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The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope
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Sales rank 169,850
Customers rating (based on 62 reviews)
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This is the story of a political miracle -- the perfect match of man and moment. Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in March of 1933 as America touched bottom. Banks were closing everywhere. Millions of people lost everything. The Great Depression had caused a national breakdown. With the craft of a master storyteller, Jonathan Alter brings us closer than ever before to the Roosevelt magic. Facing the gravest crisis since the Civil War, FDR used his cagey political instincts and ebullient temperament in the storied first Hundred Days of his presidency to pull off an astonishing conjuring act that lifted the country and saved both democracy and capitalism. Who was this man? To revive the nation when it felt so hopeless took an extraordinary display of optimism and self-confidence. Alter shows us how a snobbish and apparently lightweight young aristocrat was forged into an incandescent leader by his domineering mother; his independent wife; his eccentric top adviser, Louis Howe; and his ally-turned-bitter-rival, Al Smith, the Tammany Hall street fighter FDR had to vanquish to complete his preparation for the presidency. "Old Doc Roosevelt" had learned at Warm Springs, Georgia, how to lift others who suffered from polio, even if he could not cure their paralysis, or his own. He brought the same talents to a larger stage. Derided as weak and unprincipled by pundits, Governor Roosevelt was barely nominated for president in 1932. As president-elect, he escaped assassination in Miami by inches, then stiffed President Herbert Hoover's efforts to pull him into cooperating with him to deal with a terrifying crisis. In the most tumultuous and dramatic presidential transition in history, the entire banking structure came tumbling down just hours before FDR's legendary "only thing we have to fear is fear itself" Inaugural Address. In a major historical find, Alter unearths the draft of a radio speech in which Roosevelt considered enlisting a private army of American Legion veterans on his first day in office. He did not. Instead of circumventing Congress and becoming the dictator so many thought they needed, FDR used his stunning debut to experiment. He rescued banks, put men to work immediately, and revolutionized mass communications with pioneering press conferences and the first Fireside Chat. As he moved both right and left, Roosevelt's insistence on "action now" did little to cure the Depression, but he began to rewrite the nation's social contract and lay the groundwork for his most ambitious achievements, including Social Security. From one of America's most respected journalists, rich in insights and with fresh documentation and colorful detail, this thrilling story of presidential leadership -- of what government is for -- resonates through the events of today. It deepens our understanding of how Franklin Delano Roosevelt restored hope and transformed America. The Defining Moment will take its place among our most compelling works of political history.
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| Publisher | Simon & Schuster | | Release date | 05/2006 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Hardcover |
| | List price | $29.95 | | Our price | $19.77 (you save 33.99%) | | Used price | from $0.34 |
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 Probably the worst, most overhyped book I've ever read
Don't buy this book if you are looking for a good biography on FDR. Don't buy this book if you are looking for a detailed anaysis of FDR's achievements in his first 100 days. This basically is a puff piece. It starts out with a very superficial biography of FDR. A biography which was unnecessary since this book is supposed to be about the first hundred days. So why include a cursory, badly done biography? Ok. Whatever. Let's get to the 100 days. But no! You have to wait until almost the end of the book before you finally get to day one in office. I think it's chapter 34 or 35! This is totally ridiculous. My expectations were that he would devote a few pages per each 100 day. Going over all the staffing, legislation, and other accomplishements. Instead we get pages and pages of how Mrs Roosevelt was a lesbian. Then we spend more time on useless stuff like how beautiful FDR's voice was. Finally at the very end we get some mention of social security. That's it! This book is totally and fundamentally filler. Does not contain any scholarily gravitas and does not even try to live up to it's title. What a waste of time!
 The Defining Moment
This is an incredibly prophetic book, considering today's political climate. The bold and decisive actions taken by FDR foreshadow the actions taken by President Obama, right down to the critics and cries of socialism. I wish I could have had this resource back when I was a high school history teacher.
