Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom

Rating:
Summary: The Definitive Biography of FDR
Review: Literally hundreds of books have been written about Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Yet he remains, to much of the general public and to historians, a Sphinx. What different light could possibly be shed on this man, the most revered--and hated--American of the 20th Century?

Conrad Black, a highly successful Canadian businessman, offers many unique insights. In doing so, he brushes away the legends, distortions, and outright lies that have accumulated over the decades, and shows us an FDR scrubbed clean of both hagiography and historical revisionist muckraking. The author has rightly chosen to concentrate on FDR's 12 years as President, so Black's description of FDR's life before the presidency takes up less than 30% of the book.

It is Black's contention that FDR was not merely the 20th Century's greatest American President, but the most important person of the 20th Century--period. He bases this on seven key accomplishments:

1) FDR was, alongside Churchill, the co-savior of Western Civilization during its darkest hour.

2) FDR ended American isolation and permanently engaged America in Europe and the Far East. Roosevelt, an anti-colonialist since his school days, predicted the crack-up of the British Empire. Decades before the fact, he foresaw China's emergence as a major power, and the Middle East as a potential source of trouble.

3) Roosevelt reinvented the Federal Government's relationship to the people, reviving the economy and rescuing capitalism without resorting to the Fascistic and Socialistic extremes of other countries. Despite the contentions in the recently published "FDR's Folly," Roosevelt did indeed revive the domestic economy, reducing unemployment from over 30% in 1933 to about 7% by 1939. On top of the economic improvements, FDR's "workfare" programs resulted in the creation of an infrastructure in use to this day: The Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Hoover Dam, the Tennessee Valley Authority--which brought electricity to millions of rural citizens, and countless smaller projects.

4) FDR was an almost uniformly successful war leader, moreso than Washington, Madison, Lincoln, or Wilson. He chose the right people to carry out his war aims--Marshall, Nimitz, MacArthur, and Eisenhower--and the few times he overrode their objections (insisting on giving the defeat of Germany top priority and authorizing Doolittle's raid on Tokyo) the results were favorable for the Allies. Despite the disaster at Pearl Harbor (for which Black rightly lays blame at the local commanders' feet) the Americans prosecuted World War II with remarkably few defeats. Under FDR, America produced unimaginable amounts of war material which sped victory on all fronts, all while America endured the least number of war casualties among Allied nations.

5) Shattering the Yalta Myth, Black contends and convinces that Roosevelt created the circumstances which allowed his predecessors--from Truman through Clinton--to complete the Wilsonian objective and make the world truly safe for democracy. Indeed, Europe as it exists today is very much as Roosevelt envisioned it. Sadly, if Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson had studied his views on the Far East, the Vietnam war would have likely been avoided. The use of the United Nations to prosecute the First Gulf War and to harmlessly vent tensions between nations--as in the Cuban Missile Crisis--was again as FDR intended. But Black also points out that Roosevelt would be appalled at how the UN has degenerated in the last decade into a platform for America bashing.

6) FDR was unmatched in his sheer political brilliance and mastery of the varied moods of the American electorate. He knew when to push forward, when to pull back, and when to slacken the reigns of power. His clairvoyance extended to the politics of other nations, and had Churchill followed his political advice, the Prime Minister likely would not have been dumped by the British electorate mere weeks after victory over Germany.

7) Not least, by his triumph over Polio (although recently a theory has surfaced that he actually may have been stricken with Guillian-Barre) Franklin Roosevelt was then, and remains today, a symbol of inspiration for all those faced with seemingly insurmountable odds.

FDR's many character flaws, his deceitfulness, his inability to emotionally bond with those closest to him, and reckless stupidity in the Lucy Mercer affair are laid out for all to see. Black also rightly castigates FDR's political mistakes, such as the internment of Japanese-Americans, the ludicrous plan to "pack" the Supreme Court, and the appointment of Joseph P. Kennedy as Ambassador to Britain. (Nor does Eleanor escape Black's unsparing judgment. Though her causes were worthy, she was suckered by some outlandish groups {such as the American Youth Congress, which was a Communist front} left much to be desired as a wife, hectored her husband constantly, and they were both lousy parents.)

Yet, when push came to shove, FDR could level with the American people as no other President except Truman, grimly telling them of Allied defeats and bucking them up to soldier on to victory. When he set astronomical goals for war production (60,000 planes in 1942, 125,000 planes in 1943, etc.), his numbers were criticized on the domestic front as unattainable and arrogantly sloughed off by Hitler. What neither his domestic nor foreign enemies appreciated was FDR's absolute faith in the American people.

