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Unlikely Heroes: Franklin Roosevelt, His Four Lieutenants, and the World They Made
"Masterful.” —The Guardian
"Propulsive." — The Wall Street Journal
"Leebaert has done the near impossible—crafted a fresh and challenging portrait of the man and his inner circle.”— Richard Norton Smith, author of An Uncommon Man, former director of the Hoover, Eisenhower, Reagan, and Ford presidential libraries.
“A fascinating and absorbing analysis of FDR’s brilliantly chosen team of four courageous and creative men and women.”—Susan Dunn, author of 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler—the Election Amid the Storm, Massachusetts Professor of Humanities, Williams College.
Drawing on new materials, Unlikely Heroes constructs an entirely fresh understanding of FDR and his presidency by spotlighting the powerful, equally wounded figures whom he raised up to confront the Depression, then to beat the Axis.
Only four people served at the top echelon of President Franklin Roosevelt's Administration from the frightening early months of spring 1933 until he died in April 1945, on the cusp of wartime victory. These lieutenants composed the tough, constrictive, long-term core of government. They built the great institutions being raised against the Depression, implemented the New Deal, and they were pivotal to winning World War II.
Yet, in their different ways, each was as wounded as the polio-stricken titan. Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickes, Frances Perkins, and Henry Wallace were also strange outsiders. Up to 1933, none would ever have been considered for high office. Still, each became a world figure, and it would have been exceedingly difficult for Roosevelt to transform the nation without them. By examining the lives of these four, a very different picture emerges of how Americans saved their democracy and rescued civilization overseas. Many of the dangers that they all overcame are troublingly like those America faces today.
"Propulsive." — The Wall Street Journal
"Leebaert has done the near impossible—crafted a fresh and challenging portrait of the man and his inner circle.”— Richard Norton Smith, author of An Uncommon Man, former director of the Hoover, Eisenhower, Reagan, and Ford presidential libraries.
“A fascinating and absorbing analysis of FDR’s brilliantly chosen team of four courageous and creative men and women.”—Susan Dunn, author of 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler—the Election Amid the Storm, Massachusetts Professor of Humanities, Williams College.
Drawing on new materials, Unlikely Heroes constructs an entirely fresh understanding of FDR and his presidency by spotlighting the powerful, equally wounded figures whom he raised up to confront the Depression, then to beat the Axis.
Only four people served at the top echelon of President Franklin Roosevelt's Administration from the frightening early months of spring 1933 until he died in April 1945, on the cusp of wartime victory. These lieutenants composed the tough, constrictive, long-term core of government. They built the great institutions being raised against the Depression, implemented the New Deal, and they were pivotal to winning World War II.
Yet, in their different ways, each was as wounded as the polio-stricken titan. Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickes, Frances Perkins, and Henry Wallace were also strange outsiders. Up to 1933, none would ever have been considered for high office. Still, each became a world figure, and it would have been exceedingly difficult for Roosevelt to transform the nation without them. By examining the lives of these four, a very different picture emerges of how Americans saved their democracy and rescued civilization overseas. Many of the dangers that they all overcame are troublingly like those America faces today.
476 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 28, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
February 3, 2025
A lot of research obviously went into this 2023 book. It gives you a good sense of the inter-workings of FDR’s presidency from 1933 until his death. Harry Hopkins was Roosevelt’s #1 adviser and very helpful during the war. Frances Perkins improved the lives of the working class. And Ickles and Wallace made important contributions. The only negative is that, for me, while I loved the subject matter I just didn’t connect with the writing style.
April 4, 2025
The New York Times didn’t capitalize “Negro” until March 1930. The New York Times called the intellect of Henry Wallace (my grandpa) “freakish”. The author adds, “surely he was the foremost agronomist in the Western Hemisphere.” FDR’s family library had 22,000 books. At the time, cotton was the principal US agricultural export and Henry Wallace thought the Democratic Party “was based” on cotton.
“Woodrow Wilson had segregated the whole federal workforce by fiat.” After FDR won in 1936, Frances Perkins concluded he would also go for a third term, but that would require the racist “Southern bloc”. “To publicly back an anti-lynching bill, as FDR famously told White, would mean that Southern Democrats ‘will block every bill I ask Congress to pass to keep American from collapsing’.” “By 1936, Roosevelt and Hull agreed that Japan intended at least to control the far east economically.” By 1938, Hopkins, Ickes, Perkins and Wallace were FDR’s top aides.
