Rating: 
Summary: Why the Roosevelts Were Great
Review: After listening to FDR and his wife being demonized on talk radio all these years, it was refreshing to read an objective book about them.The story of FDR is inspirational. He was the greatest president of this century, and he belongs on Mount Rushmore. How exciting to read how he led us through the War to victory, and how he treated his fellow citizens as human beings and not subjects. Just an incredible genious for politics and for having a "big picture" approach to leading the country. Eleanor was the greatest First Lady of this century; she showed that a First Lady is capable of doing more than just picking out china patterns for the White House. Was Eleanor a "busy-body"? She sure was, God bless her. She noodged her husband every time she came across bigotry and unfairness in this country. This book reminded me of how wonderful it is to be a liberal.
Rating: 
Summary: for those of limited intellectual curiosity
Review: Doris Kearns Goodwin is the kind of earnest Liberal who it is hard to dislike. But this book joins David McCullough's Truman, Arthur Schlesinger's A Thousand Days and Robert Dallek's LBJ biography to complete the set of hagiographies of the pre-Carter Democrat Presidents. It is an extremely lightweight, but very readable account of the Roosevelts during the War years. It is ideal for anyone who wants a glossy portrait of the topic and does not want to have any of their vacuous preconceptions called into question. As the book opens, in May 1940, we are presented with the truly bizarre menagerie that was the Roosevelt White House. Franklin and Eleanor have separate bedrooms--and have been estranged since Eleanor found out about his affair with Lucy Mercer in 1918. Missy LeHand, FDR's "secretary & hostess", lives on the third floor. Lorena Hickcock, Eleanor's "special friend" lives in the bedroom across the hall from the first lady. Sara Roosevelt, FDR's mother, is frequently on hand, as are Harry Hopkins (FDR's friend & Eleanor's ally), Joe Lash (the young left-winger & future biographer whom Eleanor loves), Princess Martha of Norway (who FDR shares intimate moments with), and on and on... But Goodwin assures us that all of these relationships are perfectly straightforward and innocent. Goodwin briefly describes FDR's childhood. She trots out the well worn story of his domineering mother, his blackballing by the Porcellian Club at Harvard, etc. All of which leave him with an "anxiety to please". However, she never really connects the dots & explores how this trait (a weakness/strength that he shares with Reagan and Clinton), and it's resulting tendency to dither over decisions, lead him to needlessly hurt & confuse people. Instead the chaos that attended his governing style and his personal relationships is presented as a kind of intentional creative force. Of course, FDR's paralysis from polio is presented as the formative experience in his life. It is hard to imagine that it would not shape his character somehow, but did it have a beneficial effect? She accepts Eleanors statement that, "Anyone who has gone through great suffering is bound to have a greater sympathy and understanding of the problems of mankind." This is balderdash. They're likely to understand the suffering of others who are crippled. But the great mass of mankind is not handicapped and if his polio led FDR to govern as if all men are dependents, this is something that needs to be examined and dealt with. Instead we are assured that FDR had a special understanding, that you and I don't have, because of his disease. In the nation meanwhile, eight years of the New Deal has still left the country with a 17% unemployment rate. But Goodwin assures us that the New Deal has been a resounding success. And now a second crisis (the War) approaches which is even more fearful than the first (the Depression). What can she possibly mean by this? In what sense was World War II, especially in it's early stages, a dire crisis for America? We were never seriously threatened. There was never a chance of the Nazis winning & holding power in Europe. What crisis? Suppose it was a crisis, why did it take FDR two years to get us into the War? (Even then, only the bombing of Pearl Harbor made it possible.) If FDR was a great leader, why were these leadership skills not evident prior to December 7, 1941. At any rate, War in Europe rages. FDR faces a decision that fairly few President's ever faced. Should he run for a third term. Now George Washington was one of the few who could actually have won a third term, but he considered it more important that the Nation be governed by laws and not men, so he stepped down. Following his example, no other President had stood for a third election. But Goodwin barely acknowledges the fact that FDR's decision to run was a significant step on the way to the Imperial Presidency which finally came a cropper under JFK, LBJ & Nixon. Later, when FDR actually runs & wins a fourth term, she not only ignores this issue, she ignores the fact that he was a dying man, with little chance of finishing his term. It was an act of extraordinary irresponsibility to put the country in a position where it would be governed by a virtual unknown in time of war. But by this time, as one observer remarked "...he had ceased to be a person; he was simply the president. If something was good for him, it was good; if it had no function for him as president, it didn't exist." Here are a few other issues that warrant fuller treatment: 1) Did the internment of the Japanese flow from something within FDR? He often used hateful language in describing those, like the America Firsters, who disagreed with him. Was he prone to seeing the Japanese as enemies, because it was easy for him to imagine enemies? 