Statesmanship 101
This work, together with that of Adam Cohen ("Nothing to Fear") and the recent biographies by Jean Edward Smith ("FDR") and Conrad Black ("Champion of Freedom"), reinforce the view that while he was flawed (like all humans), FDR was THE political genius of the 20th century.
Through a combination of personal qualities, good fortune and circumstance, Roosevelt saved democracy in America, alleviated the worst suffering of the Depression and then saved western civilization from the fascists. Of course, the latter triumph is not the subject of this work, which deals with the events which shaped FDR's presidency and the decisions made during those monumental first 100 days. Some have criticised the book for dwelling too much on Roosevelt's illness, youth and the political events which led him to the White House, but they are intrinsic to an understanding of his actions once he got there, particularly his ability to act boldly, decisively and most of all quickly. I enjoyed the author's journalistic, "chatty" style, backed up by thorough references and research (which you can ignore if you prefer).
I love the book and its subject.
 Stretching the Moment
Jonathan Alter is smitten with the "defining moment" of presidents and presidential candidates. He identifies the defining moment as the point in time in which "the character or perception of a political figure is crystallized." Yet in his discussion of Roosevelt's defining moment he seems to have in mind various episodes, starting with the assassination attempt on Roosevelt in the winter of 1933 and extending to his inaugural address on March 4, 1933 and beyond through the first 100 days of his presidency.
Why Alter insists on using the singular "moment" in his title and throughout the book isn't clear since it is belied by the various moments he provides during which "the character or perception" of Roosevelt becomes increasing more "crystallized." While it is certainly true that "moment" has a more heroic tone, akin to an apotheosis, Alter would confuse the reader less by arguing that greatness evolves over time and, in some cases, is punctuated by occasional defining moments.
But Alter loves epical and sweeping conceits. For example, it is not enough to say Roosevelt had a controlling and dominating mother and that, understandably, had predictable consequences for his behavior. According to Alter, Roosevelt had a classical oedipal complex. He explicitly cites Freud in his account of it, even though virtually no intellectuals take strict Freudianism seriously any more. To be sure, the hold Roosevelt's mother had over him was extraordinary and important. But it requires narration and explication, not psychoanalysis from a distance of several decades.
Likewise, Alter believes Roosevelt had an affair with his secretary Marguerite "Missy" LeHand. While his polio would be inhibitory for many men, Alter argues, Roosevelt was unlike most men because (now get this) he would someday become president of the United States: "It's also evident that men who become president of the United States tend to have stronger than average libidos" (p.57). If it is not bewildering enough to imagine how Alter managed to measure the libidinous energy of US presidents, his bald assertion is all the more remarkable because the alleged affair occurred before Roosevelt became president, even before he became governor of New York. Political good fortune guarantees undaunted potency.
Not all of Alter's speculations are doubtful. He points out that most of the enduring "landmark" accomplishments of the New Deal--the SEC, Social Security, the Wagner Act--occurred after the first 100 days of the Roosevelt presidency. He then opines interestingly that if the actions of the first hundred days had been more successful in whipping the Depression, these "social advances" might not have been advanced and made available to future generations (p. 274). Readers will discover that generally when Alter's hypotheses are less psychological and more political, they are more plausible.
Alter's most serious speculation, the one that constitutes Roosevelt's central defining moment, concerns Roosevelt's alleged refusal to resort to dictatorial powers upon assumption of the presidency. Alter presents highly tangential evidence that Roosevelt would have been tempted to institute a benevolent dictatorship, mostly on the order that many people wanted him to institute one (e.g., William Randolph Hearst). Alter's best evidence is a line from a list of "suggested additions" for a radio speech Roosevelt was to give primarily to veterans belonging to the American Legion:
"As new commander-in-chief under oath to which you are still bound I reserve to myself the right to command you in any phase of the situation which now confronts us."