In 1939, “The US ambassador in Tokyo warned FDR that cutting of steel exports, and the American oil (to Japan, which three-quarters of Americans wanted) on which Japan relied on for 80% of its consumption, risked triggering war.” Once Roosevelt selected Wallace (as VP for his third term), he made it plain to the convention that he would refuse to run without him. At no other time would he have given such an ultimatum, not even in 1944 when he chose Harry Truman.” “If I should be bumped off”, he (FDR) told Farley, or “hit with a bomb”, he wanted a man who could step in fast. The author says the reason FDR chose Henry (grandpa) as VP was “he liked the workings of Wallace’s mind” and called him a “practical idealist.” “Wallace believed, as did Hull, that Democrats were consigned to defeat in 1940, had it not been for the shock of France’s collapse. Roosevelt could win if voters believed him to be the best choice to keep the country out of war.” “The two parties fought over whom the Fuhrer genuinely preferred and which campaign’s propaganda most resembled Goebbels.”
My grandpa and grandmother travelled at FDR’s bidding down to Mexico in a two-car caravan to serve as ambassador since he was fluent in Spanish and would get out of his car and routinely talk to farmers. He found Mexicans were spending 200 hours to harvest corn that in Iowa would have been done in ten. He then got the Rockefeller Foundation on board to “revolutionize the world’s food supply” (Green Revolution – although Norman Borlaug would unfortunately add fossil fuel fertilizer to the Green Revolution which made it far less sustainable). “In early January, weeks after returning from his south-of-the-border road trip, he urged the Rockefeller Foundation to embark on a corn-breeding experiment in Mexico, an initiative that would become life-altering for its nearly twenty million citizens. In time, the high- yielding varieties of cereal grains he pioneered would set the Green Revolution underway across the world, keeping hundreds of millions from starvation.” At the time, the Soviet Union was supplying Germany with timber, nickel, manganese, iron ore, wheat, rubber and oil which meant Stalin was “fueling the bombing of London.” Nowhere in this book will you be told that the US was at the same time supplying Hitler with 12% of his oil needs. Oops…
The author calls Henry Wallace “the most powerful of America’s vice presidents, at least into 1943.” “Wallace also kept perspective by reminding himself that no professor of American history could name all the vice presidents of the United States.” “Wallace scorned British imperialism.” This book says Frances Perkins and Harold Ickes were close friends of my grandmother Ilo Wallace and the author described her as “very graceful and cordial, always beautifully dressed.”
Japan freely thrusted south into the Philippines, Dutch East Indies, and Indochina after Soviet Russia signed a neutrality pact with Japan. That pact freed Japan to go aggressively south to get stuff recently denied by the US. Japan had depended on the US for 80% of its oil before the US began a de facto oil embargo because of Harold Ickes. FDR wrote Ickes furious letters about Ickes risking Japan taking the oil by conquest elsewhere, and remained angry with him for over a year. On October 9, 1941, FDR met with grandpa and Vannevar Bush to kick off the secret program to build the first atomic bomb. Before they were out the door, FDR worried out aloud about the “after-war control” of what they were creating.
In 1941, Henry Luce, publisher of Life Magazine wrote of “The American Century”. Henry Wallace one year later wrote his rebuttal “the Century of the Common Man” – it became his most influential speech. Copies of it were distributed as the example of what America stood for. Grandpa had seen with his own eyes what Luce would not discuss - terrible poverty in Appalachia, the Mississippi, and the Great Smokies. FDR, grandpa, and Ickes all felt Britain had to let India become independent, especially after 2.1 to 3 million Bengalis died by famine in 1943, by Britain keeping food and ships away. Grandpa thought it hypocritical to fight Japan’s imperialism while ignoring Britain’s. Grandpa since 1941 had chaired the Board of Economic Warfare (procuring strategic materials for the war effort) putting him in the number two slot behind FDR. Conservatives hated grandpa because he also tried to improve living standards in other countries, and had become outspoken on race. And he had publicly defined an American fascist as one who “puts money and power ahead of human beings.” How dare he! Grandpa was dealing with basic facts of procurement, like the fact that each US destroyer consumed 3,000 gallons of oil per hour. The author says, “Wallace was no more naive about Stalinist Russia than Roosevelt, Hopkins and Ickes (p.396).” In 1952, he publicly acknowledges his naivete about Stalin. Anyway, FDR appointed grandpa as Secretary of Commerce in early 1945, he held that position under Truman for a bit as well.
