The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope

Defining Moment - Jonathan AlterJonathan Alter has recorded the first hundred days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Presidency in a purist, accurate and well researched writing. We learn that Roosevelt was flawed, at best. He had a huge ego, in spite of his non-working legs due to polio. He loved the art of one-upmanship and brought it to an extreme level repeatedly, especially when dealing with his adversaries. Roosevelt had devious qualities, an enormous sense of humor and a need to get things done. He would delegate but would track the results of his assignment.The defining moment for Roosevelt - the character quality that set him apart was his ability to listen, having surrounded himself with men who did not agree with his plans and policies. In fact, he welcomed the "devils advocate" routine he developed among his cabinet members and staff. Most particularly, was his ability to discard an idea when it was presented to him as a lousy one. Taking no offense, but attempting to learn from the dialogue, he quickly and happily abandoned a plan he might have spent hours or days devising. His determination was in the trying and success. Nothing else.It was a different time in 1933. Our world was not so fraught with fear of crime, fear of foreigners. Unlocked doors and freedom to roam was the norm. The only fear that existed was economical after the Great Crash of 1929. This is where Roosevelt would step up to the plate and make bold moves to TRY to improve the state of the economy. If it did not work, he was perfectly content to say so and try something else. It was the trying that endeared the citizenry to him.During the crisis at hand, closing of banks, no circulating cash, fear of the country failing to recover, Roosevelt used the magic of his voice to calm the citizens and brought about a confidence in his Presidency. He commenced a twice a week press conference in the oval office for over 100 reporters. Remember, the press was print at that time. His openness to answer questions and availability unmatched ever in the office, the media was quickly endeared to him, which, of course, was then reflected in their news reports. When Roosevelt began his fireside chats over radio, he designed the words he wrote and spoke, from observing or conversing with the laborer, the clerk, the janitor. He instinctively knew he had to understand their lives and what they were experiencing, before he could fix the problems.It is certainly a time in our history we would not want to re-live, except by example. How different our lives would be today if the legislators worried about the welfare of the constituents as Roosevelt did, instead of the where the next donation to their campaign might stem. How different the leadership in foreign policy, education, immigration and the economy would be if our president had even an inkling of what it was like to be a farmer in Iowa, a bank clerk in Atlanta, a mason in Boston or even a waiter at the Watergate Hotel Restaurant. Yes, how different our lives would be if only the government - all three branches, knew what it was like living in America and not in their aerie lofts.

I liked this book, partly because I remember his election & the "gown ups" talking about it. My aunt worked in some of the WPA projects. They mended books in the city & school libraries, cleaned grain seed & made mattresses. My uncle also worked on a project for a while but not sure what it was. I think maybe replacing railroad ties. They all thought FDR was great but some other relatives who were consierably better off had no use for him at all. There is so much detail in the book you should try to read it slower than I did, more like you would read a text book. I will have to have some grandchildren show me how to check things you want to read over. I will be 87 in August & not the brightest bulb on the tree. The town I live in is about 1400 & every little town around here has a "city hall" put up by his administration. Also, numerous dams.

Loved this book. Such incredible information. You have to read this to understand what we have been going through today.

This book pulls together the richest historical scholarship about the Great Depression and World War II from the perspective of one human being's engagement in both crises -- as a political leader: FDR. I only knew him from the aspersions cast upon him and Eleanor by my sweet Midwestern relatives who absorbed the opposition take on the man from the other political party attacking him. This book was written by a thoughtful "depth" journalist mindful of the pertinence of what FDR did in response to "defining moment" that is comparable to what George Bush had to try to do after 9-11. On the one hand, Alter's book covers points of similarity for the two men that are reassuring -- that is, neither was thought to be smart enough nor intellectually curious and both were thought to be too devious in their political machinations toward winning elections and staying in power. On the other hand, Alter finds in FDR a management style that was splendidly effective in dealing with complex policy issues. That style came not from a C-grade Ivy League MBA but from problem-solving in state political life and from a personality informed by a struggle with polio that seems to have helped to develop in FDR the qualities of leadership that served him better than Bush's struggle against alcholism. "Knowing Jesus" was Bush's salvation, he says. FDR didn't have anything that easy to help him out of problems, and he seems the better for having struggled longer. Alter's book made me remember that I like being a patriotic American and that there is always hope that some man or woman is coming down the pike who, in the next "defining moment" will be an inspiring match of human being and what our country needs. There is always hope. The audio delivery is just right from the CD. I felt like I had jumped backward in time to experience what my own father and mother had experienced growing up before and during the Depression and moving on into the awful war. And now we have another awful war. The book illuminates so much that happened then and this illumination is comforting, somehow, for what is happening now. It's the most significant book for "these days" I have ever read -- or listened to. I had the CD playing for hours traveling this summer in the maritime provinces of Canada.