Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny

Frank Freidel's "Franklin D, Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny" is overall an exceptionally good book, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants an introduction to the life of one of our greatest presidents. The chapters covering Roosevelt's life up to being elected president could have provided more detail though. Some of the information in the book which I thought was especially interesting included how tentative President Roosevelt often was in supporting deficit spending as an economic stimulus, while frequently seeming preoccupied with balancing the budget. This led FDR to support major reductions in veteran's benefits during his first term and a significant reduction in public works programs at the beginning of his second term, which was one of the main causes of a major recession in 1937-1938. However, Franklin D. Roosevelt's compassion grew and his vision of a United States whereby the government provided important services to help the needy is inspiring, even if still not realized. Some persons have claimed President Roosevelt tried to get the United States involved in World War II to help Great Britain against Germany. Freidel presents convincing information, at least to me, whereby Roosevelt sincerely wanted to avoid becoming directly invovled in the war, while providing massive assistance in the form of military equipment to the British. He also seemed to be inhibited by likely strong opposition in Congress to a declaration of war against Germany, until Germany declared war on the United States after the Japanese attack on military bases in Hawaii. Roosevelt, was often, in front of majority public opinion in supporting a stronger role to help Great Britain in the war, while usually being behind majority public opinion, in seeking sanctions against Japan for its aggression in Asia. As other historians have written, the oil embargo against Japan was somewhat inadvertent, the workings of certain government officials, not a direct, specific oder by President Roosevelt. FDR was often not loyal to many of his subordinate officials. Very few persons remained long as one of his most trusted advisers. He was highly devious in 1944 in his selection of a vice-presidential nominee. FDR led James Byrnes and Henry Wallace, then Vice-President, to believe he supported each of them for the office in his fourth term. Roosevelt, unlike Churchill, sincerely believed in the ideals of the Atlantic Charter, promsing self-determination to all people in the world. Churchill and French leaders considered the idea of self-determination to only apply to white people living in German occupied Europe. FDR, however, believed the British and French empires should be dismantled after the war, allowing the people in these countries the promise of full independence within about ten years. The tragedy later in Vietnam would have been averted had his successor, Truman, maintained Roosevelt's insistence the French not be allowed to regain contr

Frank Freidel of Harvard is the greatest historian of Franklin Roosevelt. Freidel spent years researching Roosevelt. He documented more interviews of people in Roosevelt's life than any other historian. His contribution to the historiography of Franklin Roosevelt is unsurpassed. Freidel originally wrote an outstanding four-volume biography of Franklin Roosevelt that meticulously detailed FDR's life from childhood, through his ordeal with polio, to the early years of FDR's presidency. Read that well-written biography if you want a deep understanding of the man and his times. Freidel never finished that multi-volume biography of Roosevelt into the war years; it was suppose to be six volumes. Instead, Freidel wrote this excellent one-volume Roosevelt biography called Rendezvous with Destiny, which condenses Freidel's lifelong research into one volume. The coverage of FDR's early years and Eleanor Roosevelt's story are especially excellent. This is the standard reference biography of Franklin Roosevelt by probably the best historian of Roosevelt. This biography starts with a superb background into Roosevelt's early life in upper class New York. His personal life was fascinating. FDR was born secure and confident. His mother was assertive and doted on her only child. Franklin attended Groton and Harvard. He loved to sail and greatly admired his cousin Theodore Roosevelt. He courted Eleanor, married, and then chose a life of public service - then a nasty world of politics. This biography details Roosevelt's New Deal programs, how he achieved his legislative goals, and who the other players were. Freidel briefly, yet vividly, describes the Great Depression era. If you read only one book about Franklin Roosevelt, this would probably be your best choice. However, I thought that something was missing. Because Freidel of Harvard sticks closely to the strict rules of historians, he rarely provides opinions or commentary. There are no opinionated points of view - just the accurate events of FDR and his times. The book could have been better at describing the epic drama of World War II. Readers should supplement this book with a great book on World War II, such as the masterpiece A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II by Gerhard Weinberg or the masterpiece Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich by William Shirer. After first reading Freidel's biography of FDR, I would then read the massive Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion Of Freedom by Conrad Black, which covers the war years extensively and brilliantly, and is loaded with opinions and juicy insider tidbits. For the Great Depression years, readers should consider Arthur Schlesinger's three-volume Age of Roosevelt history of the Great Depression era. If you are interested further in FDR's fascinating private life, read Geoffrey Ward's award-winning A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt. This book would be a great first book to read about FDR. If you were to judge thi

This one volume biography of FDR is probably the best distillate possible, though the task is daunting and the result is less than perfect. At times, the book 'drags' a bit, particularly through the 30s. Explanations of New Deal politics perhaps don't lend themselves to the kind of exciting story-telling that wartime meetings at places such as Tehran and Yalta do. In fact, I sometimes felt the book lapsed into an economics textbook, but it is still mostly quite readable. Freidel does not editorialize much about his subject and so (fortunately) one is left to draw one's own conclusions about FDR.

The best one volume biography on America's greatest President. As a historian I higly recommend this tome.

This book was quite interesting, involving Roosevelts entire life, including every little nugget of his political life. If you are moderatly interested in FDR, read this book, but be warned, if you are just a casual reader, it may be best not to get a book that is so detailed. I certainly enjoyed this book, and would recommend to any political science student, or a person studying history. FDR was an interesting man, and it was a joy to read about this brilliant president.