Colby Carpenter

Meticulous research went into writing this volume. The author utilized many personal letters and writings of FDR , Eleanor, their children, parents, etc. The central question of the book is brilliant, one I asked my HS AP History teacher before: What made a wealthy white man from generational wealth become, in practice, a democratic socialist, fighting his peers in politics and business? FDRs internal thinking has been notoriously hard for historians to glean. He seemed sincere in public, astutely political in private, but never really getting too deep with his personal sociopolitical beliefs. Brands does an excellent job in answering the central question he poses, and ascertaining the true ideology of Roosevelt.