FDR and Harry: Unparalleled Lives

Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman are two men whose backgrounds were very dissimilar but whose achievements proved to be roughly comparable - became President of the United States. It is, for example, ironic that the wealthy Roosevelt is best known for his social programmes and that Truman, who came from modest circumstances in the Middle West, achieved his greatest success in foreign affairs. This study demonstrates the variety and the breadth of the American experience and provides, in part, a credible basis for the existence of an American Dream.