The Four “Lieutenants” of This Book: The author says of Perkins, Ickes, Hopkins and grandpa (the subjects of this book), only Hopkins and grandpa knew about the Manhattan Project. The author also says grandpa was the last of the four to depart, when in 1946, he gave a speech at Madison Square Garden “he called on America to eliminate racism, and also to sever ties to ‘British imperialistic policy in the Near East.” Truman had approved that speech but fired him anyway because the speech got Secretary of State James Byrnes’s panties in a bunch. Speak out AGAINST racism and get fired in the “Land of Freedom”. The author says, “Wallace had more of his beliefs enacted into the New Deal than did the others (Perkins, Ickes, and Hopkins)”.
On page 432, the author mentions that grandpa’s company Hi-Bred Corn became a “global colossus” and he used shares from it to create the Wallace Genetic Foundation, and that my father then creates the Wallace Global Fund for “sustainable development” (as if you can actually have sustainable development, especially under capitalism), but the author does not also mention that I then created the Wallace Action Fund as a progressive spin-off from the liberal Wallace Global Fund in order to stay true to grandpa’s progressive (not liberal) leanings. Wallace Action Fund has been the sole funder of transcribing every thing Noam Chomsky has written or publicly spoken about, and the sole funder of the Henry A. Wallace police crime database (the largest database of US police crimes).
This was a very good book and I’m glad I read it, and you will be too.
“Woodrow Wilson had segregated the whole federal workforce by fiat.” After FDR won in 1936, Frances Perkins concluded he would also go for a third term, but that would require the racist “Southern bloc”. “To publicly back an anti-lynching bill, as FDR famously told White, would mean that Southern Democrats ‘will block every bill I ask Congress to pass to keep American from collapsing’.” “By 1936, Roosevelt and Hull agreed that Japan intended at least to control the far east economically.” By 1938, Hopkins, Ickes, Perkins and Wallace were FDR’s top aides.
In 1939, “The US ambassador in Tokyo warned FDR that cutting of steel exports, and the American oil (to Japan, which three-quarters of Americans wanted) on which Japan relied on for 80% of its consumption, risked triggering war.” Once Roosevelt selected Wallace (as VP for his third term), he made it plain to the convention that he would refuse to run without him. At no other time would he have given such an ultimatum, not even in 1944 when he chose Harry Truman.” “If I should be bumped off”, he (FDR) told Farley, or “hit with a bomb”, he wanted a man who could step in fast. The author says the reason FDR chose Henry (grandpa) as VP was “he liked the workings of Wallace’s mind” and called him a “practical idealist.” “Wallace believed, as did Hull, that Democrats were consigned to defeat in 1940, had it not been for the shock of France’s collapse. Roosevelt could win if voters believed him to be the best choice to keep the country out of war.” “The two parties fought over whom the Fuhrer genuinely preferred and which campaign’s propaganda most resembled Goebbels.”
My grandpa and grandmother travelled at FDR’s bidding down to Mexico in a two-car caravan to serve as ambassador since he was fluent in Spanish and would get out of his car and routinely talk to farmers. He found Mexicans were spending 200 hours to harvest corn that in Iowa would have been done in ten. He then got the Rockefeller Foundation on board to “revolutionize the world’s food supply” (Green Revolution – although Norman Borlaug would unfortunately add fossil fuel fertilizer to the Green Revolution which made it far less sustainable). “In early January, weeks after returning from his south-of-the-border road trip, he urged the Rockefeller Foundation to embark on a corn-breeding experiment in Mexico, an initiative that would become life-altering for its nearly twenty million citizens. In time, the high- yielding varieties of cereal grains he pioneered would set the Green Revolution underway across the world, keeping hundreds of millions from starvation.” At the time, the Soviet Union was supplying Germany with timber, nickel, manganese, iron ore, wheat, rubber and oil which meant Stalin was “fueling the bombing of London.” Nowhere in this book will you be told that the US was at the same time supplying Hitler with 12% of his oil needs. Oops…
The author calls Henry Wallace “the most powerful of America’s vice presidents, at least into 1943.” “Wallace also kept perspective by reminding himself that no professor of American history could name all the vice presidents of the United States.” “Wallace scorned British imperialism.” This book says Frances Perkins and Harold Ickes were close friends of my grandmother Ilo Wallace and the author described her as “very graceful and cordial, always beautifully dressed.”
