The Roosevelts and the Royals : Franklin and Eleanor, the King and Queen of England, and the Friendship that Changed History

Rating:
Summary: A Great Royal - Roosevelt Read.
Review: An excellent recollection of the relationship between the Roosevelts and the King and Queen of England. This book is filled with fascinating details, stories and antedotes that keeps the reader engrossed from beginning to end. Will Swift clearly has a great understanding not only of British Royal History but American History as well, this knowledge combined with a effortless, free flowing writing style makes this book a pleasure to read. For anyone with a interest in the Roosevelts and/or the King and Queen of England this is a definite must read. Don't miss this book and the story of infamous first royal hot dog.

Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Account of Fascinating Historical Figures
Review: If you like a blend of biography and history as I do, you will love this book. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth are vividly portrayed here. Their alliance and, later friendship, and their commitment to mix charm and duty for the public good are set against Joseph Kennedy and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's self-serving attempts to gain attention and power. The author, a psychologist, shows us the inner workings and motivations of all the main characters without sounding like he is doing a case study.
Most of us are aware how FDR and Churchill worked together to build the "special relationship" between America and Britain, but this book rounds out the story by showing the complicated three-way partnership between Churchill, Roosevelt and the king. I was surprised by how little I knew about the king and queen's role in softening American isolationism and in persuading Roosevelt to send war materials to Britain when it was at the brink of extinction.
I was fascinated by how the king and queen won over Americans in Washington and New York during their 1939 state visit. The author gives us the full drama of the hot dog picnic at Hyde Park and explores how it helped to heal British-American relations.
The Roosevelts and the royal family remained friends until Eleanor's death in 1962. There is a wonderful vignette in the book about Eleanor's visit with her granddaughter to Buckingham Palace for tea with Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. The Roosevelt- royal connection has recently been revived by Prince Andrew on visits to Hyde Park.
The author has obviously done his homework- with careful research at both the FDR Library and Windsor Castle- and has talked to many of the Roosevelt grandchildren. Like Jon Meacham's Franklin and Winston, and Doris Kearns Goodwin's No Ordinary Time, this book brings historical relationships to life, and provides an accurate depiction of a period in time. This is a truly impressive biography of four of the twentieth century's greatest leaders.

Rating:
Summary: Boring, melodramatic, padded!
Review: Please, FIVE stars? The professional book review above says it all -- this book is melodramaticly written & padded to the nth degree. And for all that Hugo Vickers (per the Author's introduction) was supposed to have read it from cover to cover before publishing, it's got flawed research & repeats hoary old gossip as the truth (but then, Vickers isn't much of a writer either). Too much 'reaching' being done by the author. A few good anecdotes but not much else here; give it a pass.



Rating:
Summary: Hot Dogs Symbolize Core American Values....
Review: The potential audience for this engaging work extends far beyond the royal watchers. Will Swift's unique lens framing The Roosevelts and the Royals brilliantly illustrates the political culture tie (not ascot) that binds. This psychologist masterfully showcases the subtlety that allowed the American public to access the royalty from which they once fled. As world reknowned Seymour Martin Lipset tells us in his theory of American exceptionalism, Americans have more values that join them than separate them-but always assumed that these value distinctions are what cut the cord from the mother country. The visit between the Roosevelts and the Royals tapped a major American vein, the undercurrent of core American values-egalitarianism, populism, individualism, laissez faire and liberty. We were "free" to serve hot dogs, what many Americans might be dining on in picnics across America. Compelling in both organization and writing, the book reveals the ultimate complexity of people, and that leaders can serve distinctive purposes in different time periods, often based on our fundamental orientations as people. Perhaps only such a well-trained psychologist could detect and successfully communicate what resonated between these people, in quite genuinely a friendship that changed history, and could capture the symbolical roots of the now formidable US-British alliance. Swift is able to show the generational learning the can occur between countries-the mother country, and the rebellion of the fledgling toddler nation, who ultimately sees what "genetic" propensities remain. So well-researched and written, it need not be reserved for political scientists and royal watchers, but for good book lovers everywhere, who truly appreciate an original.

