Book #10: FDR

My goal in 2018 is to read 52 books. Here is a list of all the books I’ve read so far this year. Each book is ranked on a 5-star scale (5 is best).

** FDR

I was very excited to drive into the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. If you look at most rankings of US presidents, you’ll find FDR toward the top. And I’m on a bit of a US history / president reading binge, so I thought it was time to try FDR.

I’m not sure if it was the way the book was written, or the subject, but I just couldn’t get interested in this one. I made it through half the book but didn’t end up finishing it. It also could be because the book is 880 pages! I didn’t realize that as I was listening to it on Audible, so maybe that was my mistake.

Amazon’s description of FDR:

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.

Summing up Roosevelt’s legacy, Jean Smith declares that FDR, more than any other individual, changed the relationship between the American people and their government. It was Roosevelt who revolutionized the art of campaigning and used the burgeoning mass media to garner public support and allay fears. But more important, Smith gives us the clearest picture yet of how this 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. Written for the general reader and scholars alike, FDR is a stunning biography in every way worthy of its subject.