Japan freely thrusted south into the Philippines, Dutch East Indies, and Indochina after Soviet Russia signed a neutrality pact with Japan. That pact freed Japan to go aggressively south to get stuff recently denied by the US. Japan had depended on the US for 80% of its oil before the US began a de facto oil embargo because of Harold Ickes. FDR wrote Ickes furious letters about Ickes risking Japan taking the oil by conquest elsewhere, and remained angry with him for over a year. On October 9, 1941, FDR met with grandpa and Vannevar Bush to kick off the secret program to build the first atomic bomb. Before they were out the door, FDR worried out aloud about the “after-war control” of what they were creating.
In 1941, Henry Luce, publisher of Life Magazine wrote of “The American Century”. Henry Wallace one year later wrote his rebuttal “the Century of the Common Man” – it became his most influential speech. Copies of it were distributed as the example of what America stood for. Grandpa had seen with his own eyes what Luce would not discuss - terrible poverty in Appalachia, the Mississippi, and the Great Smokies. FDR, grandpa, and Ickes all felt Britain had to let India become independent, especially after 2.1 to 3 million Bengalis died by famine in 1943, by Britain keeping food and ships away. Grandpa thought it hypocritical to fight Japan’s imperialism while ignoring Britain’s. Grandpa since 1941 had chaired the Board of Economic Warfare (procuring strategic materials for the war effort) putting him in the number two slot behind FDR. Conservatives hated grandpa because he also tried to improve living standards in other countries, and had become outspoken on race. And he had publicly defined an American fascist as one who “puts money and power ahead of human beings.” How dare he! Grandpa was dealing with basic facts of procurement, like the fact that each US destroyer consumed 3,000 gallons of oil per hour. The author says, “Wallace was no more naive about Stalinist Russia than Roosevelt, Hopkins and Ickes (p.396).” In 1952, he publicly acknowledges his naivete about Stalin. Anyway, FDR appointed grandpa as Secretary of Commerce in early 1945, he held that position under Truman for a bit as well.
The Four “Lieutenants” of This Book: The author says of Perkins, Ickes, Hopkins and grandpa (the subjects of this book), only Hopkins and grandpa knew about the Manhattan Project. The author also says grandpa was the last of the four to depart, when in 1946, he gave a speech at Madison Square Garden “he called on America to eliminate racism, and also to sever ties to ‘British imperialistic policy in the Near East.” Truman had approved that speech but fired him anyway because the speech got Secretary of State James Byrnes’s panties in a bunch. Speak out AGAINST racism and get fired in the “Land of Freedom”. The author says, “Wallace had more of his beliefs enacted into the New Deal than did the others (Perkins, Ickes, and Hopkins)”.
On page 432, the author mentions that grandpa’s company Hi-Bred Corn became a “global colossus” and he used shares from it to create the Wallace Genetic Foundation, and that my father then creates the Wallace Global Fund for “sustainable development” (as if you can actually have sustainable development, especially under capitalism), but the author does not also mention that I then created the Wallace Action Fund as a progressive spin-off from the liberal Wallace Global Fund in order to stay true to grandpa’s progressive (not liberal) leanings. Wallace Action Fund has been the sole funder of transcribing every thing Noam Chomsky has written or publicly spoken about, and the sole funder of the Henry A. Wallace police crime database (the largest database of US police crimes).
This was a very good book and I’m glad I read it, and you will be too.
July 3, 2023
In Unlikely Heroes Derek Leebaert posits that four key New Dealers—Frances Perkins, Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickes and Henry Wallace—were the foundation of the Roosevelt era. They managed the alphabet soup of the Great Depression (156 agencies) and oversaw the enormous transformation of the US economy.And after Pearl Harbor they deployed the techniques they had honed to harness the largest rearmament production in human history. Their remits went far beyond their cabinet responsibilities as FDR leaned on them for all 12 years of his presidency. Leebaert is at best mixed in his judgement of the president who oversaw it all. He sees FDR as a chaotic manager who could be mean and vindictive. A man with few human attachments. But FDR was a much more complex figure than that. His ability to recognize talent and marshall it saved America from collapse and the world from fascist domination.
March 8, 2023
Unlikely Heroes by Derek Leebaert is a book that tells the story of Franklin Roosevelt's four closest advisors during World War II. As a longtime admirer of Henry Wallace, I found this book to be a great exploration of the role that Wallace played in shaping policy during this critical period.
Wallace was a visionary who believed in a progressive and globalist approach to foreign policy, advocating for a post-war world built on multilateralism, economic development, and cooperation among nations. Leebaert's book provides a comprehensive account of the members of Roosevelt's administration, all of whom made important contributions.
