, from coping with polio to his strained relationships with his wife and children, to fully chronicle the years that helped to establish one of the United States' most memorable leaders.

War and Peace: FDR's Final Odyssey D-Day to Yalta, 1943-1945

By Nigel Hamilton

The final volume of his three-book series FDR at War , Nigel Hamilton's War and Peace zooms in on the final years of FDR's life. Having led America into WWII, FDR became involved in the conflicts most elaborate and crucial strategies. He not only supported the U.S. led D-Day invasions , but was able to look past the ongoing bloodshed and plans for a historic counter attack, toward a time of eventual peace. Tracing his role in directing the course of war and laying the groundwork for post-war stability, primarily through the United Nations, War and Peace describes FDR's impact in two vital years that changed the course of history.  

Related: 13 Epic Battles That Changed the World

Featured photo of Franklin Roosevelt campaigning in October of 1944: Wikimedia Commons

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The 10 Best Books on President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Essential books on franklin roosevelt.

There are countless books on Franklin Roosevelt, and it comes with good reason, after all, he is widely celebrated for leading the United States out of the great depression, playing an instrumental role in bringing about the destruction of World War II’s Axis powers, and in the process, securing a global peace the likes of which mankind maybe hasn’t experienced since the dawn of civilization.

He was elected President in November 1932, to the first of four terms. The following March there were 13,000,000 unemployed, and almost every bank was closed. In his first “hundred days,” he proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those in danger of losing farms and homes, and reform, especially through the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority. By 1935 the Nation had achieved some measure of economic recovery .

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt directed the organization of America’s manpower and resources for a global war to be fought on opposing ends of the Earth’s surface. Feeling that the future peace of the world would depend upon relations between the United States and Russia, he devoted much thought to the planning of a United Nations, in which, he hoped, international difficulties could be settled.

“We all know that books burn, yet we have the greater knowledge that books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die,” he once said . “No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man’s eternal fight against tyranny of every kind.”

Reading clearly played a profound role in molding Franklin Roosevelt as a person, and furthermore, this favorite educational activity of his must have had something to do with the spirited – and liberating for that matter – approach he took to life.

Therefore, in order to get to the bottom of what inspired one of history’s greatest men to the heights of societal contribution, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best books on Franklin Roosevelt.

The Definitive FDR by James Macgregor Burns

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the longest serving president in US history, reshaping the country during the crises of the Great Depression and World War II. James MacGregor Burns’s magisterial two-volume biography tells the complete life story of the fascinating political figure who instituted the New Deal.

Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1882 – 1940) : Before his ascension to the presidency, FDR laid the groundwork for his unprecedented run with decades of canny political maneuvering and steady consolidation of power. Hailed by the  New York Times  as “a sensitive, shrewd, and challenging book” and by  Newsweek  as “a case study unmatched in American political writings,”  The Lion and the Fox details Roosevelt’s youth and education, his rise to national prominence, all the way through his first two terms as president.

Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (1940 – 1945) : The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning history of FDR’s final years examines the president’s skillful wartime leadership as well as his vision for postwar peace. Acclaimed by William Shirer as “the definitive book on Roosevelt in the war years,” and by bestselling author Barbara Tuchman as “engrossing, informative, endlessly readable,”  The Soldier of Freedom  is a moving profile of a leader gifted with rare political talent in an era of extraordinary challenges.

FDR by Jean Edward Smith

One of today’s premier biographers has written a modern, comprehensive, indeed ultimate book on the epic life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In this superlative volume, Jean Edward Smith combines contemporary scholarship and a broad range of primary source material to provide an engrossing narrative of one of America’s greatest presidents.

Smith recounts FDR’s battles with polio and physical disability, and how these experiences helped forge the resolve that FDR used to surmount the economic turmoil of the Great Depression and the wartime threat of totalitarianism.

This bestseller among books on Franklin Roosevelt gives us the clearest picture yet of how a quintessential Knickerbocker aristocrat, a man who never had to depend on a paycheck, became the common man’s president. The result is a powerful account that adds fresh perspectives and draws profound conclusions about a man whose story is widely known but far less well understood.

Traitor to His Class by H. W. Brands

Historian and biographer H.W. Brands explores the powerful influence of FDR’s dominating mother and the often tense and always unusual partnership between FDR and his wife, Eleanor, and her indispensable contributions to his presidency. Most of all, the book traces in breathtaking detail FDR’s revolutionary efforts with his New Deal legislation to transform the American political economy in order to save it, his forceful – and cagey – leadership before and during World War II, and his lasting legacy in creating the foundations of the postwar international order.

Franklin and Winston by Jon Meacham

The most complete portrait ever drawn of the complex emotional connection between two of history’s towering leaders. Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were the greatest leaders of “the Greatest Generation.” In Franklin and Winston , Jon Meacham explores the fascinating relationship between the two men who piloted the free world to victory in World War II.

It was a crucial friendship, and a unique one – a president and a prime minister spending enormous amounts of time together (113 days during the war) and exchanging nearly two thousand messages. Amid cocktails, cigarettes, and cigars, they met, often secretly, in places as far-flung as Washington, Hyde Park, Casablanca, and Teheran, talking to each other of war, politics, the burden of command, their health, their wives, and their children.

The Coming of the New Deal by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

The Coming of the New Deal , 1933-1935, volume two of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and biographer Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.’s Age of Roosevelt series, describes Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first tumultuous years in the White House. Coming into office at the bottom of the Great Depression, FDR told the American people that they have nothing to fear but fear itself. The conventional wisdom having failed, he tried unorthodox remedies to avert economic collapse.

His first hundred days restored national morale, and his New Dealers filled Washington with new approaches to recovery and reform. Combining idealistic ends with realistic means, Roosevelt proposed to humanize, redeem, and rescue capitalism. The Coming of the New Deal, written with Schlesinger’s customary verve, is a gripping account of critical years in the history of the republic.

Before the Trumpet: Young Franklin Roosevelt by Geoffrey C. Ward

Before Pearl Harbor, before polio and his entry into politics, FDR was a handsome, pampered, but strong-willed youth, the center of a rarefied world. In Before the Trumpet ,  the award-winning historian Geoffrey C. Ward transports the reader to that world – Hyde Park on the Hudson and Campobello Island, Groton and Harvard and the Continent – to recreate as never before the formative years of the man who would become the 20th century’s greatest president.

