Elected in hard times and serving throughout a catastrophic global war, Franklin Delano Roosevelt confronted crises of epic proportions during his record 12-year tenure. This volume provides an account of his much-debated presidency, describing the successes and failures of his landmark administration and offering a new perspective on the New Deal. George McJimsey’s study portrays Roosevelt as a pluralist leader whose various New Deal programmes empowered the American people to combat America’s Great Depression at the grass roots. During the Depression, Roosevelt hoped to create a
co-operative commonwealth
that would create a strong America at home, as later during World War II he sought to create an international order based on Allied co-operation and American leadership. McJimsey pays particular attention to the political environment in which Roosevelt’s presidency functioned and how it both created opportunities and limited his choices. Roosevelt, he shows, was often unable to avoid pluralism’s pitfalls as he found he had to work through corrupt city bosses, patronage-hungry congressmen and profit-driven businessmen. As the author observes, he was repeatedly forced to manoeuvre and manipulate to hold the reins of power. A separate chapter on Eleanor Roosevelt describes her emergence as a public figure and her advocacy of social causes, exploring how she acted on issues that her husband hesitated to address. In addition, the book analyzes important policy issues involving and affecting women and Native Americans, and sheds light on the policy changes of 1935 and 1937, the roles of FDR’s close associates, and the ultimate impact of his actions on democracy.