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Summary: No Ordinary Time
Review: Doris Kearns Goodwin writes with a relaxed yet authoritative style. The reader truly feels a connection with the characters. Ms. Goodwin reveals frailties, strengths, rationale, and frames all within various anecdotes that elicits laughter and at times, tears.She is not judgemental, but does interpret events in an acceptably objective framework. FDR may rise above his peers, and Ms. Goodwin does not change that perspective, but the gap between FDR and his peers existed largely due to his strength of belief and a wife whose infidelity by her husband, launched contributions by a First Lady that have not been paralleled since. Truly a fine work.
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Summary: Behind the scenes in WWII
Review: I received this as a gift two years ago, set it aside on my "to be read" pile, and there it sat. Then a trip with the prospect of waiting time in airports brought it to the top of the pile, and I must say I wish I had gotten to it sooner. This is truly engrossing, well-researched, revelatory. One feels at the end a new appreciation for the wartime achievements of Eleanor Roosevelt in particular, as the book seems to take more her point of view than Franklin's. Either way, I found this vastly entertaining and informative, gracefully written, and an important adjunct to the more formal histories of World War II.
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Summary: An Amazing History By A Top-notch Author
Review: The sheer volume of work generated by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during World War II was (and is) staggering. Not only did America fight overseas, but it mobilized at home on a scale that seems fantastical to us today. What we do with modems, email and computers, they did with telegrams, letters, phones, and typewriters. Forget about cable TV and network news. The media machine ran on newspapers, radio waves, and newsreels at the movies. And yet with these relatively low-tech mediums, the Roosevelts mobilized the nation out of the Great Depression and into the mass production of enough munitions and surplus to win the war. Goodwin is a stirring historian, and the book is truly an achievement. Though Goodwin's words are effusive, it's not motivated by flag-waving. Instead, her subjects have a poignant humanity with all its heroic and fallible qualities. The book is a long one, but if you're investing any time finding out more about the Roosevelts and the American homefront, there's no one better than Doris Kearns Goodwin to hear it from.
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Summary: Can't put it down
Review: Like most people educated in the US, history classes generally managed to stay pretty detailed until roughly the civil war, then as the spring arrives, we ended up rushing through the 20th century not getting a whole lot of the details. So it's been with some delight that I've been reading this book, filling in the details. Focusing primarily on the lead-up to Roosevelt's third term through his death, Kearns manages to provide enough detail and background to keep the reader informed and engaged throughout. It is, though somewhat disturbing while reading this to realize how far to the right the US as tacked in the last 60 years.
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Summary: Two Great Americans
Review: This is a insightful look at two people who inspired and lead this nation though the depression and World War II. The book gives life to their stuggle to give USA back to its average citizen and preparing a reluctant nation to be a world power.
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Summary: FDR during WW2
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. I feel that the author did an excellent job of writing about President Franklin Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor during the second world war. I found it to be a very interesting and informative book. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the second world war or in the Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
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Summary: Wonderful portrait of FDR and Eleanor's loves and lives.
Review: Despite its length, I loved this book. But then again I would hope that 13 years in the White House would merit 600+ pages. The author may romanticize the harmony of the White House by not delving too deeply into the private relationships of both ER and FDR, however she pulls no punches in defining their relationship with each other. What a team they were. Eleanor as a tireless worker pushing her husband to make a difference in the lives of women, minorities, the poor and immigrants and FDR, the political realist who maybe knows his wife is correct, but uncertain whether the Republican/Southern Democrat coalition will allow him to enact liberal legislation. ER's almost radical agenda tempered by the realism of FDR's political savvy mixed in with a "vast right wing conspiracy" draws many parallels to the recent Clinton administration and proves again that history is cyclical The Roosevelt marriage was not a conventional one, but in the love and admiration were still a central component to their relationship and in the end, their teamwork/partnership defines this unordinary time. I am certainly happy that I read this book and would read Goodwin again.
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Summary: History that brings legends to life
Review: I found this to be a fascinating book on my political heroes. Once you get half way thru the book you find yourself absorbed in the White House activities during WWII. Doris Kearns Goodwin weaves this story so well, it is downright escapism. Everytime Churchill showed up I nearly giggled with glee. FDR was the greatest President we'll ever have, and Eleanor was part of the reason why. I came away from the book more enthralled with her and her passion than anything. More than deserving of the Pulitzer Prize.
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Summary: Obviously, I'm not alone when I say...
Review: this is one of the finest books I've read on World War II. I read it several years ago & was going to read it again but instead opted for the audio version. To me, Edward Hermann is the next best thing to FDR. This is Doris Kearns Goodwin's finest work. This a social history. It is about life in the White House during World War II. FDR surrounded himself with people whom he loved & who loved him. But it is also about what the president needed. What he needed was a support system as he dealt with the war. He had a grand plan. It was like a blueprint. But the only copy was in his mind & only he knew how all the parts fit. Eleanor shows up from time to time to generally bum him out. Where her council was valuable on domestic issues during peace time she became a depressed head case when FDR didn't need her as much, the war becoming his top priority. The war was all a healthy man could handle & FDR was not well. She did not see his declining health & pushed him. Her hectoring drove him back to the old love of his youth, Lucy Rutherford. She gave him what he needed in his last days without asking for anything in return. This book is not an easy read necessarily but it is easy to stay with & is throughly enjoyable. America has been lucky to have great leaders in her times of greatest crises, (Washington, Lincoln & FDR ), who were equal to the task.
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Summary: Not for those of limited intellectual curiosity
Review: Is there anything worse than an intellectual snob? Yes, a psuedo-intellectual snob like brothersjudd with a political agenda. Goodwin's straightforward, rather old-fashioned, biography/history is ctiticized as being for those of "limited intellectual curiosity" because she does not challenge the Roosevelt's living arrangements, or point out some other shortcomings on FDR's part. brothersjudd, coming from a conservative point of view, refuses to acknowledge the exceptional nature of FDR and his achievments (can't give those liberals credit for anything), and therefors finds fault in Goodwin's book because she is not harsh enough on the Roosevelts. But the proof of FDR's greatness is not so much in the affection he engendered in the liberal community, but the respect he earned from conservatives like Churchill and American military leaders. Is there room for criticism, of course, but it should be honest, and not transperantly political.
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