Here, drawn from thousands of original documents (many never previously published), is a richly-detailed, intimate biography, its central figure surrounded by a colorful cast that includes an opium smuggler and a pious headmaster; Franklin’s distant cousin, Theodore and his remarkable mother, Sara; and the still-more remarkable young woman he wooed and won, his cousin Eleanor. This is a tale that would grip the reader even if its central character had not grown up to be FDR.

1940 by Susan Dunn

In 1940, against the explosive backdrop of the Nazi onslaught in Europe, two farsighted candidates for the U.S. presidency – Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, running for an unprecedented third term, and talented Republican businessman Wendell Willkie – found themselves on the defensive against American isolationists and their charismatic spokesman Charles Lindbergh, who called for surrender to Hitler’s demands.

In this dramatic account of that turbulent and consequential election, historian Susan Dunn brings to life the debates, the high-powered players, and the dawning awareness of the Nazi threat as the presidential candidates engaged in their own battle for supremacy. 1940   not only explores the contest between FDR and Willkie but also examines the key preparations for war that went forward, even in the midst of that divisive election season.

No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History,  No Ordinary Time is a monumental work, a brilliantly conceived chronicle of one of the most vibrant and revolutionary periods in the history of the United States.

With an extraordinary collection of details, Goodwin masterfully weaves together a striking number of storylines – Eleanor and Franklin’s marriage and remarkable partnership, Eleanor’s life as First Lady, and FDR’s White House and its impact on America as well as on a world at war. Goodwin effectively melds these details and stories into an unforgettable and intimate portrait of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and of the time during which a new, modern America was born.

FDR’s Folly by Jim Powell

The Great Depression and the New Deal. For generations, the collective American consciousness has believed that the former ruined the country and the latter saved it. Endless praise has been heaped upon President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for masterfully reining in the Depression’s destructive effects and propping up the country on his New Deal platform.

In fact, FDR has achieved mythical status in American history and is considered to be, along with Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, one of the greatest presidents of all time. But would the Great Depression have been so catastrophic had the New Deal never been implemented?

Offering a healthy dose of skepticism among books on Franklin Roosevelt, historian Jim Powell argues that it was in fact the New Deal itself, with its shortsighted programs, that deepened the Great Depression, swelled the federal government, and prevented the country from turning around quickly.

Looking Forward by Franklin Roosevelt

Published in March 1933 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was first inaugurated, the classic  New York Times  bestseller  Looking Forward  delivers F . D.R.’s honest appraisal of the events that contributed to the Great Depression and mirror our own situation today. With blunt, unflinching, and clear prose Roosevelt attacks head-on the failure of the banking system and the U.S. government and sets forth his reasoning and hope for the major reforms of his New Deal.

If you enjoyed this guide to the 10 best books on Franklin Roosevelt, be sure to check out our list of 10 Books Albert Einstein Recommends Reading !

My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies

***The Best Presidential Biographies***

Ratings are on a scale of 0 to 5 stars, with equal weight given to my subjective assessment of: (1) how enjoyable the biography was to read and (2) the biography’s historical value (including comprehensive coverage and critical analysis of its subject).

Blue titles  indicate   Pulitzer Prize WINNERS.   Blue italicized titles  indicate Pulitzer Prize finalists.

This list was updated July 1, 2024.   If I’m missing a great presidential biography that you’ve read, please let me know! My master list of best biographies of all time (including non-presidents) can be found here .

Every book I review has been purchased by me. Bestpresidentialbios.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

420 thoughts on “***The Best Presidential Biographies***”

December 21, 2021 at 11:35 am

I am reading each president’s bio by decade to get a 3d perspective of where each past, present, and future president was at any given time. I will be starting 1870 but then I came across your list and was disappointed that I had not read “the best” bio. Going back and reading your recommendation before moving forward with the books on my shelf. One question, with H.W. Bush and Carter bios, since they were written prior to the end of their life, do you think other bios will come out that are more comprehensive? What is your understanding of how long before a time period is “declassified”? I feel like we will have to wait awhile before the Bushes and Clinton’s influence is considered history vs current events.

December 21, 2021 at 12:05 pm

In both cases (Bush 41 and Carter) the most complete biographies I read were extremely comprehensive. And in the case of Carter, the two most recently published comprehensive biographies seem to have fully captured his post-presidency (which has been long and productive). I’m not sure I would wait for something better to come along.

There has been a bit of discussion on various parts of this site about how many years (or decades) need to pass before history can begin to adequately and thoughtfully judge a presidency. The consensus is around 20 years though it depends on the circumstances. I suspect it will be quite some time before there is a serious “traditional” biography of POTUS 45. And Clinton was relatively young at the beginning of his post-presidency – and his wife’s political career may or may not have even come to a conclusion yet – so it may be awhile before a “definitive” bio of Clinton is possible.

December 21, 2021 at 12:15 pm

As a historian myself, that is the general time period I’ve heard discussed for the last few decades, 20 years. However, partisanship has been making noticeable inroads into academic scholarship in recent years and I feel that that time frame is expanding. As for President Trump, it will take a much longer time for the extreme partisanship that surrounds his presidency to adequately dissipate, allowing for an evaluation of his presidency that’s far more objective than subjective.

December 25, 2021 at 8:52 pm

Sometime in the Reagan years I started collecting the single “best” one-volume biographies of U.S. presidents. I’d haunt used book stores to fill out the library, read what I bought, and would often sell back or give away books that seemed too biased, not well-researched, or simply out of date in any moral perspective. [At the same time I was also buying Civil War histories and biographies, and creating a large library of birding field guides and bird books. My own published books are on bird status, distribution, or identification topics — obviously, I like books.] My wife advises we’ve run out of shelf space. And it is only now, in Dec 2021, that I find your site! Now what am I to do? Fortunately, as I review your site, I find my own choices for the presidential biographies I have on my shelf today to be, in most cases, the #1 or #2 choice you’ve designated for each president. I absolutely agree that the Chernow “Grant,” Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals,” and McGrath’s “Monroe” are fabulous — although most will agree on these — but that Donald’s “Lincoln” could have been better despite its place on my shelf as my choice for a one-volume Lincoln. I found that your balance between “readability” and “historical accuracy” was what I’ve been looking for as well. Yet there have been very poor presidents (Andrew Johnson, Buchanon) and I do appreciate the biographies that make that clear. I did not like Brodsky’s take on Grover Cleveland — he praised GC’s “honesty” when, in fact, Cleveland lied about paternity issues to protect his married friend, while he trashed Clinton (a much better president on policy than GC) — that I couldn’t abide to keep it, and am still looking for an even-handed approach for our only double-numbered president. Still, I’m engaged by your site and your project, and will surely, a very few quibbles aside, spend many hours there as well. And as much fun as I’ll have on your site, I look forward to both more reading and more travel — at least my wife enjoys visiting Presidential libraries, birthplaces, family homes, and graves as we travel across America looking for birds and Civil War sites and National Parks… It is a great life. Thanks so much.

