The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes: The First Thousand Days, Volume I: 1933 - 1936

by Harold L. Ickes

Genres: Politics, History, Us Presidents, Diary, World War II, Memoir

738 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Harold LeClair Ickes was an American administrator and politician. He served as United States Secretary of the Interior for 13 years, from 1933 to 1946, the longest tenure of anyone to hold the office, and the second longest-serving Cabinet member in U.S. history after James Wilson. Ickes and Labor Secretary Frances Perkins were the only original members of the Roosevelt cabinet who remained in office for his entire presidency.

Ickes was responsible for implementing much of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal". He was in charge of the major relief program, the Public Works Administration (PWA), and in charge of the federal government's environmental efforts.

In his day, he was considered a prominent liberal spokesman, a skillful orator and a noted supporter of many African-American causes, although he was at times politically expedient where state-level segregation was concerned. Before his national-level political career, where he did remove segregation in areas of his direct control, he had been the president of the Chicago NAACP.

Reviews

[Aaron Million · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harold Ickes was Secretary of the Interior for President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his entire administration, from 1933-1945. He resigned in early 1946, close to a year after FDR had died and Harry Truman had become President. Prior to becoming Secretary, he was a well-respected lawyer in Chicago. Politically, he had been a Progressive Republican, although in this volume he said that he had become an Independent. He kept the existence of his diary from virtually everyone. This is the first of three volumes, and begins with FDR's inauguration on 3/4/1933 and stops right after the 1936 election takes place, in which FDR is re-elected in a landslide over Kansas Governor Alf Landon.

There are positives and negatives to reading a diary of this sort. First, the positives: One reads Ickes' thoughts in the moment, without the advantage of time and distance to prove whether or not he was right or wrong on certain matters. With the diary, he wrote about events and his immediate reactions to them. He wrote about people and his (sometimes changing) opinions on them. An example of this is his relationship with Postmaster General Jim Farley: Ickes started out disliking him quite a bit, considering Farley to just be a political hack (which he frequently was), but gradually his opinion began to change and he respected Farley for the political skills that be brought to the administration.

The diary also eliminates the chance to, when someone writes a memoir, to paper over differences or re-write events to suit one's later interests. Here you get Ickes' unvarnished, fresh memories of events and situations. I especially enjoyed his oftentimes astute observations about people. He hated Henry Morgenthau Jr., the Secretary of the Treasury. He also had a running feud with Harry Hopkins concerning funding for public works, and he disliked the politics of Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace.

Ickes was born in 1874, so some of his phrases (and social views, especially concerning women and blacks) reflect that. For instance, he called a speech by Landon "as flat as ditch water." Once in awhile, he would just call someone lazy or stupid. Talking about Georgia Governor Eugene Talmadge: "He looks more like a rat than any other human being that I know and he has all of the mean, poisonous, and treacherous characteristics of that rodent." Sort of funny to read a high public official speaking about another one of similar stature in such a manner. But that is life.

Another positive in the inside, day-to-day look that one gets at FDR as a President. Ickes slowly becomes, to an extent, disenchanted with the President as he discovers (likes everyone else did who worked with him) that FDR was quite often devious, and would seem to placate him by agreeing to a policy only for Ickes to find out a few days or weeks later via a newspaper that FDR decided to do something different. I began to get a sense of weariness on Ickes' part in dealing FDR, yet he remained personally fond of him and went to great lengths to compliment him on many, many things.

It was interesting also to see how concerned he and others were about FDR's chances of being re-elected. In hindsight, this seems silly as he crushed Landon. But nobody at the time knew that. Ickes even thought for most of 1935 that FDR would not be re-elected. And, events in Europe appear here and there, enough to be the black cloud on the horizon.

During the period that this volume covers, his wife Anna dies in a horrific car accident in New Mexico. This was in 1935, so of course there were no seat belts or safety devices in vehicles back then, and she apparently went through the roof of the car as it flipped over. Ickes was not there, and was notified by a member of his staff one Saturday night while he was working in his office (the man seemed to be constantly working: nights, weekends, holidays, he rarely stopped working). Reading about it, you would think that Ickes was talking about a policy decision, as he stayed very clinical concerning the matter, and let out no emotion on paper. But one has to think that this just killed him inside, and there must have been some times when he questioned how or why he should continue to work so hard. I felt very bad for him (how could you not?), even though he did not get emotional about it here.

