FDR is one of my three favorite presidents along with Washington and Lincoln. Only recently did I become aware of Ward's two books on Roosevelt's early years. The emphasis is on FDR's temperament. So relevant given our contemporary POTUS! In both books the author repeats the remark of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that Franklin Roosevelt had a first-class temperament but a second-class mind.
Just as JFK would NEVER have been President without his father's money, FDR would NEVER have been President without his Mother's money.
FDR was born and raised with an inbred sense of his own importance. It must have most come from his mother. P. 11
"You are everything to your dear Mother." P. 13
Admitted to the bar in NY without graduating from Columbia law school. P. 63
He never had to worry about money and so he never had to be money motivated. P. 76
Useless as a lawyer in the office. P. 77
He never intended to practice law for long. P. 85
"It was his cousin's swift climb to power that Franklin hoped to follow, step by step." P. 86
He decided to become a Democrat by the time he was in college as a matter of ambition and pragmatics. P. 103
First stirring of a social conscience. P. 103
Eleanor went thru a process of learning to be herself. P. 135
One of the mini-delights of this book is the story of Louis McHenry Howe without whom the author says FDR would likely have never become President. FDR was ill in 1910 running for reelection as New York state senator. Howe came to the rescue and won that race for Roosevelt. How was a strange man to be sure but a skilled political operator. P. 189
The author plays up the fact that FDR closely modeled his rise to prominence following in the footsteps of TR. He became Assistant Secretary of the Navy on March 17, 1913 as Woodrow Wilson became President. P. 201
Nothing dimmed FDR's public admiration of TR. It's amazing to me how they stayed friends although they were distant cousins and share the same last name.
The minutiae of detail in this book is beyond my interest. I pick and choose the most interesting parts.
It seems to be part of his upbringing to always present a pleasant and positive public posture.
TR tried to get FDR to resign and put on a uniform. Silly man! P. 346 (I type these words on a Wednesday night 8/23 with Moyna at Shelby Baptist as she watches "Big Brother.")
All his life he delighted in harboring secrets from people close to him. P. 363
Franklin married young and immature and had a life sheltered by a wealthy mother. P. 415
There were race riots during the so-called "Red Scare" immediately after WWI. Race riots have occurred throughout our history. P. 459
Those chilling days of 1919! Senator Lodge hated Woodrow Wilson. The President hated Lodge. The League of Nations treaty might have passed with the "Lodge Reservations" included, but President Wilson would not accept any changes. The Senate defeated the treaty. P. 464
I am surprised to read how highly regarded Hebert Hoover. FDR dreamed of a Hoover-Roosevelt ticket in 1920 before Hoover declared that he was a Republican. HH would have been accepted as a progressive Democrat.
FDR was an avid book collector, but not a reader.
This book is very much a psychological biography. The reader can get the impression that FDR was a superficial person as he smiled his way thru everything.
I've read the story of his contracting polio before. Such a tragic story. it's amazing how this man overcome this enormous obstacle to achieve what he did.
FDR was raised to always put on a happy face to the public as if he could will away his troubles and those of the people around him. P. 608
After Roosevelt contracted polio, Louis Howe moved into the house, Sara called him that "dirty, ugly little man." P. 620
This was the most trying time of Eleanor's life. P. 621
After FDR's battle against infantile paralysis no one could question his "manliness." P. 624
Was Missy LeHand the only woman that Roosevelt ever loved? P. 710
The book ends with FDR's election as governor of New York in 1928. Roosevelt went to bed the night of the election thinking he had lost, but upstate votes carried him thru. Louis Howe was by his side. P. 799
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