December 27, 2021 at 7:01 am

I’m amused to read that your wife has alerted you to the fact you’ve run out of shelf space. I’ve heard that one before 🙂 We’re now converting an “exercise room” into a library – – exercise for the mind, if you will.

If I could start this project fresh, I would break my ratings explicitly into “entertainment” and “historical value” and I would undoubtedly be better-placed to rate the former than the latter (since I’m not a historian by trade or training). I hope my commentary provides some insight into those two broad buckets, but I think I would feel better if I made my view more explicit. But now that I’m in a groove…

I’m having a harder time convincing my spouse to visit libraries, homes, etc. We’ve done everything in the central Virginia area – and there’s certainly a lot here! – but I would love to get to Boston, Michigan, Texas, etc. and just roam and savor.

Keep me (and everyone else here) up to date on your travels, travails and the moments of presidential serendipity you encounter

December 27, 2021 at 1:28 pm

Thanks! I will say that visiting homes sometimes is more enlightening about a President than even the best biographies. The contrast between the middle-class home of James Garfield — a working farm in his time — and Rutherford B. Hayes’ mansion was evident in a trip to Ohio a couple years back. Just based on their homes, Hayes was a very rich man with a splendid mansion, while Garfield, born in a log cabin, had worked his way up to his expansive farm. Although they were contemporaries, Garfield was clearly much more a “man of the people,” and thus a reformer (for which he was ultimately shot to install Arthur, an old-wing politician), than Hayes. The self-taught Garfield, who allegedly could “write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other” is, I think, much under-appreciated. Like Jefferson, Garfield was always tinkering and improving his farm, and visiting “Lawnfield” is very worthwhile. You see the same dramatic difference in Virginia, as you know, between the homes of wealthy Madison but more middle-class Monroe. We live in California, so visiting most presidential sites have to be during the occasional trip eastwards, and we typically get to see only a couple in any trip. My wife particularly likes those visit that are “one-stop shops,” to wit, the birthplace, the Presidential Library (if any), and the grave are all in one place. With Hoover or Nixon, you get all three at one single site, while for John Adams, Van Buren, or Coolidge, the sites are scattered about a single small town. Just as reading biographies is a work in progress, and ever changing with new publications, visiting all the Presidential sites is also a work in progress, as well as Civil War battlefields, and (for us) birding the world….

January 16, 2022 at 12:04 pm

I use your blog all the time to help me find Presidential biographies to read. Thank you for your amazing work!

May 30, 2022 at 6:47 pm

Perusing the list, I may have missed one or there are simply none listed by Harlow Giles Unger. I have several of his books and I found them to be good (albeit short ones) books. Yet I run into people that have a dislike of anything this man writes. Do you have a similar opinion since he doesn’t appear in your list?

June 1, 2022 at 5:48 am

Gary, I’ve read two of Unger’s biographies – one of James Monroe (which was ok, but far from my favorite) and one of John Quincy Adams (which I found good, but was not my favorite of the JQA bunch). I have his biography of Lafayette on my shelf but I haven’t gotten to it yet-

August 16, 2022 at 12:27 am

Hey Steve, I was thinking of picking up a biography solely for entertainment. I know in your criteria you consider historical accuracy and thoroughness amongst other things. Setting aside those, which one of these biographies was most entertaining to read?

August 16, 2022 at 4:31 am

Some of my favorites for entertainment/engagement: Candice Millard’s “The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey”, Ron Chernow’s “Washington: A Life”, David McCullough’s “John Adams” and John Ferling’s “John Adams: A Life”.

February 3, 2023 at 12:18 pm

I loved all of those that Steve recommended (except I haven’t read Ferling yet), but I thought Millard’s book on the Garfield assassination (Destiny of the Republic) was even better than her (great) book on Rooevelt’s trip. I also really enjoyed Chernow’s bio on John D. Rockefeller.

October 1, 2022 at 11:23 am

This is incredible! I heard about you from a recent Presequential episode. I began a quest to read one book about each U.S. president years ago, but became hooked and couldn’t stop once I reached my goal. To help me retain what I’ve read, I started doodling cool things I learned along the way. I need to back and read another about Jefferson because I read his biography pre-doodles. I wasn’t sure which biography to pick until checking out your site. (Perfect timing.) Thank you for the recommendation!

Here’s my bibliography, if you want to take a peek: https://www.potuspages.com/bibliography

October 2, 2022 at 1:59 pm

I love notes / stories like yours! Can’t wait to get your periodic emails and…I love your doodles! Would love to emulate, but the left side of my brain just isn’t quite capable. I’m going to love going through your website in more detail. So much to do & read, and so little time 🙂

January 29, 2023 at 11:37 am

I’m a first-time commenter who has enjoyed spending countless hours on your website over the years. Thank you for the phenomenal content you consistently put out. Your reviews are the perfect length and can always be counted on for an unbiased, thoughtful, and cogent analysis. When I first stumbled on this site, I assumed this was your full-time job. I’m quite amazed to discover this is a side hobby for you!

David McCollough and Ron Chernow were the initial biographers who really hooked me into the genre, and I still find them to be at the top of the list. It’s been a fascinating experience discovering so many new authors that get oh so close to joining the pantheon! Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jean Edward Smith (who I was unaware of until your site’s stellar reviews) are close on the trail! The one really incredible presidential biography that I’m surprised is not on your list yet (although I see it on the “to-read list” and realize you have now expanded to non-presidents) is Fredrik Logevall’s Volume 1 history of JFK. It was instantly catapulted into the top tier for me and I can’t wait for Volume 2. His history of French involvement in Indochina preceding American involvement in Vietnam is also fantastically chronicled in “Embers of War.” I will be eagerly waiting for your review on Logevall’s JFK when you get to it!