The negative of the diary is that, for what seems like endless pages at times, he talks about the same issue: the fight with Hopkins over money ticketed for the Public Works Administration (which Ickes was also director of in addition to his Interior duties) and the Works Progress Administration (which Hopkins ran). He uses PWA and WPA together so often that it makes you dizzy after awhile. I was glad when I got to 1936 and Ickes shifted gears to the upcoming election campaign. Also, just as it is interesting what one puts into a diary, one can leave important things out too. So, it does make me wonder what Ickes did leave out, and why. Although he wrote prolifically, so I think he probably mentioned most everything that was of importance.

Overall I enjoyed this diary. He wrote at such length that I got - at least I think I got - a pretty good sense of what life was like for him. Just reading a biography may be tough to replicate that sense.

[Peter Corrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an utterly random book I found and it was pretty darn dry for the most part. But there were just enough passages of interest and little nuggets of insight that kept me plodding along, albeit in slightly glazed near-scan mode at times. Harold Ickes was the Secretary of Interior in the FDR cabinet in his first administration and of course during the creation and execution of the New Deal. Among the more interesting things were the frequent interactions with FDR, of which there were many and insights into FDR himself. You get an idea of what Cabinet meetings were like and day-to-day life in the halls of Washington during the New Deal and all the projects undertaken. Interior oversaw the PWA (not to be confused with the WPA) which was behind some of the major building achievements of the New Deal. This included such icons as the Triborough Bridge in NYC (now sadly renamed the RFK Bridge), the Lincoln Tunnel, the Grand Coulee Dam and the Hoover Dam (there is a long diatribe on his attempt to make sure it is called the Boulder Dam, a battle he obviously lost). There is a lot of mundane stuff on in-fighting within the cabinet (especially over the future of the Forest Service), other political battles and accounts of frequent dinner parties at various embassies and other settings. But very little to almost no gossip or mud-slinging or attempts to get inside anyone's lives. Admirable but boring. The guy hardly seems human at times. The best parts were accounts of road trips, often quite fascinating. Some are with FDR and others in his job as Secretary of the Interior and included a boat trip with FDR to the Panama Canal, a trip to Florida to consider an Everglades National Park, a very interesting trip to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and trips out west to the big National Parks. But it is a generally dry memoir with little real fire, despite his reputation as a big fighter for his beliefs. When his wife dies in an auto accident you would almost think it was only a long-lost aunt who perished for all the lack of emotion expressed. He showed more feeling over the loss of his dog, though there be many lean that way. There is scant focus on international developments as he is focused on domestic issues but they are there, Abyssinia, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and the rise of fascism. Even in 1935 some were recognizing the rise of Hitler and Japan and war was predicted that early. The book ends with the run-up to the 1936 election and the landslide of FDR over Alf Landon, surely one of the least effective candidates in U.S. history.

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought it was a guaranteed sleep-inducing read, find myself interested instead. Ickes was a "progressive Republican" at a time when party didn't disqualify otherwise able men from participating in government. Ickes is a voice that reminds me of my grandparents, with ideals of how one ought to behave that I miss as well--the day-to-day truth might have been uglier than he sets out, but the results were reported as honestly as he could. This was a junk-shop find, there are 2 other volumes that I may or may not track down.
Compare it to the Diaries of a Cabinet Minister by Richard Crossman, which are in fact sleep-inducing.

[Michael Spires · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look inside the first Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Makes me want to take a trip to the National Archives and see the originals, including all the bits that were edited out for publication.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the New Deal from the inside. Despite being a bit of an egotist and a curmudgeon, Ickes is a keen observer, and he doesn't pull any punches. He was in the inner circle--Secretary of the Interior.

[Liz]

"It was a hot and muggy day in Washington." Okay.