It has the stuff of myth: A disabled man who lifted a prostrate nation to its feet--not once, but twice. A relatively young, vigorous (despite his paralyzed legs) President who transferred his energy and optimism to a defeated, bankrupt country with a military the size of Sweden's--who became exhausted after twelve years of leadership, but with the country restored and greatly enhanced, with a military second to none, ready to take leadership of the world.

Conrad Black shows the man behind the façade, shatters two libelous myths that Roosevelt haters have been bandying for decades, and brings the era to life. Recently, some controversy has surrounded the author's business dealings, but they have no bearing on the value of this book. Champion of Freedom is thorough without being ponderous, opinionated without losing objectivity, and eminently readable (though the book itself is a bit heavy). This is the definitive biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and deserves to be read by everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom
Review: Newspaper tycoon Black praises former President Roosevelt for having the clearest strategic vision of the major world leaders during World War II and for using "political legerdemain" in using war to end the Great Depression and save democratic capitalism. FDR emerges in these pages, primarily devoted to his four terms in the White House, as the consummate skilled politician and among the U.S.'s greatest presidents. He also gives Roosevelt credit for having laid the groundwork for the Cold War and enabling his successors to "liberate Eastern Europe."

Rating:
Summary: A Tory Praises FDR!
Review: Once upon a time the meaning of the term "conservative" meant something very different from the meaning we have today.

Conrad Black is Canadian and very rich - and not a "liberal".
On an impulse, I bought this book as a Christmas present to myself. It is very long- but a page turner.

Black provides many anecdotes-some of it gossip. Some of it unflattering about the greatest president of the US in modern times. The book might have been even better with some careful
editing- but I have found it fascinating.

It is paradoxical that this conservative - who is not a US Citizen- would tell the story of the man who saved capitalism from itself. The man who reacahed out to Churchill and assured the defeat of Nazi Germany.

It is a very worth while book. If only those who claim to be "conservative" might read this book-- and reflect on it.

Rating:
Summary: Superlative, regardless of your political leanings.
Review: Superlative. This is simply the best biography of FDR I've ever read. It is delightfully devoid of partisanship and provides a portrait of Roosevelt as literally the 20th Century's "Champion Of Freedom."
Black has done a thorough job of research, uncovering a dazzling area of references that go far in describing Roosevelt as a man and as a politician.
Not all is unstinting praise: the man's foibles and failures are described in detail, but not in shrill partisan tones. It's really marvelous in this era of revisionist and untruthful people claiming to be "historians," to find a writer who approaches his subject honestly.
It's slow, but exceptionally rewarding reading. I've never been a great fan of the New Deal and what it did to the concept of federal government, but Black's biography has left me with a far more favorable appreciation of Roosevelt.

Jerry

Rating:
Summary: An Only-American Life
Review: The author of this book has ensured that this book is ideal for the American market. Lord Black deals with Roosevelts electoral success with the support that he deserves and gives credit to the lesser figures of the administration that should be given their five minuates of fame.

Where Lord Black goes off-course is in the area of foreign relations. Hitler was not resposible for the Reichstag fire (as is now common consensus among historians, Reinhard Heydrich did not spell his name Heidrich and the Soviet ambassador to Britain was Ivan Maisky, not Adam Maisky. Silly little mistakes like these make Conrad Black seem sloppy to the European reader well informed on the Second-World-War.

The earlier chapters were well-researched and provided much new information but the latter chapters seemed to be given over to the authors preconcieved ideas of the waging of the war.



Rating:
Summary: Definite Story of a Great Life!
Review: The presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was momentous and yet it continues to be shrouded in myth. The same is true of Roosevelt the man. Who was this patrician only child of an indulgent mother, paralyzed by polio in his thirties, who ultimately came to be one of the three greatest presidents in American history and one of the greatest Americans of all time?

Conrad Black's enormous one volume biography attempts to answer this question in a new way. To summarize Black's view of Roosevelt's character, FDR was cunning, manipulative, callous, vindictive, sometimes cruel and always inscrutable. Indeed, in Black's view he bore some of the traits associated with the enemies of freedom, Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. But to Black, these traits of character were always applied to benign ends and a personality like Roosevelt's was vitally necessary to carry out the tasks the times demanded. Although he is a staunch conservative, Black acknowledges Roosevelt's greatness without hesitation.

