F.D.R.: An Intimate History

by Nathan Miller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1982

A serviceable one-volume life of FDR for inquisitive, undemanding late-comers. Miller's achievement--real if modest--is to have done nothing seriously wrong. He incorporates material from Frank Freidel's four volumes, the eyewitness accounts of associates, and the many recent family memoirs into a smooth, clearly organized, internally varied narrative. (Essential background is provided, along with some engaging close-ups--the scruffy look of the Roosevelt White House, for instance, and a day in the President's life.) He is generally open about family strains (between FDR and ER, between both Roosevelts and their children), and balances them with evidence of family affections. He notes that the young FDR ""showed few signs of future greatness""--but sensibly declines to regard him as transformed by either his physical ordeal or by his accession to the White House. ""There was no miracle. The exercise of authority and the pressure of responsibility revealed an ambition and will to power that had always existed."" As an interpretive spine, that's as good as any. Similarly, the inscrutability that friend and foe called deviousness is shown to have originated as a bulwark against his mother's domination--while, being immobilized, ""he could concentrate all his physical energy and vitality on the work at hand."" In the political sphere, Miller's judgments tend to be orthodox--save perhaps for his insistence that Roosevelt did have a program for dealing with the Depression when he came to power. What is unusual in a popular biography is Miller's attempt to answer some of the academic criticism of FDR, such as that of James MacGregor Burns. For the most part, though, the book tests appropriately on fairness and proportion, crisp detail and telling quotes. In no way mesmerizing, but nota puff or a slam either.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1982

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1982

Categories: NONFICTION