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Reviews: A Presidency Based on Hope
A Traitor to his Class: the Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of FDR, by H. W. Brands. The patrician Roosevelt was the last person one might expect to appeal to the masses of jobless and nearly hopeless in 1932—but it was Roosevelt who reached beyond his own experience to connect with Americans in a way no previous president ever had before.
The Defining Moment : FDR’s Hundred days and the Triumph of Hope, by Jonathan Alter. Alter’s title is too narrow—his book covers FDR’s life until 1932, his political career, the election and transition, and only then reaches the famous “hundred days.” It’s a good introduction to one of our most revered presidents.
Nothing to Fear: FDR’s Inner Circle and the Hundred Days that Created Modern America, by Adam Cohen. This timely book spotlights five important FDR appointees who, while their ideas often clashed, provided crucial assistance to FDR in constructing the New Deal.
American Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA, When FDR Put the Nation to Work, by Nick Taylor. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was the model on which all subsequent public works programs have been based, enabling millions of unemployed to support themselves, their families and the country by building dams, roads, courthouses, and much more.
Georgia During the Great Depression, by Anita Price Davis. This pictorial account of Georgia in the 1930s pulls together photos, postcards, interviews and much more to create a picture of the Peach State and its citizens enduring one of its most trying periods of history.
FDR v. the Constitution, by Burt Solomon. FDR didn’t have it all his own way – in 1936, after winning re-election, he tried to diminish the power of the Supreme Court, which had often derailed government programs central to the New Deal. The “court-packing” fight, perceived as a direct challenge to the Founders, was one of FDR’s greatest defeats.
FDR: Years of Crisis (DVD). This A&E Television Biography episode follows the life and career of FDR in the years before he became president and explores the forces that shaped his vision.
FDR (DVD). Full of documentary footage, this program from the PBS Video series American Experience follows FDR’s life through his presidency, including newsreels of the president at his Warm Springs retreat.
- Tags: FDR, government programs, Great Depression, history, recession, Roosevelt
- Filed Under: Reviews
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