The first few hundred pages or so runs through the narrative of Roosevelt's life, including his over-indulgent childhood as the son of wealth and privilege in Hyde Park, New York. Black moves through these early years quickly. In comparison to other biographers, he does not give all that much credence to Roosevelt's early life as providing much insight into the development of his character. The seminal moment of FDR's first forty years was of course the attack of Polio, which left him with withered legs, unable to walk or even stand without heavy leg braces. The traditional narrative of Roosevelt's life holds that the crucible of the battle with serious illness represented a turning point from lighthearted unserious young man, to serious man of gravitas. Black rejects this view, instead arguing that Roosevelt always had the characteristics of stubbornness and determination and it is these traits that enabled him to overcome a disease and a disability that might have ruined his life but did not. The polio did not fundamentally change him.

After a reasonably small section on Roosevelt's political career in New York and his rivalry with fellow Democrat, Al Smith, Black begins his discussion on Roosevelt's presidency. This discussion proceeds in chronological order and has a fairly detailed narrative of all the major and minor events in FDR's presidency, as well as profiles of all the major figures around Roosevelt. These include his original political ax man, Louis Howe, who died early on in Roosevelt's first term and Harry Hopkins, a social worker by training who ran several of the New Deal's important projects and later became the President's closest confidante during the Second World War. Black accepts the conventional wisdom that the New Deal did not "cure" the Depression. But in his view, this is beside the point. The major intervention of the Federal government into the engine of the private sector economy was absolutely vital as a means of restoring confidence to the free-enterprise system. Roosevelt instinctively grasped this and so acted, as Black demonstrates, boldly and without any real ideology except a willingness to try anything and everything. This is the vital role Roosevelt played in his first six years as president. Without his actions, it is doubtful the American liberal system would have survived in its present form. The alternatives of leftist socialism/communism and right-wing fascism loomed large and appeared attractive to millions of people in 1933.

The largest part of the book is reserved for a discussion of Roosevelt's final seven years, when he maneuvered the United States from its traditional isolationism, into an active alliance with Great Britain and eventually in to the war itself. It is here that Black shines the most as he acknowledges the greatness of Roosevelt's leadership. As Black shows, FDR always stayed just ahead of American public opinion while constantly advancing and then tactically retreating from his vision of foreign policy, namely the robust defense of Western style liberalism and fierce opposition to fascism and Nazism. At a time when few in the United States acknowledged any American interest in the turmoil of Europe, Roosevelt knew the menace Hitler posed. Indeed, Black argues that Roosevelt always saw Germany as the graver threat and may have actually underestimated the threat from Japan. Nevertheless, FDR's policy towards Japan made an attack inevitable. And his open venomous hostility towards Nazi Germany, prior to Pearl Harbor, was designed to goad Hitler into declaring war on the United States. It worked like a charm and Roosevelt had a united country willing and able to do whatever it took to destroy the Nazi and Japanese menace.

In the final section, Black punctures the myth that Roosevelt's deteriorating condition made him an easy mark for Stalin at Yalta. To the contrary, almost to the end, a tired and sick but commanding Roosevelt, used his Machiavellian skills to secure the post war settlement he favored. He definitely harbored no illusions about Stalin's duplicity. On his death on April 12 1945, the German war was weeks from its ending and American forces were preparing to land on Okinawa. Although' like Moses, FDR was not destined to see the promised land, his leadership ensured that it was reached. America's emergence as a global superpower and robust receptacle of free enterprise is a tribute to his greatness. The man was not without flaws, some considerable and in this enormous work, Black does not scrimp on detailing them. But these flaws of character simply formed part of a whole that proved greater than the sum of its parts. The only conclusion a fair minded person can reach is that the United States, always a lucky nation, was fortunate to have such a great president at such a crucial time.

Rating:
Summary: A Poorly Reasoned Whitewash of Yalta
Review: This book appears scholarly from its detail and extensive bibliography. A close examination, however, reveals the superficiality and ignorance of Conrad Black, the author. In arguing for the inevitability of Soviet rule as a foregone outcome of Red Army presence, Black, for one thing, completely ignores the magnitude of Soviet dependence on western Lend-Lease aid. Had it been dispensed judiciously, Stalin would have been forced to respect the sovereignty of eastern European nations (and not just Austria).

