FDR: A Centenary Remembrance

by Joseph Alsop

The year 1982 brings both the hundredth birthday of Franklin Delaon Roosevelt and the fiftieth anniversary of his first triumphant campaign for the Presidency. Joseph Alsop, one of the most incisive, eloquest, and celebrated journalists and columnists of our time, is uniquely qualified to write this remembrance. He is related to the Roosevelts, and when the New York Herald Tribune sent hime to Washington in the 1930s, he found himself not only covering the New Deal revolution, but also being frequently invited to the White House as "family." In mettlesome and evocative prose, the author gives us the living Roosevelt - mother dominated child and man, unhappy Groton schoolboy and Harvard student, husband of Eleanor, disappointed lover of another woman, battler against crippling disease, consummate politician, pragmatist and seeker of ends over ideals, prophet of the New Deal, and wartime leader nonpareil. Whether we are old enough to remember FDR or can only read of him now, Joseph Alsop has the magic to make us return to that dramatic Inaugural Day in 1933 to hear him say, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Genres: History, Biography

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 30, 1982

About the author

American journalist Joseph Wright Alsop, Junior, with his brother Stewart Alsop wrote the syndicated column "Matter of Fact" from 1946 to 1958.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_...

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

FDR: A Centenary Remembrance is a beautiful tribute to the president, written by member of his own family tree. Joseph Alsop is a descendant of the other President Roosevelt, and met FDR more than once. He writes fairly as an observer, with only a minimum amount of family bias.

The photos throughout the book are fantastic, many of which I had never seen before. They are placed preceding each chapter, servicing as a preview of what’s to come. The text is mostly well-written by the career journalist, and offers a unique perspective on many historical events.

The book at first reads like a professional biography of the president, slowly pivoting as Alsop’s own career and service began, until finally becoming very much the author’s memoir.

Aside from Pearl Harbor and a few other details, World War II is largely skimmed over by the text, and no real mention is made of one of FDR’s biggest blemishes—the internment of Japanese American citizens. Otherwise the book is quite thorough. Alsop does acknowledge his own feelings and opinions at times, but these detract only when the reader recalls the earlier, more biographic portion of the book.

Ample time is given to Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as the changing relationship between her and Franklin after his affair with Lucy Mercer. Trusted aide Harry Hopkins also plays a significant part in this telling of FDR’s story.

This 1986 remembrance, published 100 years after Roosevelt’s birth, is now a historic artifact itself. But the writing holds up well to current academic knowledge and understanding of FDR’s life and times. I recommend it, if you find it!

[Mikey B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was published in 1982 on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Franklin Roosevelt.

There are plentiful pictures, and the author had met Roosevelt occasionally – so this biography has personal and anecdotal touches to it.

There is also quite a lot on the sometimes-strained relationship between Franklin and his wife Eleanor. Louis Howe, essential in bringing Roosevelt to political power (first in New York State, and after the Presidency), is mentioned. As well as Harry Hopkins, who was of great assistance to Roosevelt during both the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Second World, when he travelled extensively; meeting with Churchill and Stalin a number of times.

This book can serve as a wonderful introduction to the era and life of Franklin Roosevelt.

[Robert Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a good overview of FDR’s life in both a narrative and pictorial perspective. The author, Joseph Alsop was a cousin of the president and had access to him. I liked that he gave personal accounts and perceptions especially concerning FDR’s wartime leadership. One thing I have found in reading about great presidents and for that matter any successful leaders is that they always surrounded themselves with competent and trustworthy advisors. That was the case with Franklin Roosevelt as I have found in Lincoln after reading, “Team of Rivals”. Here is a quote found in the concluding pages of the book:

"For an entire generation after the war ended, President Roosevelt’s successors in the White House regularly turned to the Roosevelt veterans for wise counsel when the going got rough. With one of them, Robert A. Lovett, President Kennedy even went so far as to offer a choice of the Secretary-ships of State, Defense, and the Treasury. The great officials whom Roosevelt had recruited in the war emergency further made much of the glory of the not inglorious administration of President Truman, and today I wonder sadly whether we shall ever see their like again. Sadly, I wonder too whether we shall ever see another leader of the U.S. Army with the all-around greatness of George C. Marshall, or an Air Force leader with the tough, concentrated intelligence and crafty courage of H.H. Arnold, or a Chief of Naval Operations to compare in fighting spirit and general astuteness with grim, relentless Ernest King."