Throughout the book, Leebaert makes a compelling case for the "lieutenants'" contributions to the war effort, arguing that they played a vital role in shaping the US government's approach to diplomacy, economics, and military strategy. Leebaert also highlights Wallace's efforts to promote racial equality and social justice, an often-overlooked aspect of his legacy.
Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the politics and ideology of FDR's era, and those looking for one of the moments things in the US started really going downhill: the 1944 DNC that nominated Truman.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
Wallace was a visionary who believed in a progressive and globalist approach to foreign policy, advocating for a post-war world built on multilateralism, economic development, and cooperation among nations. Leebaert's book provides a comprehensive account of the members of Roosevelt's administration, all of whom made important contributions.
Throughout the book, Leebaert makes a compelling case for the "lieutenants'" contributions to the war effort, arguing that they played a vital role in shaping the US government's approach to diplomacy, economics, and military strategy. Leebaert also highlights Wallace's efforts to promote racial equality and social justice, an often-overlooked aspect of his legacy.
Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the politics and ideology of FDR's era, and those looking for one of the moments things in the US started really going downhill: the 1944 DNC that nominated Truman.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
June 17, 2023
Title: Unlikely Heroes
Author: Derek Leebaert
Release Date: February 28th, 2023
Page Count: 476
Format: Netgalley/Audiobook
Start Date: April 1st, 2023
Finish Date: April 2nd, 2023
Rating: 5 Stars
Review:
There were so many things about FDR that I just didn't know. I feel like this book humanized him. I mean I get that we are all humans. Don't get me wrong. It's just that sometimes we only see political people in a certain way. It's a refreshing change to see them put in a more personal light so to speak. I also didn't know anything about the people who were on his team that held his standards and embraced many of his actions. This is another book that I want to get a physical copy of to annotate. I think I talked my mom's ear off about this book to the point of annoying her!
Author: Derek Leebaert
Release Date: February 28th, 2023
Page Count: 476
Format: Netgalley/Audiobook
Start Date: April 1st, 2023
Finish Date: April 2nd, 2023
Rating: 5 Stars
Review:
There were so many things about FDR that I just didn't know. I feel like this book humanized him. I mean I get that we are all humans. Don't get me wrong. It's just that sometimes we only see political people in a certain way. It's a refreshing change to see them put in a more personal light so to speak. I also didn't know anything about the people who were on his team that held his standards and embraced many of his actions. This is another book that I want to get a physical copy of to annotate. I think I talked my mom's ear off about this book to the point of annoying her!
September 15, 2023
This is one of the better books that I have read about FDR and his colleagues. I thought the author did a very good job of getting at the contrasting parts of FDR's personality and really shown a light on the contributions of his "four lieutenants" to his administration. I have read a lot about Frances Perkins but this book was full of good info on Ickes, Hopkins and Wallace. I also thought the author's allusions to things that happened in FDR's time and things that are happening now were insightful - if a little scary!
March 16, 2023
Historians and writers continue to surprise as unique studies of the complex, devious and heroic Franklin D. Roosevelt are published. In these pages the Depression era and World War II leader is seen in relationship with four administration figures who stayed for the whole twelve plus years of the administration. Seriously social-minded Frances "Madame" Perkins who as Labor Secretary broke the cabinet room glass ceiling and gave us Social Security. The curmudgeon, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes cited by the author as the most significant Interior Secretary in history (Douglas Brinkley in his new work may disagree). The chronically ill and death-defying right hand to FDR, Harry Hopkins, who transitioned from the domestic to the international sphere as the war approached and was fought. And the cerebral, new age before that term was coined farmer Agriculture Secretary and Vice President to be jettisoned in '44 Henry Wallace. With FDR they form five unique, trailblazing and at times frustrating heroes. And like FDR, often duplicitous but ultimately history changing. The varied, rich, scandalous and surprising private lives are touched upon. A great read!
December 7, 2022
Derek Leebaert suggests that four members of Franklin Roosevelt’s administration were outsiders, and somehow crippled, as he would become, yet they implemented the programs of the New Deal, leading America out of the Great Depression and to victory in World War II.
Roosevelt’s top advisors were Harry Lloyd Hopkins, Harold Ickes, Henry Wallace, and, uncharacteristically for the times, a woman, Frances Perkins. Each of these men and woman struggled with obstacles such as poor physical health, depression, alcoholism, complicated married life, questionable mental health, and ruined personal finances.
I don’t agree with Leebaert’s premise that Roosevelt purposely recruited wounded outsiders who brilliantly carried America from depression to thriving post-WWII. Time enhances history with a more intimate examination of a public individual’s private life. If we could look through the same lenses at four top administrators in today’s White House, I’m sure we would see the same sordid and sorrowful circumstances which plagued those of this book. No one is without problems.