More important, and as if to exonerate Roosevelt at all costs, Black incorrectly states that Soviet intentions towards Poland were not obvious until about December 1944 (p. 1029). In actuality, Stalin had already shown, not long after June 1941, that he would take whatever he was allowed to get away with. Almost simultaneously, Stalin was treated to the lack of seriousness of both Churchill and later Roosevelt in the fulfilling of their treaty obligations to Poland, their ever faithful ally. For instance, at no time was Stalin seriously pressured to account for thousands of missing Polish officer POWs (later found murdered as part of the infamous Spring 1940 Katyn Massacre). In fact, Stalin, no less at his weakest position soon after the Nazi German attack, was not even called for transparent mendacity about their fate ('They must have all escaped to China').

Thus Stalin became progressively emboldened as one act of unilateral appeasement by Churchill and Roosevelt, at Poland's expense, followed another. By the time the Red Army did re-enter Poland, there was not much left to give away. Occupying Poland and violating the farcical Yalta agreement itself were, for Stalin, just icing on the cake, and not the cake itself. All along, protests and warnings from Polish politicians fell on deaf ears. In addition, their public comments soon became muzzled, at Stalin's suggestion, in the interests of 'Allied unity'. Meanwhile, left-wing presses in the west remained free in their attempts to sway public opinion by means of increasingly venomous slander directed against the Polish government in exile ('reactionary wealthy landowners', 'closet fascists', etc.).

Black would have his readers believe that the Soviet Union had earned its hegemony over eastern Europe by virtue of the actions and sacrifices of the Red Army. But, if might makes right, then one could just as easily say that Nazi Germany had similarly earned its European-wide empire. Black even attempts to excuse Roosevelt's policies by representing the subsequent Cold War as a remedy for Yalta, when in reality this was a closing of the barn door long after the horse had been allowed to escape. He cites the harsh history of eastern Europe, implying that past injustices somehow validate newer ones. Lamest of all is Black's reference to the 'brevity' of Yalta's consequences (45 years), when this had nothing to do with Roosevelt. Ironically, it was the strong Soviet-containing policies of President Ronald Reagan, standing in diametric contrast to the appeasement policies of Churchill and Roosevelt that helped finally end of Soviet rule over Poland.

To further whitewash Yalta and magnify Roosevelt, Conrad Black consistently portrays Poland as a 'bad boy' deserving of its fate. He peppers his work with pejorative generalizations of Polish leaders ('stubborn'foolish'unwise'disputatious, etc., etc.). He speaks of prewar Poland being 'corrupt' and 'viciously anti-Semitic' [Were non-Polish nations all paragons of political virtue, and were they all exemplary paradises for Jews?]. We even hear that Poland was 'not very democratic' and that it had 'no distinction of self-government.' Obviously, Black does not have a clue about these matters. For his basic information, Poland was one of the leaders in the emergence of democratic forms of government in recent centuries. In fact, the May 3 Polish Constitution, second only to the US Constitution, was also the most democratic one in Europe for its time. Having subsequently lost its independence to imperial European powers, the recently reconstituted Polish state faced stiff challenges unmatched by most other nations. In any event, an imperfect democracy was infinitely preferable to a Soviet-imposed totalitarian Communist state.

Black slips into an even more overt blame-the-victim mentality when he approvingly recounts Churchill's chiding of Polish leaders' 'stubbornness' (p. 919) for not caving in to the giveaway of Poland's eastern territories to Stalin. This is like telling a raped woman that, had she only been a little more 'wise' and not objected so much, her assailant may not have gone ahead with the rape. Furthermore, Black presents the issue of Poland's eastern border as some kind of political chess game. The Churchill-Roosevelt giveaway of eastern Poland to Stalin's appetite was, in actuality, apart from a stab in the back of a faithful ally, a blatantly illegal act. The Soviet-Polish Treaty of Riga (1922) had defined Poland's eastern border with the Soviet Union, and the latter had not the slightest legitimate claim against Polish territory. But Stalin was allowed to get away with resurrecting long-defunct pre-Riga considerations related to the Polish-Soviet frontier, and was even taken seriously when advancing fresh absurdities to rationalize the theft of Polish territory. Black (p. 885) shows his ignorance when he approvingly refers to eastern Poland as 'marshland'. In fact, most of it was productive land that had been the domicile of millions of Poles [and non-Poles, many of which long had been culturally and politically identified with Poland, and very few of which, in any case, genuinely wished to be part of the Soviet Union] since prehistoric times. It also contained many centuries-old centers of Polish culture. (Imagine someone urging the US to cede the Boston/New York area without regrets because, after all, it was 'forests and hills'). Nor should the betrayal of Poland have ever been linked with Poland's eventual acquisition of German territory (a form of punitive reparations).