2) What was the point of taking Europe away from the Nazis and giving it to the Soviets? Was that his intent? 3) When the war ended US debt was 127% of GNP. If our current debt of maybe 60% is so awful, as I'm sure she argued during the Reagan years, then how could he have saddled us with twice that amount? 4) FDR used the Greer incident to justify convoying British ships. He claimed that a U-boat fired on the US ship Greer without provocation. This was a lie and as Goodwin points out, it bore bitter fruit in the Tonkin Gulf. But isn't such deceitfulness an integral part of FDR's career? He cheated on Eleanor (understandably perhaps, since she once told a daughter that sex was "an ordeal to be borne"), lied about his marriage, lied about his physical condition, etc. Wasn't lying his modus operandi? Goodwin answers none of these questions, & for the most part doesn't raise them, because it's probably never occurred to her to ask them. She began work on this book believing the Roosevelts were demi-gods, but found she'd underestimated them. As a general proposition, I'd recommend the book for those of limited intellectual curiosity. GRADE: C+
Rating:
Summary: Give us some more, Doris!
Review: Doris Kearns Goodwin has written a delicious, comprehensive biography of the Roosevelts from a slightly differnt perspective than the other umpteen-hundred Roosevelt biographers. This angle gave her the luxury of devoting a lot of space (and thus, detail) to developing her interpretation of their relationship "on the home front" in World War II. Whether you are liberal, conservative, Republican, or Democrat, you will absolutely devour this book and form a generally favorable (and well deserved) impression of both key players. Eleanor was entirely duty-driven, obsessive in pursuing and championing her interests, thoroughly selfless, and a towering figure of the early 1940's. In Ms. Goodwin's pages you will see how crucial Mrs. Roosevelt was to her husband politically, particularly at the 1940 Democratic Convention. Her relationship with FDR was complicated, to say the least, and Ms. Goodwin does a marvelous job in making the reader understand exactly what that relationship was, and why it not only worked, but (in a way) actually florished. This is the most readable of all the Roosevelt biographies I have read; I did not want it to end...it left me wanting more.
Rating:
Summary: No Ordinary Time
Review: This is a great piece of work. Ms. Goodwin has compiled all the facts into a intresting book that informs the reader in a very entertaining way. You will learn about the Roosevelt's as well as the people whom they surrounded theirselves with. Never has the White House had such a diverse and numerous collection of people living there at one time. Learning about the influence that these people had on our nations leaders was the most profound knowledge that this book delivered to me.
Rating:
Summary: Well Written and Easy to Read
Review: Doris Kearns Goodwin has written a very enjoyable book. It takes a different view of presidential history by focusing on the family life of Franklin and Elanor Roosevelt and the life enjoyed by their official family during their White House years. By focusing on the perosnal side, this book provides glimpses at facets of the Roosevelt story that are either ignored by standard histories or covered in passing. That is not to say this book is not serious history -- it is -- just from a different vantage point. One is much more likely to learn about FDR the man (and Eleanor the woman) than thay would in say James McGreggor Burn's excellent FDR biography. There are also excellent passages on their relationships with the luminaries who made the time...Churchill, Hopkins, Ikes and the New Deal crew. Since so much related to getting things done revolves around relationships, this focus helps in the understanding of how the great events of the 1930's came to be. The gossipy stuff is in here too -- affairs, the questions surrounding Eleanor's "friends" and FDR's personal foibles and habits. Goodwin to her credit does not treat these issues salaciously, but as part of the story to understanding the Roosevelts. She is an excellent author and has produced a very enjoyable history of her subjects. Can't wait for her upcoming book on the day to day activities of President Lincoln. It she meets this standard, that will be a fascinating book.
