Recommend a good FDR bio

I really like the Ken Burns National Parks book (and as a rule I hate this guy and won't watch his crap)

@pareene
Teddy Roosevelt was a jerk who loved war and hunting because he was insecure about his effete city kid background and girly voice, the end

Vee-dal beat Alex to it: "Theodore Roosevelt: American Sissy"

semi-joeks, guys

how is Burns handling TR's Churchillian racialist views? (no wonder Nixon liked him so much)

well, he spent time on the Brownsville incident, which surprised me.

what can you expect from a guy who was NYPD commish

@DennisThePerrin
If George Will can praise FDR's courage, then there's hope for those who will say anything to be on camera. #TheRoosevelts

he also praised FDR's wonderful smile

Supercilious clan of cousin-fuckers reigned for decades, the end. I really enjoyed a lot of this tbh, Ken Burns is so fucking tedious but I always end up binge watching it all.

I'm still on part 2, but love how the narrator goes out of his way to make TR sound like a dandy. Like before going to the Dakotas, had a fringed leather jacket made for him which he designed, and before going to Cuba, had Brooks Brothers make him a bunch of uniforms.

It didn't really go into that it was the 2nd yalta conference that ultimately killed him.

young paleocon gives a talk about FDR's opposition: they weren't all fascist fellow-travelers

http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2015/04/the-socialist-party-and-the-old-right/

i can't verify the essential truth of this but it's interesting reading, especially the socialist vs communist split on the "war state"

Alfred, did you ever read a good FDR bio? Recommend a good FDR bio to me please

Traitor to his Class iirc

I read the third volume of Kenneth Davis' multi-volume set, as it happens.

I've been recommending Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time for years: Ira Katznelson's definitive account of how the Roosevelt administration's courtship of racist Southerners was necessary to pass the most progressive legislation in American history.

which is v good, my only criticism is that it ends very abruptly - "and then he died, THE END"!, with zero discussion of say, how WWII ended or his legacy.

xps

Traitor to His Class is a solid one-volume bio.

thank u both