You may have addressed it before in various comments sections, but I’m curious your preferred reading method? E-books are the most convenient and cheap, but it’s hard to beat the feel and smell of a physical book. Paperbacks seem the most comfortable and easy to travel with. But there is just something about the aesthetics and look of some nice hardcovers sitting on the bookshelf! Some updated pictures of your library would be interesting to see (although if you’re like many readers on this site, I’m guessing your books are spilling onto floors, closets, and every other spare area of the house 🙂).

Thanks again for all you do! I think I can speak for all the regular followers in saying we look forward to your 2023 road map!

February 3, 2023 at 10:14 am

Thanks so much for your note and for the kind words. This has truly been a labor of love (but mostly love, less so a labor). McCullough hooked me on the genre with his biography of John Adams and Ron Chernow is the ultimate “jedi master” of single-volume presidential biographies in my view – with Robert Caro taking that honor in the “series” category.

I was hoping to get a complete series out of Logevall before too long, but that hasn’t been a wish rapidly fulfilled. And I hate reading a single volume of a multi-volume series only to find myself waiting on the dénouement. But at some point I’ll just break down and read his volume on JFK pre-1956.

On your last question, I am quite high tech in most parts of my life but haven’t wavered when it comes to reading: I need a physical book. I just can’t do e-books. And while I used to prefer the easy ergonomics of a paperback, I’ve migrated to being a huge fan of hardbacks. And yes, if only you could witness some of the conversations I have with my wife regarding the books that are stacked up on the floor, tucked into corners of rooms, etc. And every time another book is delivered she wonders Why!?! do I need another one when there are hundreds waiting to be perused…!

February 4, 2023 at 3:36 pm

Haha – your reply made me (and my wife) lol. We have the exact same conversations regularly. She bought me a Kindle a few years ago in hopes of stemming the never ending tide of Amazon book deliveries. It didn’t work out the way she had hoped… good luck to you with the continual effort of finding space!

Regarding Logevall and waiting for subsequent volumes, I can only imagine the way you feel waiting for Caro’s final volume. 41 years in the making? Talk about dedication. Let’s hope he writes fast and we see Volume 5 in the not too distant future.

March 29, 2023 at 9:40 am

Thank you for your excellent website! I have made it through all the presidents and I have begun reading biographies of other famous or infamous people. Politics aside (if that is even possible), who would everyone say are the most underrated and overrated presidents? For me, most underrated would be Rutherford B Hayes. Most overrated would be Thomas Jefferson. Of course, we all have our biases….

March 29, 2023 at 2:09 pm

Off the top of my head (and yes, I did change the questions somewhat!):

The president who, the better I get to know him, is more and more disappointing: Thomas Jefferson

The president who, if he had not been assassinated, could have been phenomenal: James Garfield

The most duplicitous president I still really like: FDR

The president I still wish had a much better biography: Martin Van Buren

March 29, 2023 at 2:14 pm

Thanks for cleaning that up for me! 😊

March 29, 2023 at 3:03 pm

Great answer (because it so closely aligns with my reading journey)! The one that I’d add is that Chernow’s Grant not only rehabilitated him in my mind; it elevated him to my own list of near-greats!

March 29, 2023 at 4:01 pm

What about McKinley as better than thought of?I thought Merry’s bio excellent. 

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

March 29, 2023 at 3:48 pm

Agree with FDR on the duplicitous category, maybe I would have to throw Wilson into that category as well.

March 30, 2023 at 10:40 pm

Will you research Trump and Biden biographies? What are your standards for measuring objectivity. Can’t wait to hear your reviews/suggestions.

March 31, 2023 at 4:17 am

It will probably be quite some time (…years…) before I attempt to dive into biographies of 45 or 46. For lots of reasons. Trying to ensure I’m reading “objective” biographies of recent presidents (or any, for that matter) is among the harder tasks I find myself engaged in at times.

March 31, 2023 at 7:42 am

That idea of being “objective” is very difficult to impossible. In almost every era (perhaps 50 years or more) a biography comes out that strongly reassesses the president (or other major historical figures, musicians, scientists, writers). Classic examples include biographies of the founders around 1900 such as Henry Cabot Lodge’s basically worshipping the ground George Washington walked upon; and certainly Jefferson (a decline in respect and integrity) and Grant (greatly improving his image) have undergone change in generally accepted public perception. This is also true of more modern revered giants (depending on one’s political view) of Roosevelt and Reagan. Former presidents Nixon and Trump will undoubtedly be among the most difficult to reconcile with a factual and “objective” coverage and it’s unlikely anyone will truly succeed within living memory of said president by a large portion of the population. Very unfortunately, with current restrictive educational imperatives, in many states our children will be taught history that largely ignores many major issues, glossing over or ignoring crucial parts of our history of native Americans, racial history, the fair treatment of labor and women’s history. This does not bode well for our future towards “a more perfect union.”

July 21, 2023 at 11:37 am

This is all incredible. I’m shocked that you didn’t give McCullough’s Truman and John Adams higher rankings. For me, those two books are close to the greatest a biography can be. I do agree with your giving the 5-star rating to Chernow’s book on Washington. It’s a masterpiece. I have a few biographies that you should read in the future relating to presidents. Have you read Unger’s biography of Lafayette? It isn’t incredible, but it’s still worth a read. And Robert Service’s biography of Stalin is a little better than decent, as is Peter Longerich’s biography of Hitler. Anyways, great work! This is really helpful to me on MY personal quest to read one biography for each president. Thanks for the hard work.

July 21, 2023 at 12:19 pm

If I could go back in time, my ratings would be re-curved slightly so there are a more “appropriate” number of 5-star ratings as well as a larger number of ratings well below my median (which is somewhere between 3 1/2 and 4 stars). The biographies you mentioned would definitely benefit from that re-scaling exercise since they are among the very best of what I read 🙂

I recently read Duncan’s biography of Lafayette, but haven’t yet read Unger’s. And I’ve not yet read two biographies of anyone who wasn’t a president. But I’ll have to take a closer look at Unger’s…as well as the Stalin and Hitler bios you mentioned!

Good luck on your own adventure through the presidents – it’s a fabulously interesting journey!

September 3, 2023 at 11:59 am

FYI: new Gerald Ford bio, An Ordinary Man, is available on Amazon for $1.99 (ebook) for a limited amount of time.

December 3, 2023 at 10:49 pm

I am curious if you have read any volumes in Morse’s American Statesmen series? While the books contribute little to the private lives of their subjects, I find the treatment of their political lives by 19th C historians/scholars/ political figures, who lived more contemperaneosly with their subjects, to be fascinating supplements to the more modern biographies. And, thanks so much for your fantastic guidance.