Rating:
Summary: No Ordinary Work
Review: This book is a triumph! Doris Kearns Goodwin has managed to give us a captivating glimpse of the towering figures that were Franklin and Eleanor. I found myself cheering and then weeping and then cheering again. No true biography fan should miss this monumental work. Doris Goodwin has a unique ability to transport the reader to the very time and place of her subjects.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the Best Biography Ever
Review: No Ordinary Time certainly deserved the Pulitzer it received. Goodwin has fashioned a story that both portrays the epic nature of FDR and Eleanor as well as depict them as human beings, capable of the same kinds of personal idiosyncracies as anyone else. Of all of the many virtues of this book, perhaps its greatest achievement is that it provides such a rich understanding of the pressures of the Office of the President and of the White House. It shows how FDR's and Eleanor's relationship changed and evolved, based both on their feelings for one another but also on the tremendous pressue they were under. Eleanor is depicted as being a farsighted, visionary thinker (and doer), and probably she was the one of this couple who was really interested in creating a new and fairer society. FDR was not an activist by nature, but proved his greatness by responding to two of the greatest threats this country has ever seen -- the Depression and WWII. His whole goal in the late 1930s and early 1940s was to get the USA ready (despite fierce opposition) for the war he knew would come. While Eleanor lobbied him for human rights, worker rights, etc., he had a different set of concerns on his mind, and Goodwin brilliantly recounts this. Goodwin also is masterful in examining their own complex, symbiotic, ever-shifting relationship. She convincingly describes why both Eleanor and FDR felt the need to go outside his marriage for companionship and love, while never apologizing for it or excusing it. As you read this book, you will inevitably gain insight into Bill and Hillary Clinton and their relationship and their public policy efforts. Those who routinely criticize Bill Clinton for his vague and seemingly shifting stances on public issues will see the antecedents in FDR's stance on involvement in WWII. To sum up, this is about as perfect as a biography can get. It is informative, entertaining, dispassionate, and discriminating. It is history that will change how you think about current events. It is an absolute masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: good, but gossipy
Review: I found this book to be historically satisfactory, but I thought it lingered excessively on FDR and ER's respective extramarital relatioships. It speculated on what exactly the nature of the relationships were, and then tried to justify its speculation by arguing hos these relationships may or may not have affected the couple's historical meaning.
Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal Book about phenomenal people
Review: As a student of history, I found this book to be a classic gem. Doris Kearns Goodwin is a truly gifted author with a keen insight into American political history. This book made me feel like I knew the Roosevelt's well and that I was a part of that time (which I wasn't). Reading like a diary, the pages flowed beautifully back and forth from Franklin's world into Eleanor's life, and vice versa. It made me realize how truly special the Roosevelt's were and that together they devoted their lives to keeping this country alive and the world safe from Nazis. Regardless of what conclusion one would make about the Roosevelt's personal lives, it is clear that they had an understanding of what kind of working business relationship they both needed to keep this country working well. What a team effort during the most crucial period of American history during the past century. As soon as I finished this book, I bought Wait Till Next Year, a memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin. My wife just finished it ( and loved it), and I can't wait to start it.
Rating: 
Summary: Inspiring Biography (Not quite broader History)
Review: No Ordinary Time is a wonderfully well written biography which tells the story of "Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt -- The Home Front in World War II." Doris Kearns Goodwin has made a number of choices to tell her biographical story with deceptive simplicity. I personally don't think the book quite manages to completely encompass "The Home Front in World War II" along the way, and I probably didn't want it to; instead it tells the story of the war through the Roosevelts' fascinating circle of White House "family" members, with broader historical themes touching on that story. The personal story works. I've never read quite this sort of parallel biography before. In a lot of ways the relationship between FDR and his astonishingly complex, compassionate wife makes a perfect lens through which to view the times. Goodwin has plenty of chances to let Eleanor's various interests touch on different aspects of American life; hardly anything escapes the first lady's list of interests and causes, so there's no strain to include anything, that's for sure. I sometimes found myself, though, wishing the emphasis was more squarely on biography proper. Four or five times in reading the book, I became momentarily bogged down in passages involving, say, big picture statistics, and wanted to concentrate on the motives and feelings of Eleanor and Franklin again. In particular, Eleanor's various interests often serve to introduce some new social issue, and I wanted to really understand *her* appreciation of things rather than reading a set of statistics she wouldn't have had access to anyway. Honestly, though, No Ordinary Time breathes life into these people. You come away from the book understanding that they could be huge, monumental figures and yet be complex and flawed and very human at the same time. There's no taking away from the heart of the book. It's told well, and it makes a wonderful, rich, rewarding read.
| 
