 2008-12-24 - mollybe
Doris Kearn is very thorough and uses many quotations from other sources. She has organized the information in an easy to read format and I trust she has gleaned the TRUTH and not her own interpretation of the facts.
2008-12-14 - A Must-Read for No Ordinary Times NOW
Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography of FDR comes at a perfect time.
Our Nation is facing the equivalent of the Great Depression AND a war
of jihad that exceeds in its tentacles a greater global threat than
Nazism. Thus, how FDR and his siginificant others played out
the drama of the 30's and 40's is more than instructive.
Blanche Premo-Hopkins
Aiken, SC
2008-12-05 - Kindle Transcription OCR Sub-Optimal
I loved the content of the book; however the optical character recognition (OCR) conversion of this book is poor. For example, "100,000 troops" is converted to "100, troops". Additionally, the "rn" letter combination sometimes converted to "m" leading to issues with names.
I hope that the publisher revises the scan and issues a new revision.
The book otherwise, I couldn't put down. Doris writes magically and the book is wonderful. The weight reduction using the Kindle outweighed the issue with the OCR, leading to a 4 stars review.
 2008-12-04 - Remarkable character portraits
This is the first book by Doris Kearns Goodwin that I've read. I've often seen her on tv and enjoyed listening to what she's had to say on presidential history. This book is a sympathetic portrait of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during the years of World War II. Few figures stand as tall in the world of twentieth century politics, partly due to circumstances ( the Great Depression and World War II), but also due to their personalities. This book is good at examining the central characters, but Goodwin is also successful in looking at the transformations going on the home front during the war years, even if not as strongly told as the characters' stories.
No doubt about it, Franklin Roosevelt was a complex individual. Part of this had to do with the fact the he was a politician and hence had to assume a certain pose, if not completely insincere, he had to at least meet certain expectations. Eleanor was clearly the more passionate and outspoken on causes of social justice. As the author ably concludes, they complimented each other as each one needed the other.
We also get so learn about those in Franklin and Eleanor's inner circles, for example, Missy LeHand, Harry Hopkins, Lorena Hickok, Anna Roosevelt, Sara Delano Roosevelt and others. The role of Lucy Mercer Rutherford also comes into play later in the book. I found myself understanding both Anna's and Eleanor's point of view on Lucy's role, though Eleanor was his wife. The nature of the relationship between Franklin and Eleanor was indeed complex and gets a lot of attention in this book, but it is a topic that I found of great interest.
Obviously world events are the context in which Franklin and Eleanor are seen. Franklin was playing a delicate dance in trying not to move too far ahead of public opinion, while at the same time trying to help the American public see the importance of what was going on in the world and what was at stake. The nation was woefully unprepared for war in the early 1940s and much work needed to be done to get the nation on a war footing. This would become America's stamp on the Second World War: it's capacity (through government and business partnership) to produce war materials in such breathtaking and stupendous quantities and using that industrial might to overwhelm the enemy.
We also get to learn of Roosevelt's third and fourth presidential campaigns, the lighter moments at Hyde Park and other places, the relationship forged with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Big Three meetings, the strategies for both theaters of the war, plans for the future and the failing health of America's Commander-In-Chief. Controversies such as the failure to prevent the European Holocaust from its further implementation, the Japanese internment camps formed in the United States, and the ongoing struggles for equality between blacks and whites are discussed, including Franklin Roosevelt's role in these issues, as well as Eleanor's.
Reading of the president's declining health was quite sad. His last days in Warm Springs, Georgia, the reactions by Eleanor and others on his death, and the legacies he left are all told with feeling. As mentioned earlier, this is a sympathetic account of the Roosevelts, but one I think most would agree with. This was truly no ordinary time.
2008-11-25 - Review of the FDR Era
Being a Baby Boomer, I always wanted to understand the former generation's affinity to FDR and Eleanor. Doris Kearns Goodwin in her Pulitzer Prize winning book, creates a visualization of the people and the times quite well. Never knew FDR was such a ladies man, or that Eleanor overcame such a disfunctional early family life to become a leading example of feminism well ahead of her time.
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