Dallek wants to ground his book firmly in reality rather than hero-worship – hence his encouraging subtitle, A Political Life. He believes that FDR was a born politician of ferocious and very nearly infallible instincts, and through a combination of extensive research and first-rate storyteller's gifts, he makes the reader believe it, too ... Dallek relates in fine and compelling detail all the thorniest scandals of the FDR years ... But far more prominent than scandal in these pages – and far more welcome – are Dallek's frequent examinations of the now-forgotten political opposition FDR faced at every stage of his long tenure as president ... In odd but very appreciable ways, Dallek's nuts-and-bolts 'political life,' seeking the real man underneath all the familiar accolades, somehow manages to re-affirm that greatness. We see FDR afresh, which is an amazing feat in its own right.
...meticulously researched and authoritative … Adequate single-volume biographies about FDR abound. But none are as heroically objective and wide-angled as this fine Dallek effort. A master synthesizer of primary sources, Dallek, who previously won the Bancroft Prize, brilliantly deliberates on Roosevelt’s Hudson Valley childhood, tenure as assistant secretary of the Navy (1913-1920) and years as a progressive New York governor (1929-1932). The anchor of this book, however, is the White House years … I found Dallek’s spirited examination of how Roosevelt interacted with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from 1940 to 1945 the most enthralling part of this biography.
In an era in which moral, linguistic, and financial corruption hold sway, this story could not be more timely. It is the story of a high-born male — tall, immensely handsome, and intelligent, who sees his life’s purpose in doing good for others ... Some historians may cavil that Dallek has done little original research, with no new information or insights, moreover that he has paraphrased their work to an immoderate extent. Or worse, has largely ignored the most recent work of historians over the past 15 or 20 years. Biographers may feel the same: lamenting Dallek’s lack of an individual authorial style or vivid narrative artistry and architecture, so that the book reads at times like a generic piece of young adult nonfiction ... For my money, however, I think “Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life’’ a most welcome reminder of what a career of idealistic political purpose can still achieve for one’s country, and for the world.
Presidential historian Robert Dallek makes a strong case for how he found success in his splendid Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life ... his sections on the subject of foreign policy are outstanding. Roosevelt’s approach to strong isolationism in the 1930s and his complicated relations with Churchill and Stalin are covered in significant detail. Roosevelt’s most controversial decisions, such as his response (or failure to respond adequately) to the Holocaust and the internment of Japanese Americans in camps were made for political reasons, Dallek argues. This book is authoritative, insightful and consistently interesting.
There are many strengths to Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life. Dallek fully incorporates into his narrative Roosevelt’s complicated, conflicted relationship with the several women in his life and is especially good on the role Eleanor played, as goad and political adviser. He also makes it clear, in a way other biographers do not, that almost from the moment he entered office, Roosevelt set out to educate the nation to the fact that the United States was threatened not only by economic depression at home, but also by fascist aggressions abroad … There is, regrettably, little to distinguish it from the many excellent biographies that came before it and on which it draws. The prose is clean, but flat, with little sparkle or literary grace. There are no new analytic thrusts or parries, no new sources or imaginative reinterpretations of old ones.
Robert Dallek’s new biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt might have simply been a very good book. Given Trump, it feels like an essential one … Dallek, who has previously written biographies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, here captures a full life in a single volume with brisk prose … Dallek shows how Old Dutch family wealth, noblesse oblige, tolerance, a debilitating disease, and an interest in modernist culture combined to create in FDR an instinctively brilliant politician. The author says he wrote his account to remind ‘a younger generation with limited knowledge of American history, of what great political leadership looks like’ … Dallek is a master of the genre of presidential biography, but how can one continue being a Rembrandt, detailing the light and shadow of golden age captains, after the arrival of the grotesque, when political culture has become a carnival?
It’s difficult to argue with the academic surveys on presidential performance that consistently rank FDR as among the three greatest presidents, along with Lincoln and Washington. To judge by Franklin D. Roosevelt : A Political Life, Robert Dallek shares that assessment. He tells his story through sturdy, unadorned prose that provides little literary style or dramatic scene-setting for the casual reader. But he writes with thoroughness and clarity, and the subject’s remarkable life buoys the narrative … Mr. Dallek’s narrative picks up some vibrancy..but he finesses the president’s more questionable efforts to nudge America into alignment with the beleaguered nations of Britain, France and China. He essentially gives FDR a pass on what was almost certainly a violation of the U.S. Neutrality Acts … Neither does Mr. Dallek give his readers a clear picture of the diplomatic brutality undergirding U.S. relations with Japan after Roosevelt pushed that country into a position of near desperation.
Lest any reader be unfamiliar with the author's political preferences, of the three endorsements for the book found on its dust jacket, one describes him as a ‘great liberal historian writing about our greatest liberal president,’ and another comes from former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean, whose credentials as a reasoned critic of historical assessment are nonexistent … A reader looking for something new about Roosevelt in this book will be disappointed. Nowhere is there any indication that Dallek relies on any newly discovered primary sources, meaning this biography is essentially a serviceable rehash of past books devoted to FDR, as is clear from the author's frequent quoting of other biographers’ assessments of our nation's 32nd president.
[Dallek] covers nearly every aspect of F.D.R.’s life in a characteristically adroit work that is balanced in coverage and prudent in assessment. While Dallek does not add in any major way to existing knowledge of F.D.R., his emphasis falls on the two great crises of F.D.R.’s presidency—the Depression and WWII—and highlights F.D.R.’s emergence as a skillful politician ... Readers may tire from the book’s relentless parade of declarative statements, though few will challenge Dallek’s characterization of Roosevelt as 'an instinctively brilliant politician' and all will benefit from Dallek’s principal addition to earlier works on F.D.R.: the convincing argument that as early as May 1943 F.D.R. was showing signs of the illness that would kill him. The result is a comprehensive retelling of a major American life that will rank among the standard biographies of its subject.
Dallek examines several formative factors that contributed greatly to Roosevelt’s ability to successfully tap the public sentiment and address significant issues ... The author also effectively shows how Roosevelt was an astute political animal who sometimes made questionable decisions for political expedience, such as failing to push for an anti-lynching law for fear of losing white Southern support, incarcerating Japanese-Americans during World War II, and fumbling over saving Jews from persecution by Nazi Germany. A lively one-volume treatment well-suited to libraries and schools.