Yet, if you are a student of American History, and especially of the time covered here, you will find this book to be a detailed look at the inner-workings of the Roosevelt presidency.
Roosevelt’s top advisors were Harry Lloyd Hopkins, Harold Ickes, Henry Wallace, and, uncharacteristically for the times, a woman, Frances Perkins. Each of these men and woman struggled with obstacles such as poor physical health, depression, alcoholism, complicated married life, questionable mental health, and ruined personal finances.
I don’t agree with Leebaert’s premise that Roosevelt purposely recruited wounded outsiders who brilliantly carried America from depression to thriving post-WWII. Time enhances history with a more intimate examination of a public individual’s private life. If we could look through the same lenses at four top administrators in today’s White House, I’m sure we would see the same sordid and sorrowful circumstances which plagued those of this book. No one is without problems.
Yet, if you are a student of American History, and especially of the time covered here, you will find this book to be a detailed look at the inner-workings of the Roosevelt presidency.
October 7, 2023
I was disappointed in this book. Let's start with the cover art - photos of FDR and his associates, colorized with weird red lips -actually creepy looking. The early chapters of the book introduce four FDR aides who were instrumental to his progressive policies and political success. These chapters are loaded with details but written in a slapdash manner with the author frequently making side comments - personal opinions - that are irrelevant or downright confusing. This book needed some serious editing. The author relates incidents of the personal lives of Hopkins, Ickes, Perkins and Wallace. This is done even when there is no apparent connection between these salacious or tragic details and the progress of the New Deal. It feels like they are added to spice things up. it seems like the story becomes more coherent as the book progresses, but I found it tough going.
February 12, 2023
For my complete review, visit www.bargain-sleuth.com.
I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of Unlikely Heroes by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
If you’re familiar with my blog, then you know that I am very familiar with the Roosevelt family. Well over 60 books read so I’ve given up counting. I’ve read flattering portraits of FDR and I’ve read critical accounts, too. This book falls somewhere in-between.
Roosevelt’s top advisor was Harry Hopkins, a sickly man living on borrowed time. His three most trusted advisors of his cabinet were Harold Ickes, Henry Wallace, and the first female member of the cabinet, Frances Perkins. Each of these people had terrible strains in their personal lives, whether it was Hopkins bad health, or Perkins’ husband’s Bi-Polar disorder, or Ickes complicated love life. Several of them had serious money troubles despite their above-average salaries as government officials.
If you haven’t read a great deal about Roosevelt’s administration, this book is a great introduction. It does plod at times, but only in parts, and is overall a great book to add to my Presidents library.
I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of Unlikely Heroes by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
If you’re familiar with my blog, then you know that I am very familiar with the Roosevelt family. Well over 60 books read so I’ve given up counting. I’ve read flattering portraits of FDR and I’ve read critical accounts, too. This book falls somewhere in-between.
Roosevelt’s top advisor was Harry Hopkins, a sickly man living on borrowed time. His three most trusted advisors of his cabinet were Harold Ickes, Henry Wallace, and the first female member of the cabinet, Frances Perkins. Each of these people had terrible strains in their personal lives, whether it was Hopkins bad health, or Perkins’ husband’s Bi-Polar disorder, or Ickes complicated love life. Several of them had serious money troubles despite their above-average salaries as government officials.
If you haven’t read a great deal about Roosevelt’s administration, this book is a great introduction. It does plod at times, but only in parts, and is overall a great book to add to my Presidents library.
August 16, 2025
leebaert takes up the task of showing that 4 of FDR's inner circle, frances perkins, harry hopkins, harold ickes, and henry wallace, were his "Key lieutenants" in peace and war. And helped execute FDR's policies in peace and war.
Leebaert makes a case that these 4 "progressive" and warmongering cabinet members (Wallace was AG secretary before becoming VP, and Hopkins was commerce secretary before WW II) were friends and worked together to advance a leftwing, anti-fascist agenda.
This goes against mainstream history which writes off Perkins as a mediocrity, Wallace as a flake, and Ickes as an unstable egomaniac, sidelined by FDR after Pearl Harbor. The only one accepted as important was Hopkins. Starting in 1940, Hopkins was FDR's main advisor on military and Foreign policy and carried on as a combined Chief-0f-staff and NS advisor.
I think Leebaert shows the other 3 were more important than commonly thought. Although he has to overstate his case.