Rating:
Summary: Hot Dogs Symbolize Core American Values....
Review: The potential audience for this engaging work extends far beyond the royal watchers. Will Swift's unique lens framing The Roosevelts and the Royals brilliantly illustrates the political culture tie (not ascot) that binds. This psychologist masterfully showcases the subtlety that allowed the American public to access the royalty from which they once fled. As world reknowned Seymour Martin Lipset tells us in his theory of American exceptionalism, Americans have more values that join them than separate them-but always assumed that these value distinctions are what cut the cord from the mother country. The visit between the Roosevelts and the Royals tapped a major American vein, the undercurrent of core American values-egalitarianism, populism, individualism, laissez faire and liberty. We were "free" to serve hot dogs, what many Americans might be dining on in picnics across America. Compelling in both organization and writing, the book reveals the ultimate complexity of people, and that leaders can serve distinctive purposes in different time periods, often based on our fundamental orientations as people. Perhaps only such a well-trained psychologist could detect and successfully communicate what resonated between these people, in quite genuinely a friendship that changed history, and could capture the symbolical roots of the now formidable US-British alliance. Swift is able to show the generational learning the can occur between countries-the mother country, and the rebellion of the fledgling toddler nation, who ultimately sees what "genetic" propensities remain. So well-researched and written, it need not be reserved for political scientists and royal watchers, but for good book lovers everywhere, who truly appreciate an original.

Rating:
Summary: The Human Dimension of History
Review: We often loose sight of the reality that even the most globally sweeping events in history are ultimately influenced by the individual personalities of the protagonists. Broad political and economic forces are certainly the context and catalysts behind major historical developments, but the actual sequence and nature of events can often be most fully understood by an analysis of the psychological and emotional temperament of the key players in the drama. Will Swift's fascinating study of one paradigm moment in the history of the 20th Century clearly illustrates this premise. In clear, colorful and energetic prose, he unfolds the narrative of the evolving relationships between two of the most influential married couples of the century, Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The fascinating counterpoint of both parallels and contrasts between the respective partners themselves and the two couples, are traced with the evident professional expertise that Dr. Swift brings to this study as a psychotherapist. Of particular interest are his portraits of the First Lady and the Queen. The unsensationalist, candid and sympathetic discussion of Eleanor's intimate relationship with Lorena Hickcok is nothing less than the coming of age of Roosevelt scholarship, which for too long has been unable to confront this dimension of the story with the calm objectivity it calls for. And for those of us for whom the Queen Mother was little more than a silent, smiling, waving icon with extravagant hats for the past fifty years, this portrait brings a remarkably strong and intelligent woman to life.

While the narrative builds up to its symbolic climax with the Windsor's famous visit to Hyde Park in June 1939, all of the complex events, personalities and issues surrounding the alliance of the United States and Great Britain in the years preceding and following World War II, are covered and synthesized with clarity. And while the focus is certainly the War years, the respective chapters offer comprehensive and intriguing personality-centered biographies of the four individuals whose lives they weave together.

I have long been an admirer and student of both the Roosevelts and of British royalty - a combination that is not unlikely, and clearly has contemporary parallels in the popular linkage between Jackie Kennedy, Princess Diana and their respective personalities and experiences.I found "The Roosevelts and the Royals" a wonderful addition to the literature of both Anglo-American relations, and the distinctive culture of both countries. It's a great read, fun and even suspenseful as it's subject unfolds... the lavish praise of the leading scholars of the Roosevelts and the Royal Family are richly deserved !

Rating:
Summary: This Book Must Be Read
Review: Will Swift does a terrific job in bringing to life the personalities and issues of a critical time in world history. This book is a must read for those interested in the events of the time, and how those events influenced today's relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States.