December 4, 2023 at 5:04 am

I have not read any of those volumes. When I was beginning to build a collection of biographies, a few crossed my radar but I found them difficult to obtain (among other challenges / issues).

January 16, 2024 at 6:41 pm

Is there any info as to the status of Robert Caro’s volume 5 of LBJ? Fingers crossed that it’s coming in 2024.

January 17, 2024 at 10:19 am

I feel your pain brother. Unfortunately, from what I’ve read, volume 5 is still likely many years away. For example, he has plans to embed himself in Vietnam (similarly to what he did with the Texas Hill county for the earlier volumes) and that trip has yet to occur.

February 23, 2024 at 9:03 pm

Do you take notes or outline while reading? If so, how/how much? Senior in HS and have not read any types of biographies or political books before. Just got The Bully Pulpit and am curious how you would do that.

February 25, 2024 at 5:24 pm

I began taking note (on my laptop) very early in my journey. But I tend to focus on clever quotes and quips or unusual facts I hadn’t read before. I don’t normally try to take the kinds of notes I might have kept as a high school or college student since I’m not planning on writing a dissertation with end notes 🙂 but I’ve uncovered enough clever writing to know a great quote when I see one, and now I’ve got a collection of ~3,000 pages worth of the best writing I’ve encountered.

February 26, 2024 at 10:54 am

I find the practice of taking notes while reading enhances my retention. My usual protocol is as follows- I first note the structure of the book- how many chapters, how organized – e.g., chronological, topical. Some authors (like Doris Kearns Goodwin – I happen to be reading Bully Pulpit now) start and end each chapter with a nice overview of what will be / has been covered in that chapter, so I usually read those sections first. Then I jot down my own impressions. All in a brief personal shorthand. Will also note pages where there is an especially memorable passage or quote. With biography and history I find there is always a rather startling similarity between past times and the present moment with respect to attitudes/prejudices/reactions to social phenomena.

March 30, 2024 at 3:52 pm

Since I have retired, I have started a quest to read biographies of all the presidents in order.

I just finished Cleveland.

This site has been invaluable in helping me select the books to read.

I just want top say thank you as I appreciate all that you have done to make this site the excellent resource that it is.

March 31, 2024 at 6:21 am

Congrats on your journey through the presidents. Now that you’ve made to & past Cleveland, you are essentially on the downhill stretch (at least in my own experience). Enjoy the rest of the journey and please drop another note as you approach the finish line (though it’s an ever-moving target)!

April 3, 2024 at 5:29 am

Just coming across this now while researching what biography of James Madison is best. I am a student from the Netherlands who just signed up for a Masters in North America Studies. This website has already been a great resource and I am sure I will come back to it regularly (certainly for pleasure, perhaps for studies as well).

Thank you very much for your contributions here!

June 29, 2024 at 12:12 pm

I very much enjoy your reviews and try to check them out whenever I’m going to read a presidential biography. I’m something of a Lincolnian and have read a lot about him. I’ve notice that you do not review or reference J.G. Randall’s 4 volume “Lincoln: The President”. Is it because it was written rather long ago (the 1940s and 50s), or that many of his views on the War and the times have become passe, or because you just haven’t gotten to it? Just wondering as I would be interested to hear your views on it.

Thank you again for all your work!

June 29, 2024 at 12:31 pm

I’ve never gone very far with this series simply because I haven’t managed to collect the four volumes, it isn’t widely read, and it’s not comprehensive (since I believe it focuses almost exclusively on his presidency). If you have read it I would love to heard what you think as I’m always open to going deeper into presidents I consider particularly interesting (and Lincoln would certainly be on that list!)

August 6, 2024 at 9:48 am

Greetings from Melbourne Australia!

As mentioned previously under a different Email, I am very late to the Party on American Presidents. I don’t recall any American History being taught when I completed my schooling in the late 60’s. I came to your great website after listening on Audible to Winifred Gallagher’s wonderful book ” How the Post Office created America”

Still creating and basically populating my Google Spreadsheets for all the Presidents based on your listings to date. For some unknown reason I am also running a parallel set of spiral note pads, and manually listing my preferred purchases based on your commentary and also my own investigations.

I have found listening to numerous Podcasts has assisted greatly in my mission to have a basic understanding of American History from mid 1700’s to the present day, and also Presidents.

Just a quick mention, in your Jimmy Carter section your review of Kai Birds book from 2021 does not appear, it comes up as Stuart Eizenstat’s review.

Thanks again for a brilliant catalogue of information on Presidents.

August 6, 2024 at 1:58 pm

Warren, thank you for your note and the background on your own survey of the US presidents. I’d love to know what podcasts you would recommend on US history…and thanks for pointing out the glitch in the master list(!) All the best, Steve

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Franklin Roosevelt’s Story Is Worth Telling Again and Again

By David Nasaw

• Dec. 8, 2017
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FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT A Political Life By Robert Dallek 679 pp. Viking. $40

Americans have been avid readers of presidential biographies since the birth of the nation. The first was written by Mason Weems, a traveling bookseller and preacher, and published in 1800, three years after George Washington left office. It was an immediate best seller. In the years to come, another 1,900 Washington biographies would be published. Since 1960, the number of presidential biographies has mushroomed: more than 2,200 of Abraham Lincoln, almost 1,200 of John F. Kennedy, 800 of Franklin Delano Roosevelt .

Of them all, it is perhaps Roosevelt who has been best served by his biographers, though the task of telling his life story has never been an easy one. He occupied office too long, accomplished too much, failed too often and was confronted by not only the greatest domestic crisis since the Civil War, but also the greatest foreign crisis since the Revolution.

Born to wealth, with a cousin in the White House while he was at Harvard, Roosevelt was a natural politician: physically attractive, intellectually quick and witty, with a fine speaking voice, upright posture, charisma and charm. At 28, he was elected to the New York State Senate; at 31, appointed assistant secretary of the Navy; at 38, nominated by the Democratic Party for the vice presidency. A year later, having contracted polio, he lost the use of his legs, forever. He could not hide his disability, but he could and did shield its severity and effects from the public and, perhaps, from himself. He was elected governor of New York in 1928, re-elected in 1930. He would win election to the presidency in 1932 and re-election in 1936, 1940 and 1944.