After reading “FDR” I being admittedly a conservative Republican gained enormous respect for the 32nd president, especially in his execution of duty as Commander and Chief during the Second World War. Here is another quote that I believe gives the reader a sense of FDR’s statesmanship and uniting leadership from the viewpoint of the author’s personal relationship with him:

"His most remarkable contribution as a war leader was the way his boldness and his craft, his never-failing sense of political realities and his far-sighted statesmanship finally brought the great majority of Americans to acknowledge the need for the United States to play a new and larger role in the world. A great President, in my opinion, is above all a great teacher of his people; and all of us still repeat, albeit unknowingly, the lessons we have learned from each of our great Presidents from George Washington onwards. In the crisis of the Second World War, Roosevelt’s teaching was made easier by the enemies of the United States. But only consider what the outcome might have been with a run-of-the-mill President—average timorous, average maladroit, average self-interested, average unimaginative—in the place that Roosevelt filled so well! It is a thought to make one’s blood run cold, and to fill one with gratitude to Providence for giving the country Franklin Roosevelt when the need was so great and so urgent."

Today the thought of the lack of such leadership in troubled times “makes one’s blood run cold…” I pray to Providence that we do not experience a similar and perhaps worse conflict in this present age

[Peter Gorman II · Rating 2 out of 5]

A braggart's self-serving, if not disconnected account of the life of a distant relative to FDR. Nothing resembling what I was looking for in procuring a biography of one of the most influential presidents of our time. The written pages rift with a cold, snobby tone, FDRis offered as an account of the "better-half" lifestyle, that most readers cannot identify with. Unimpressed wholly by how well-read Alsop was determined to identify himself as, using multiple classical fiction references, his purpose seemed one of ego-padding.

Despite the failings of the writer to come across as interesting in any way, the book itself had a major organizational issue. The amazing photos provided by the Hyde Park Library were shockingly placed out of sequence, occurring chronologically after the pages that were to follow. In other words, you would see pictures of events that would occur tens of pages later in the biography.

There were several holes in the book that a person trying to make a connection to FDR the man, politician, and war-time leader would like to have filled. One being there was no account of the Manhattan project and the president's ties to it. This is a large omission that a reader would expect to get a better understanding about a historical event that served as a large shift in our country's foreign affairs. A second inexcusable omission is of the economic return to success under Roosevelt in the period right before and throughout the Second World War. The New Deal specifics were glossed over, yet this disputably was one of the single most historic domestic policies. It shaped our nation's debt, and is still highly controversial today.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume was published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's birth. It is primarily a picture book of FDRs life and times. With over 200 black & white photographs, chosen with the assistance of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, New York, this book is both biography and homage to the 32nd President of the United States.

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was really more of a personal memoir by the author who is a distant relative of FDR's and he used minimal personal experience and family stories of FDR. I think Alsop was a bit taken with himself and opinions. Having read a lot about FDR there was very little new in this book, although some pictures I had never seen.

[Bibliomiriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appreciate the photos as much as the text. I learned quite a bit about FDR's life, but found the book more of a tribute than a real bio. Still looking for an unbiased, incisive book about FDR, which explains how his background and life experiences influenced his politics.

[Pamela Sikorski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liked this book and loved Eleanor. Actually went to visit Hyde park , tied everything together to see the home

[Mick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative book about FDR, but a bit long and plodding. Still, excellently researched and objective, I think.