Much, much more could be said about the shallowness of Conrad Black's thinking, but space limitations prevent it. Suffice it to conclude that the Churchill-Roosevelt double-cross of Poland was and will forever be totally inexcusable.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Overview Of FDR's Fascinating Life!
Review: This book is an example of how much difference a writer's gift can make in the success of his efforts at biography. While there is little that is new or novel in this superb one-volume interpretation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's storied life, the integration of the established facts and the use of mainly secondary sources is done with such art and ability that it becomes a stunning read, one the average reader will find immensely approachable and eminently readable. What is more amazing is that this effort is done so well by a non-professional in the sense that author Conrad Black is neither an academic historian nor a professional author. Yet no one who reads this can doubt his way with words, a gift so considerable that he turns this mainly derivative biographical effort into what is sure to become one of the most widely read biographies of FDR yet.

The book is both entertaining and engaging, told in such an eloquent way that his often-humorous anecdotes and descriptions of various events involving both FDR and his significant orbit of friends and family is a source of constantly evolving interest to the reader. The author shows his admiration for FDR based on what he refers to colorfully as an abiding show of personal courage in the face of adversity and pain, as well as by his enormous social and political skills in nudging individuals and groups in the direction of what he felt to be in the greater good. Examples given include his meticulous and adroit handling of the country's movement away from an abiding isolationism and in the positive direction of active support of Britian as well as of China. His single-minded determination to slide the country away from the dangers of neutrality in the face of the global threat of fascism was perhaps one of the most skillful uses of political persuasion and cultural 'spin' of the 20th century.

The author seems to view FDR as the primary force working toward a radical reconstruction of the post WWII world, and a man who in conjunction with Winston Churchill, so accurately foresaw the dangers of such a world that his prescription for working through it remained valid for several decades after his death. In fact, his idea that the key to the future peace of the postwar world lay in the focusing on the democratization of that world did more than anything to help legitimize democratic forms of government to the very audience he strove to convince, the members of the United Nations forum he helped so much to breathe air into even as he was himself dying.

The author, interestingly, is a staunch advocate of the merits of the so-called "New Deal" that FDR's administrations help to invoke in the midst of the worldwide crisis of the Great Depression, which Black correctly views as having saved capitalism and the free market system it connotes at a time when both capitalism itself as well as the free market system was being widely suspected as being the cause of the troubles themselves. In addition, the creation of social security, farm subsidies, wage and price legislation, and of course, securities regulations (which in the last twenty years we have legislated into meaningless self-regulation) helped to correct the egregious excesses of the times, and paved the way to the economic recovery that the war finally provided the impetus for. So, while at times the author seems a bit too reverential of the subject at hand, he does a superb job covering the waterfront, something he does indeed with style, verve, and an entertaining intelligence. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Too long; hagiography
Review: This is a secondary source hagiography designed to appeal to Baby Boomers who think government can steer the economy towards properity.

Further collapse in the dollar will shake that belief.

And the book could have used an editor to pare it to half the size.

Rating:
Summary: A biography with a point of view
Review: This is an excellent biography, primarily because it does a good job of explaining the context in which FDR made his political decisions. So often political biographies don't do a good job of connecting motives to outcomes, and there are practical, structural reasons for this -- biographers are not privy to the inner thoughts of their subjects often, and some reviewers have criticized Black for working backwards from FDR's actions to his motives, but I suspect that Black has superior political skills in his own right, because his analyses often ring true and at the very least, readers will find them entertaining and thought provoking.

In a very real way, FDR shaped the political realities of the U.S. for two generations. The next American president to have such a seminal impact would be Ronald Reagan. The establishment of the modern welfare state, the restructuring of the political parties, the alliance structures in World War II, the misjudgements about De Gaulle and France and Stalin and the Soviet Union -- all stem from FDR's judgements and decisions. Black helps us to recollect his seminal influence on our lives as a politician and a policy maker.

The book is good on the elections and about half of the book is devoted to the machinations of FDR vis-a-vis the war. Surprisingly Black gives relatively short shrift to FDR's economic policies and handling of the Depression, and I found the war minutiae a little tedious.

But these are quibbles. This is a serious biography about one of the most pre-eminent leaders of our nation, and it deserves your serious consideration. This book will inform you and stimulate your thinking, even if you disagree with some of his pronouncements. I definitely recommend it.