Summary - an interesting book for those obsessed with FDR and his presidency
Leebaert makes a case that these 4 "progressive" and warmongering cabinet members (Wallace was AG secretary before becoming VP, and Hopkins was commerce secretary before WW II) were friends and worked together to advance a leftwing, anti-fascist agenda.
This goes against mainstream history which writes off Perkins as a mediocrity, Wallace as a flake, and Ickes as an unstable egomaniac, sidelined by FDR after Pearl Harbor. The only one accepted as important was Hopkins. Starting in 1940, Hopkins was FDR's main advisor on military and Foreign policy and carried on as a combined Chief-0f-staff and NS advisor.
I think Leebaert shows the other 3 were more important than commonly thought. Although he has to overstate his case.
Summary - an interesting book for those obsessed with FDR and his presidency
June 3, 2023
Interesting review of how progressive policies, dating back to the New Deal, were developed by a team of visionaries of their time. I was especially interested in the "Lieutenants" and their personal impacts. Their family members and vision is still felt in the labor and progressive movements. I do feel that more could have been made of some of the challenges the New Deal did leave, but of course that's taking a 2023 view to a 1933 vision. Learning more about Francis Perkins, who I was already fascinated by from her leadership as a woman and with the labor movement; Harold Ickes, whose son I am more familiar with from the Clinton Administration; Harry Hopkins and his work with child welfare, and then Henry Wallace, who grew up in the town where my in-laws lived was a delight.
December 28, 2023
A fresh analysis of the four main cabinet members who created and implemented the programs of the Roosevelt administration; Smoothly transitioning between the New Deal and the build up before World War II: Harry Hopkins, Francis Perkins, Henry Wallace, and Harold Ickes.
One of the things I learned from this book is that Franklin Roosevelt was transitioning to a war footing early in 1935 and 1936 through his Navy building program which was really as much about keeping people employed as military preparedness.
Also, the young men who were worked in the civilian conservation core under George Marshall in the mid 1930 ‘s provided a cohort of non commissioned officers who were readily transitioned into the army in World War II.
August 18, 2024
This book starts off with a bang but ends with a whimper. I read it because I was inspired by, “Becoming Madam Secretary,” the story of the first female Cabinet member, Frances Perkins. Perkins was one of four Cabinet who remained in FDR’s inner circle from the beginning of his presidency.
Meeting all four of them, learning their personalities was a great beginning. Seeing how their persistence and out-of-the-box thinking led them to surmount problems was a fascinating.
The end, though, got tedious for me as FDR, Stalin and Churchill can’t agree of the most appropriate campaigns through WWII. We lost track, for the most part, of our original four. At about page 320 I began counting down how many pages to the end. It was a fine book but IMO he lost his center 3/4 of the way through.
Meeting all four of them, learning their personalities was a great beginning. Seeing how their persistence and out-of-the-box thinking led them to surmount problems was a fascinating.
The end, though, got tedious for me as FDR, Stalin and Churchill can’t agree of the most appropriate campaigns through WWII. We lost track, for the most part, of our original four. At about page 320 I began counting down how many pages to the end. It was a fine book but IMO he lost his center 3/4 of the way through.
December 26, 2022
This book was a fascinating read. Dealing with FDR’s presidency this book gives fresh historical insight into not only FDR himself but also the four people he brought alongside him- his four lieutenants. Through the depression and the war, the decisions that were made and how those decisions impacted people are all dealt with. I found it especially interesting to read how the politics of that time and social reform are still influencing so much of today’s politics and social views. If you are interested in presidential history and politics I think you will enjoy this book. It is well written and well researched. #netgalley #UnlikelyHeroes
January 28, 2023
This book focuses on four Individuals who served Franklin Roosevelt during his presidency. The author goes into great detail about the challenges both individually and politically they each had to deal with. I have read a great deal bout Roosevelt and the people who supported him. While this book was good, it did seem to plod on in parts. It will be helpful for those who have not read a great deal about Roosevelt.
I received a free ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook and my nonfiction book review blog.
I received a free ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook and my nonfiction book review blog.
August 14, 2023
The intensity of Leebaert's research and the depth into which he goes is evident in the sheer length of the book. In it he provides an unadulterated view of the interactions between our five figures, including the at times strange machinations that Roosevelt would target at his Lieutenants. My only major critique would have to be the fact that in my read through the transitionings between ideas and lieutenants experience within a chapter or within a smaller referenced time frame would at times be very abrupt, making me wish for a more seamless continuation of research connections to be in place.
