FDR's blueprint for a fearless America
A new biography on the US president shows a leader willing to risk and fail.
from the June 5, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Commanding a nation in tatters
FDR first gained national attention as part of the losing Democratic presidential ticket in the 1920 election. From that point on, he remained a pivotal figure in the party, first as governor of New York and later as president.
Roosevelt first won the presidency in 1932 and held the office for the rest of his life. FDR took command of a nation in tatters. Unemployment rates soared above 30 percent, leaving 12 million Americans without jobs. By 1933, 45 percent of farm mortgages faced foreclosure. Between 1929 and 1932, auto production plummeted 65 percent, steel by 59 percent. Those daunting conditions spurred the most effective legislative session in American history, now known simply as The Hundred Days. Filled with spontaneity, daring improvisation, and creative solutions, the session rescued the American banking system, ushered in a wave of government recovery programs and forever altered Americans' expectations of home ownership and labor standards.
Not all of it worked, but much of it did – and lasts to this day. The first Roosevelt Congressional session embodied the president's political philosophy. "Take a method and try it," he once said. "If it fails, admit it and try another. But above all, try something." His willingness to alter the traditional landscape bears a reminder in the current political era, particularly among politicians who seem stuck on never adapting Roosevelt-era programs such as Social Security. Smith makes clear that Roosevelt sought solutions on a constant basis – and considered few of his programs sacred to the point of never being altered. Smith breaks little new ground in his portrait of FDR, but he deftly synthesizes the reams of existing material and weaves a clear, compelling account of Roosevelt's lengthy political career.
Here is Eleanor Roosevelt, prone to flirtations of her own as FDR carries on a poorly concealed lifelong love affair with Lucy Mercer Rutherford. Despite a marriage that devolved into a political partnership (the Clintons' forerunners?) at the expense of romantic love, Eleanor and Franklin respected one another in touching ways even as they lived largely separate lives.
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