How this suggested sentence, whose authorship is unknown and which Roosevelt didn't use in any case, is tantamount to a declaration of dictatorship is anyone's guess. Does this statement smack of Roosevelt preparing an army to institute martial law? On an imaginative reading, perhaps. But it could easily mean something considerably more benign and even salutary: Roosevelt might have wanted the veterans to, say, pass out food or plant trees.
Alter seems to forget that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Nowhere do we see any evidence that Roosevelt seriously considered the idea of assuming dictatorial powers. It is in nothing that Roosevelt wrote, nor is there one memorialized discussion that he had on the subject with any trusted aide or confidant. At the most, it was an "option" that was on the mind of others, but Alter gives us no compelling reason to believe that it was ever a lively option for Roosevelt. But that doesn't keep Alter from exclaiming:
"But on March 5, 1943, an astonishing thing happened--or more precisely, did not happen. The draft of the American Legion radio address was destined not for the ears of millions of veterans and other Americans, but for nothing more than the speech files of the Roosevelt library, where it lay unexamined for more than 70 years" (p.7).
Something discarded becomes evidence of something momentous--a "defining moment." Now that is a stretch.
The Defining Moment: Excellent popular history of FDR the crippled president who lifted America on its feet with hope
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) was the greatest U.S. president of the twentieth century. Roosevelt is well served by this entertaining and informative book. It's author is Jonathan Alter a columnist for Newsweek magazine.
Alter focuses on the first 100 days of FDR's administration. After he took office within those days over 15 bills were turned into law. America was given hope to rise like a phoenix from the dregs of the horrible Depression. Many of the ideas were first suggested by members of the failed Hoover administration but it was FDR's New Dealers who put them to work for the American people.
Among the programs were the CCC which put thousands of men to work; the NRA and the Social Security Act of 1935. TVA brought rural electrification to the South and confidence was restored in finance following the banking holiday and efforts to stabalize the fragile economy. Not everything FDR tried worked but he kept plugging away as slow progress was made.
Alter spends half the book examining the pre-presidential life of the great man. FDR was a cousin of his hero Theodore Roosevelt. He was a wealthy only son of Sarah his doting mother and his much older father James. He grew up at Hyde Park on the Hudson; graduated from Eton and Harvard with time spent at Columbia Law School. FDR had a long term affair with Lucy Rutherford. His wife Eleanor discovered the infidelity but remained in the marriage. The couple had six children being indulgent parents. The Roosevelt children suffered through nineteen divorces!
Alter contends that it was his polio affliction in 1921 that put steel in Roosevelt. The former New York Assemblymam, former US Vice-Presidential candidate in 1920 learned a good deal about suffering through the ordeal. He later worked with polio victims in Warm Springs Georgia also becoming acquainted with common farmers and ordinary people. These events made him a stronger personality. FDR also had federal government experience serving as assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Woodrow Wilson administration. He knew American history and government like the back of his hand. FDR pushed the Congress of the US into making effective law in a time of crisis. His was an activist mode of leadership.
With the help of Louie Howe his political guru he served as New York governor from 1928-1932 breaking with former governor Al E. Smith. His rise to the presidency began with his fourth ballot victory at the 1932 Democratic Convention in Chicago. FDR was a liberal progressive who wanted to put America back to work. Some of his plans failed while others succeeded.
FDR was the first major political figure to use the media. In his fireside chats and newsreels he entered into the homes and hearts of the public. He spoke in a friendly way beginning his speeches by saying "My friends." He conducted 998 press conferences and used Eleanor's wide travels to keep his ear close to the ground of public opinion. He was a sly politician who kept his innermost thoughts to himself. FDR's defining moment came in the first inaugural and the first 100 days when he told the people "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." (based on a quote from Henry David Thoreau).
Jonathan Alter's book is the kind of political history which could easily whet a young person's desire to become a historian. It is witty, anecdotal, easy to read and informative. FDR eschewed dictatorship and stood for democratic government in the worst crisis in American history since the Civil War. Alter's great book is about a great man who saved our nation in its hour of greatest need!
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