Such are the outlines of the public life. But what of the private? His marriage was a disaster. In September 1918, Eleanor, unpacking his luggage after a trip abroad, discovered love letters from Lucy Mercer , her social secretary. She offered Franklin a divorce, but did not demand one. The two would remain together — as political partners, but not as husband and wife. There would be several other women in his life, including Daisy Suckley , his cousin, closest companion and confidante during his years as president. At her death in 1991, at age 99, a trove of personal diaries and letters from Franklin were found under her bed. Until these materials were made available to researchers, the portrait that Roosevelt had cultivated during his life, one largely accepted by his biographers, was of a man gilded with optimism, unflappable, self-composed, self-confident. His letters to Daisy — and her diary entries — portray someone quite different: a man tired and weary, disheartened by the virulence of his critics, dismayed by the enormousness of the challenges he faced, unsure of his capacities to bear the burdens of office.

How to make sense of this life? How does one connect the dots, find the through-line, locate the man beneath the carefully constructed public persona? Several of his greatest biographers set out to tell the full story, but were nearly overcome by the immensity of the task. Frank Freidel completed five volumes, taking the story up to 1933. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. finished three volumes, but only got as far as the 1936 re-election. James MacGregor Burns completed the first of his volumes in 1956, but it took him until 1970 to publish the second. Kenneth Davis died in 1999 with four of his five volumes in print; the last would be published in 2000.

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FDR Biography

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The Early Years

Franklin D. Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York on January 30, 1882. He was the son of James Roosevelt and Sara Delano Roosevelt. His parents and private tutors provided him with almost all his formative education. He attended Groton (1896-1900), a prestigious preparatory school in Massachusetts, and received a BA degree in history from Harvard in only three years (1900-03). Roosevelt next studied law at New York's Columbia University. When he passed the bar examination in 1907, he left school without taking a degree. For the next three years he practiced law with a prominent New York City law firm. He entered politics in 1910 and was elected to the New York State Senate as a Democrat from his traditionally Republican home district.

In the meantime, in 1905, he had married a distant cousin, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, who was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt. The couple had six children, five of whom survived infancy: Anna (1906), James (1907), Elliott (1910), Franklin, Jr. (1914) and John (1916).

Roosevelt was reelected to the State Senate in 1912, and supported Woodrow Wilson's candidacy at the Democratic National Convention. As a reward for his support, Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913, a position he held until 1920. He was an energetic and efficient administrator, specializing in the business side of naval administration. This experience prepared him for his future role as Commander-in-Chief during World War II. Roosevelt's popularity and success in naval affairs resulted in his being nominated for vice-president by the Democratic Party in 1920 on a ticket headed by James M. Cox of Ohio. However, popular sentiment against Wilson's plan for US participation in the League of Nations propelled Republican Warren Harding into the presidency, and Roosevelt returned to private life.

While vacationing at Campobello Island, New Brunswick in the summer of 1921, Roosevelt contracted poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis). Despite courageous efforts to overcome his crippling illness, he never regained the use of his legs. In time, he established a foundation at Warm Springs, Georgia to help other polio victims, and inspired, as well as directed, the March of Dimes program that eventually funded an effective vaccine.

With the encouragement and help of his wife, Eleanor, and political confidant, Louis Howe, Roosevelt resumed his political career. In 1924 he nominated Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York for president at the Democratic National Convention, but Smith lost the nomination to John W. Davis. In 1928 Smith became the Democratic candidate for president and arranged for Roosevelt's nomination to succeed him as governor of New York. Smith lost the election to Herbert Hoover; but Roosevelt was elected governor.

Following his reelection as governor in 1930, Roosevelt began to campaign for the presidency. While the economic depression damaged Hoover and the Republicans, Roosevelt's bold efforts to combat it in New York enhanced his reputation. In Chicago in 1932, Roosevelt won the nomination as the Democratic Party candidate for president. He broke with tradition and flew to Chicago to accept the nomination in person. He then campaigned energetically calling for government intervention in the economy to provide relief, recovery, and reform. His activist approach and personal charm helped to defeat Hoover in November 1932 by seven million votes.

The Great Depression 

The Depression worsened in the months preceding Roosevelt's inauguration, March 4, 1933. Factory closings, farm foreclosures, and bank failures increased, while unemployment soared. Roosevelt faced the greatest crisis in American history since the Civil War. He undertook immediate actions to initiate his New Deal programs. To halt depositor panics, he closed the banks temporarily. Then he worked with a special session of Congress during the first "100 days" to pass recovery legislation which set up alphabet agencies such as the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration) to support farm prices and the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) to employ young men. Other agencies assisted business and labor, insured bank deposits, regulated the stock market, subsidized home and farm mortgage payments, and aided the unemployed. These measures revived confidence in the economy. Banks reopened and direct relief saved millions from starvation. But the New Deal measures also involved government directly in areas of social and economic life as never before and resulted in greatly increased spending and unbalanced budgets which led to criticisms of Roosevelt's programs. However, the nation-at-large supported Roosevelt, and elected additional Democrats to state legislatures and governorships in the mid-term elections.

Another flurry of New Deal legislation followed in 1935 including the establishment of the Works Projects Administration (WPA) which provided jobs not only for laborers but also artists, writers, musicians, and authors, and the Social Security act which provided unemployment compensation and a program of old-age and survivors' benefits.

Roosevelt easily defeated Alfred M. Landon in 1936 and went on to defeat by lesser margins, Wendell Willkie in 1940 and Thomas E. Dewey in 1944. He thus became the only American president to serve more than two terms.

After his overwhelming victory in 1936, Roosevelt took on the critics of the New Deal, namely, the Supreme Court, which had declared various legislation unconstitutional, and members of his own party. In 1937 he proposed to add new justices to the Supreme Court, but critics said he was "packing" the Court and undermining the separation of powers. His proposal was defeated, but the Court began to decide in favor of New Deal legislation. During the 1938 election he campaigned against many Democratic opponents, but this backfired when most were reelected to Congress. These setbacks, coupled with the recession that occurred midway through his second term, represented the low-point in Roosevelt's presidential career.

World War II

By 1939, with the outbreak of war in Europe, Roosevelt was concentrating increasingly on foreign affairs. New Deal reform legislation diminished, and the ills of the Depression would not fully abate until the nation mobilized for war.