December 12, 2022
This was a very interesting expose of various foibles of those people who re-created America for and during WWII, but also the aftermath of the war. Those who brought us out of the Depression and created the Greatest Nation in history as a result of what was achieved during the war.
It’s a must read for all Americans. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it heartily!
I appreciate this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press, in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
It’s a must read for all Americans. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it heartily!
I appreciate this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press, in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
June 7, 2023
Fascinating look at FDR's four chief lieutenants and fellow damaged souls: Frances Perkins, Henry Wallace, Harold Ickes, and Harry Hopkins. Author Derek Leebaert makes a convincing case for the four being the absolutely indespensible New Dealers through depression and world war. There was a nice combinaton of the personal, political, and policy. I would have preferred separate chapters for each lieutenant instead of all four covered simultaneously in chronological chunks, but I got used to it after a while. Listened to audiobook. Narrator was excellent.
June 7, 2023
I've always focused more on the military aspects of World War II, so I was intrigued to learn more about the presidency of FDR and his 4 main lieutenants. It proved a fascinating look behind the scenes of an unprecedented 4 term presidency. It showed how complicated all these people were and their key roles in first getting the country through the Great Depression and then World War II. My main issue was the pacing of the book. By the time it got to World War II, there was only 100 pages left. Otherwise a fine book about that time period.
March 30, 2023
We all know the story of FDR and what he did to make America the place it is today. However, this is the story of 4 people who helped him to accomplish this almost insurmountable task. Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickes, Frances Perkins, and Henry Wallace all have a place in history, yet most of that story has not been told until now. This was a book full of things that I didn't know and loved every minute of this book.
April 10, 2023
My first non-fiction history book. I found it riveting, I couldn't put it down. . as if I didn't know how it would end. Which of course I did, I mean I have never read history books for pleasure or outside of school, but I know things. I read the last 200 pages in a sprint. Other than the weird fascination with everyone's height and eye color, it was fantastic. I'll definitely look into more from this author.
September 19, 2023
FDR A New Perspective
Written from the point of view of 4 of his closest associates and allies; this work gives an excellent view of FDR as the not so huge character depicted elsewhere. It reflects a not so perfect leader who saved the nation but President willing to try many different options and to use any means to attain his goals. It is the most honest view of his presidency I have read and I recommend it strongly.
Written from the point of view of 4 of his closest associates and allies; this work gives an excellent view of FDR as the not so huge character depicted elsewhere. It reflects a not so perfect leader who saved the nation but President willing to try many different options and to use any means to attain his goals. It is the most honest view of his presidency I have read and I recommend it strongly.
August 10, 2023
Names that were fading from history that should be known
The author has written a very readable consideration of 4 very important contributors to the eventful FDR years. The author engages the reader with very fine historical writing. These office holders really made a big difference to our society.
The author has written a very readable consideration of 4 very important contributors to the eventful FDR years. The author engages the reader with very fine historical writing. These office holders really made a big difference to our society.
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August 24, 2023Good and insightful considering during Roosevelt's terms in office they prosecuted a serious economic depression never experienced by this country and a two-front global war (WWII) and came out the other end.
There is a lot of criticism of Roosevelt but having the right people that are focused and yes humanely frail, that can work together to achieve results is pretty special.
There is a lot of criticism of Roosevelt but having the right people that are focused and yes humanely frail, that can work together to achieve results is pretty special.
January 24, 2024
This book helped me learn about the three cabinet officers and one unofficial presidential advisor, all of whom stayed with FDR throughout his presidency. But Leebaert makes many claims about the FDR administration, including what was known and secrets that were shared with Russians, that I do not feel were adequately backed up in his notes, and which I have never read anywhere else.
April 25, 2023
A good look at those who served closest to our longest serving President, in our nation's most trying time. This book delves into the interaction of Roosevelt and his cabinet as a group and individually. Well worth the time investment to read.
July 4, 2023
Could not tolerate the writing style. Trying to mesh 5 people together like they were a family when they were distinctly different people. Got 1/4 way through and realized I just didn't find it interesting.
January 12, 2024
Unlike many biographers, Leebaert has a true understanding of the complexities of FDR's personality and governance and presents a refreshingly accurate and riveting study of the influence of Ickes, Perkins, and Wallace. Bravo!
January 17, 2025
Very enlightening book about FDR and his team and how they got work done. Much to learn from these amazing men and woman. This is nice because it does not portray them as saints but as tortured people using their demons to fuel their ambition and work.
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