Unpublished for fifty years, a memoir by a former Attorney General, Supreme Court Justice, and close friend of Franklin Roosevelt provides an intimate portrait of FDR, providing a unique view of the man behind the president, the events of his administrations, his conduct of the war, his efforts to bring the U.S. out of the Depression, and more. 40,000 first printing. History & BOMC Main. (Biography)

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Product Description: Book by Leuchtenburg, William E.

Product Description: Book by Leuchtenburg, William E. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Twenty-eight eminent American historians share personal accounts of the places that bring history to life for them, from James M. McPherson writing about Gettysburg to Kevin Starr's visit to the Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood. (view table of contents)

"Happy days are here again." That was the rallying cry of a nation picking itself up from the black gloom of the Great Depression with the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt left an indelible stamp on America and the Oval Office - many have gone so far as to call him the father of the modern American presidency. This text paints a picture of Roosevelt and the American decade he has come to define. The book investigates the many facets of Roosevelt's politics and personality that inspired a nation to believe that the presidency had been reborn. This account tells the story of Roosevelt's uniquely open relationship with the press, a sea change from previous presidential protocol, prompting one editor to proclaim that "for box office attraction you leave Clark Gable gasping for breath." It recounts the myth and history of the First Hundred Days, when Congress was said to be so trusting of their president that they "did not so much debate the bills it passed...as salute them as they went sailing by." Leuchtenburg details the massive impact Roosevelt had on presidents who followed, and on the American people, from the touching story of an impressionable young Republican couple who petitioned to have their son's name changed from Herbert Hoover Jones to Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones in the mid-1930s, to John F. Kennedy's famed "New Frontier" address of 1960, practically paraphrased from a 1935 speech by FDR. Leuchtenburg, who grew up like so many Americans listening to Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats" on the radio, peers into the less flattering details of FDR's world as well. He recounts Roosevelt's almost tyrannical attempts to control all of his government's dealings, threatening to override Congressional decisions that did not go his way.

Beginning with Woodrow Wilson and U.S. entry into World War I and closing with the Great Depression, The Perils of Prosperity traces the transformation of America from an agrarian, moralistic, isolationist nation into a liberal, industrialized power involved in foreign affairs in spite of itself.William E. Leuchtenburg's lively yet balanced account of this hotly debated era in American history has been a standard text for many years. This substantial revision gives greater weight to the roles of women and minorities in the great changes of the era and adds new insights into literature, the arts, and technology in daily life. He has also updated the lists of important dates and resources for further reading.“This book gives us a rare opportunity to enjoy the matured interpretation of an American Historian who has returned to the story and seen how recent decades have added meaning and vividness to this epoch of our history.”—Daniel J. Boorstin, from the Preface

A documentary report on the events which occured between 1932 and 1940 including the Fascist challenge and an end to isolation