When Hitler attacked Poland in September 1939, Roosevelt stated that, although the nation was neutral, he did not expect America to remain inactive in the face of Nazi aggression. Accordingly, he tried to make American aid available to Britain, France, and China and to obtain an amendment of the Neutrality Acts which rendered such assistance difficult. He also took measures to build up the armed forces in the face of isolationist opposition.

With the fall of France in 1940, the American mood and Roosevelt's policy changed dramatically. Congress enacted a draft for military service and Roosevelt signed a "lend-lease" bill in March 1941 to enable the nation to furnish aid to nations at war with Germany and Italy. America, though a neutral in the war and still at peace, was becoming the "arsenal of democracy", as its factories began producing as they had in the years before the Depression.

The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, followed four days later by Germany's and Italy's declarations of war against the United States, brought the nation irrevocably into the war. Roosevelt exercised his powers as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, a role he actively carried out. He worked with and through his military advisers, overriding them when necessary, and took an active role in choosing the principal field commanders and in making decisions regarding wartime strategy.

He moved to create a "grand alliance" against the Axis powers through "The Declaration of the United Nations," January 1, 1942, in which all nations fighting the Axis agreed not to make a separate peace and pledged themselves to a peacekeeping organization (now the United Nations) upon victory.

He gave priority to the western European front and had General George Marshall, Chief of Staff, plan a holding operation in the Pacific and organize an expeditionary force for an invasion of Europe. The United States and its allies invaded North Africa in November 1942 and Sicily and Italy in 1943. The D-Day landings on the Normandy beaches in France, June 6, 1944, were followed by the allied invasion of Germany six months later. By April 1945 victory in Europe was certain.

The unending stress and strain of the war literally wore Roosevelt out. By early 1944 a full medical examination disclosed serious heart and circulatory problems; and although his physicians placed him on a strict regime of diet and medication, the pressures of war and domestic politics weighed heavily on him. During a vacation at Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12, 1945, he suffered a massive stroke and died two and one-half hours later without regaining consciousness. He was 63 years old. His death came on the eve of complete military victory in Europe and within months of victory over Japan in the Pacific. President Roosevelt was buried in the Rose Garden of his estate at Hyde Park, New York.                

Franklin D. Roosevelt Fast Facts: 

BORN: January 30, 1882 in Hyde Park, New York

PARENTS: Sara Delano and, James Roosevelt His father died when he was 18. His mother died when he was 59. BROTHER: A half brother named James Roosevelt Roosevelt, (1854-1927)

EDUCATION: Tutored at home until 1896 Groton School, Groton, Massachusetts (1896-1900) Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1900-1903) Received a B.A. in History Columbia Law School, New York City (1903-1905) Course work towards a degree in law, but no degree earned

MARRIED: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (fifth cousin once removed), March 17, 1905 in New York City.

CHILDREN: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (May 3, 1906 - December 1, 1975); James Roosevelt (December 23, 1907 - August 13, 1990); Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (March 18, 1909 - November 8, 1909); Elliott Roosevelt (September 23, 1910 - October 27, 1990); Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (August 17, 1914 - August 17, 1988); John Roosevelt (March 13, 1916 - April 27, 1981)

ACTIVITIES: New York State Senator Assistant Secretary of the Navy Nominated for Vice President on ticket with James Cox Founded the Warm Springs Georgia Foundation Two term Governor of the State of New York Four term President of the United States, guiding the nation through the Great Depression and World War II

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: Brown hair, 6 feet 2 inches tall, blue -grey eyes

DIED: April 12, 1945 in Warm Springs Georgia-cause of death listed cerebral hemorrhage.

Chronology of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Career

1882 Born in Hyde Park, NY on January 30

1896-1900 FDR attends Groton, a private preparatory school in Massachusetts

1900-1903 FDR attends Harvard, receiving a BA in history

1905 Married Eleanor Roosevelt, a fifth cousin once removed, in NYC on March 17 Enters Columbia Law School

1907 FDR passes the bar examination and leaves Columbia without completing a degree

1910 FDR elected to the New York State Senate

1912 FDR was re-elected to the New York State Senate

1913 FDR was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President Woodrow Wilson

1920 Ran as Vice-President on the Democratic ticket along with James Cox of Ohio. Lost the election to Warren Harding and returned to private life.

1921 FDR is stricken with polio while vacationing at Campobello Island, New Brunswick.

1924 FDR returns to politics by nominating Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York for president at the Democratic National Convention.

1928 FDR elected governor of New York State

1930 FDR re-elected governor of New York State. Begins his campaign for the presidency.

1932 FDR is nominated as the Democratic Party candidate for president and defeats Hoover in November by seven million votes.

The New Deal Presidency

1933 FDR takes the oath of office on March 4 During his first "100 Days," he is able to get a large number of Legislative Initiatives through Congress which set up the alphabet agencies such as the Agricultural Adjustment Administration & Civilian Conservation Corps aimed at bringing about economic relief recovery & reform.

1935 Additional New Deal legislation is passed including the Works Progress Administration and Social Security

1936 FDR was re-elected president to a second term

1937 FDR proposes to add justices to the Supreme Court, in an ill fated court "packing" plan

1939 Germany invades Poland there by starting WWII. While the U.S. remains neutral, FDR does try to make American aid available to the Allied powers

1940 FDR is re-elected for an unprecedented third term

1941 In March, FDR signs the Lend-Lease bill to aid nations at war with Germany & Italy On December 7, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor bringing the United States into the war. The next day FDR delivers his "day of infamy" speech before Congress and asks for a formal declaration of war against Germany.

1942 FDR moves to create a "grand alliance" of Allied powers through "the Declaration of the United Nations"

1944 FDR is re-elected president for a fourth term

1945 On April 12, FDR passes away at Warm Springs, Georgia. He is buried in the Rose Garden of his estate at Hyde Park, New York.                

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FDR: The Greatest President Ever?

Humans have a habit of ranking things. If there is more than one of something, we want to know, which was best? When it comes to Presidential history, it’s no different. Which president was the best? It’s a very hard question to answer, because it depends on so many things. For one, it depends on the politics of the person answering the question. Was George Washington best because he was first? Was Abraham Lincoln best because of his efforts to win the Civil War and keep the Union together?

The truth is there is no answer that would make everyone happy and agreeable. However there is a big argument to be made for Franklin Roosevelt. FDR had a tough job. He took up office in the midst of the greatest economic depression the country had ever seen, where unemployment was ranging around 20-27 percent and the banks were going out of business left and right. On top of all that, another World War was brewing thanks to Germany and their allies.

To gain a better idea of what FDR faced, let’s look at the United States at that time.

• Unemployment was anywhere from 20 to 27 percent depending on what source you use. The problem is that the federal government didn’t even start collecting unemployment data until the mid 1940s.
• By March 1933 when FDR took office, nearly half of the nation’s banks had failed.
• The United States Treasury did not have enough money on hand to pay federal workers.
• The stock market was a mess, and had been since the crash of 1929. Nobody was investing in anything by the time FDR took office in 1933.
• Outside the US, war was already brewing, and would soon kick off. While the war wouldn’t really begin until 1939, tensions in Europe and the Pacific were already high. Since the first World War, the US had vacillated between isolationism and being the world’s policemen. FDR would support staunch isolationism until Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941.

By the time Roosevelt took office in 1933, the Depression had been going strong for four years. People had little hope of it ending quickly, which led to the landslide victory for Roosevelt in his first election (472 to 59 in the Electoral College). The Republicans had held the presidency and both houses of Congress before the election of 1932. They lost all three.

That isn’t to say that the Hoover administration did nothing. In fact, Herbert Hoover accomplished a lot, it just wasn’t enough. The one thing FDR did that Hoover didn’t do was push program after program into the economy. The “New Deal” as he called it created enough investment in the economy to stop the landslide that had been going on since 1929.

What it comes down to, in reality, is regulation. Without getting too far into the economics of it all, one of the biggest causes is that there was little in the way of financial regulation for the stock market and the banking system. So when the Stock Market crashed in 1929, and the banks started to fail, there was wide spread panic, which kept escalating and far outpaced anything the Hoover administration did to stop the hemorrhaging.

When FDR took office, he immediately took action. He created what was the first of many “bank holidays” where all banks would shut down. He then started proposing regulations and programs that were meant to do two things: create jobs and regulate the financial system.

• Civilian Conservation Corps aimed at giving jobs to young men. These jobs were focused on conservation and development of natural resources.
• Public Works Administration was started to create jobs for government projects.
• Works Progress Administration was the big one. It employed millions to work on public projects like roads and bridges.
• The Emergency Banking Relief Act and Glass Steagall Act, both aimed at creating stability in the banking system. Glass Steagall created the FDIC.
• The Securities and Exchange Commission was created to oversee the stock market, and create regulations to keep it from crashing once more.
• The Social Security Administration created the first true long term entitlement, aimed at helping senior citizens.

There were many, many more of course, but you get the idea. Most of these were either in the first 100 days of FDR’s first term or within the first three years.

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What we remember about FDR, however, are the true successes of the New Deal. Social Security and the FDIC are both still around today and have become things we take for granted.

By the time he died in office in 1945, unemployment was down to just two percent, which is almost unbelievable.

But there were failures and a lot to point out if you are arguing against placing Roosevelt as the best president ever. His isolationist policies could be argued to be the reason why World War II lasted so long. He proposed dozens of programs that either didn’t pass Congress or failed to be implemented properly. He took amazing amounts of power from the states and brought it to the federal government.

He was also not immediately successful. While unemployment did start going down after the New Deal, the Great Depression was far from over. In 1936, FDR attempted to stop the massive federal spending he was known for and unemployment started to rise one again. It wasn’t until he implemented the second New Deal that it started to fall once again.

He was also frustrated time and time again by the Supreme Court, which nixed many of his projects as unconstitutional. To solve this FDR tried to pack the court by adding six new justices, taking it from 9 to 15. This failed spectacularly.

So what do we have in the end? In reality it’s a mixed bag and can be argued either way. FDR was a great president, who had a ton of ideas when the United States need them most. A lot of those ideas are still around today. However, he is also likely the reason why the federal government is now so large. It is also probable that without World War II brewing in the background, many of the US’s economic problems wouldn’t have been solved so quickly. FDR was able to create a lot of jobs supporting the war effort even before the United States joined the fighting in 1941.

So what do you think? Was FDR the greatest ever? Let us know in comments!

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What is a good book to learn about to ups and downs of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency? I’m a history major very interested in 20th century America, particularly WW2 and the Gilded Age. I understand that Roosevelt was a very polarizing figure based on ideals of the time, but I’m wanting to find an unbiased view of him.

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The Worst Thing FDR Ever Did As President

Despite his legacy for legislating the New Deal that enabled America's prosperity post the Second World War, Franklin Delano Roosevelt also signed the order that allowed for the internment of Japanese Americans, as well as German and Italian Americans, during the war.

It was February 19, 1942, three months after Pearl Harbor and the US received the pretense it needed to deprive itself of its neutrality. On that day, Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066 , which "[authorized and directed] the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders... to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions." Using this order, the US army labeled very certain areas in the Western States as exclusion zones, leaving about 112,000 Japanese Americans unhoused.

It is worth noting that a small number of German Americans and Italian Americans also experienced curfews and internment. However, the relative restraint with which the government approached these populations — put together they would only reach about 10% of Japanese Americans interned — means that pushing too heavily would lead to a false equivalency. Additionally, the fact that, as Calisphere notes, Japanese Americans in Hawaii were not interned in large groups like their West Coast counterparts indicates that the military's targeting was more racist than pragmatic.

Liberty deferred

One person who remembers his time during World War II is George Takei . Speaking with Democracy Now , George Takei recollects how as a five-year-old his parents told him that the family was going on a vacation. His arrival at Rohwer, Arkansas revealed the barbed wire and sentry towers of the camp they would spend the next few years. However, his experience, though retrospectively awful, was not too terrible at the time: "[Children] are amazingly adaptable. And so, the barb wire fence became no more intimidating than a chain link fence around a school playground... And at school, we began every school day with the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. I could see the barb wire fence and the sentry towers right outside my schoolhouse window as I recited the words 'with liberty and justice for all,' an innocent child unaware of the irony."

Rather, it was the return to California that proved difficult. In 1944, when the swing of the war went to the Allies, the US government released its confined peoples only for them to face the racism that interred them in the first place.

It was only in 1976 that the Japanese American community received an apology from the American government when Gerald Ford repealed the Executive Order. Later in 1988, the government passed the Civil Liberties Act, raising $20,000 for each Japanese American who had suffered internment ( Encyclopedia Britannica ). Still, the racism and war hysteria that fueled FDR's decision-making remains a stain on his legacy.