Presents and expands upon Roosevelt’s daily nautical log as he was trying to regain the use of his polio-damaged legs. In the midst of the Jazz Age, while Americans were making merry, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was stricken by polio and withdrew from public life. From 1924 to 1926, believing that warm water and warm air would help him walk again, he spent the winter months on his new houseboat, the Larooco, sailing the Florida Keys, fishing, swimming, playing Parcheesi, entertaining guests, and tending to engine mishaps. During his time on the boat, he kept a nautical log describing each day’s events, including rare visits by his wife, Eleanor, who was busy carving out her own place in the world. Missy LeHand, his personal assistant, served as hostess aboard the Larooco. While FDR was sailing the Keys, the larger world was glittering. Chaplin, Gershwin, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Gertrude Stein, Frida Kahlo, Martha Graham—all were flourishing in the Roaring Twenties, but so were Stalin, Al Capone, and Hitler. The world went on as Roosevelt fished for mangrove snapper and drank martinis. Karen Chase presents FDR’s log entries, interspersed with photographs from the tumultuous outer world, to form a kind of timeline between two arenas—one man’s small private life full of struggle and fun, juxtaposed with the large public sphere. Chase gives us a side of FDR seldom seen before, revealing his wit, his penchant for practical jokes, and his zest for each day’s ordinary concerns in the context of his painful struggle to regain the use of his legs. The book also includes a facsimile of the original Larooco log. For many decades FDR’s log was virtually unknown to the public, appearing only once, in 1949, in his son Elliott’s four-volume collection of Roosevelt’s personal letters. “What a good idea! The little-known record of one of the least understood periods in the life of Franklin Roosevelt, filled with all the grit and gallantry and good humor with which he faced the disease that would have defeated a less resilient man.” — Geoffrey C. Ward, coauthor (with Ken Burns) of The Roosevelts: An Intimate History and author of A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt, 1905–1928 “The Larooco Log is a wonderfully powerful chronicle of perhaps the most difficult period in FDR’s personal life: the aftermath of the onset of his bout with polio and his enduring struggle to find remedy. In his own words, the log demonstrates his wit and charm, his embrace of life and friends, his frustrations with his slow progress toward restoration of his legs, and the pain he endures on an almost daily basis. With personal understanding and feeling, Karen Chase has performed a masterful edit of this revealing journal. A fantastic read!” — David B. Roosevelt, FDR’s grandson “Karen Chase has put together an absolutely fascinating edition of the log describing Franklin Roosevelt’s winter cruises along the Florida coast in 1924–26. Wonderfully illustrated and edited, this is a book that will appeal to historians, FDR aficionados, Floridians, fishermen, and boaters of all kinds. Highly recommended.” — Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex and Valiant Ambition

What more could there be to know about FDR, given how exhaustively his life has been written about? As it happens, there is more and that focuses on Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, the queen of her Washington social circle, later FDR's friend and love-and Eleanor's rival, as the title of Christine Totten's work points out. In Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd: Eleanor's Rival, FDR's Other Love, Totten presents a carefully structured case for a deep and lasting but chaste love between Lucy and FDR, against the prevailing view that they were clandestine lovers. Totten's research into the personal memories of the Rutherfurd family and the public holdings of the FDR Library establishes a new rich understanding of Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd--her early life, her education, and her role in the social and political scene in Washington. This work gives Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd her due, as a woman in her own right as well as FDR's valued soul mate and friend.

"Journalist Smith (A Necessary War) grants readers an unusual insider's view of F.D.R.'s political career by profiling his longtime private secretary. Marguerite 'Missy' LeHand, a young woman with a modest background, an agile intellect, a pleasant personality, and remarkable stenographer's skills, began working for F.D.R. in 1920, when he ran for vice president. Smith writes particularly well about F.D.R.'s struggle to bounce back from being struck with polio in 1921, explaining the disease and the origins of the Warm Springs, Ga., health spa that he frequented. LeHand was F.D.R.'s most constant companion during the 1920s, sparking rumors--convincingly dismissed by Smith--that they were lovers. The real core of the story is the White House years from 1933 until 1942, when LeHand helped create the vast New Deal bureaucracy. She decided who would see the president and when; today her title would be chief of staff. LeHand worked long hours but took time to enjoy the perks of the job, including a barrage of social invitations and fawning press coverage. Though Smith overstates her claim about LeHand's importance to F.D.R. and his work as president, she delivers a fascinating account of one woman's involvement in an important administration"--Publishersweekly.com.

Master of His Fate by James Tobin is an inspiring middle-grade biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, with a focus on his battle with polio and how his disease set him on the course to become president. In 1921, FDR contracted polio. Just as he began to set his sights on the New York governorship—and, with great hope, the presidency—FDR became paralyzed from the waist down. FDR faced a radical choice: give up politics or reenter the arena with a disability, something never seen before. With the help of Eleanor and close friends, Roosevelt made valiant strides toward rehabilitation and became even more focused on becoming president, proving that misfortune sometimes turns out to be a portal to unexpected opportunities and rewards—even to greatness. This groundbreaking political biography richly weaves together medicine, disability narratives, and presidential history. Christy Ottaviano Books

Born in 1882 in New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt entered public service through the encouragement of the Democratic Party and won the election to the New York Senate in 1910. This book details his administration at the height of the Great Depression as he valiantly led the nation with the phrase, The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Perhaps the most important woman in 20th century America, Eleanor Roosevelt fascinates scholar and layperson alike. This exciting encyclopedia brings together basic information illuminating her complex career and making the interaction between her private and public lives accessible to scholars, students, and the general public. Written by scholars—including the most eminent Eleanor Roosevelt and New Deal scholars—journalists, and those who knew her, the 200 plus entries in this book provide easy access to material showing how Eleanor Roosevelt changed the First Lady's role in politics, widened opportunities for women, became a liberal leader during the Cold War era, and served as a guiding spirit at the United Nations. A unique resource, the book provides an introduction to American history through the vantage point of a woman who both represented her times and moved beyond them. Illuminating her multifaceted career, life, and relationships, The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia offers the reader an unparalleled opportunity to examine the complicated and fascinating life of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Now available in paperback, Robert F. Cross’ Sailor in the White House remains one of the most interesting and intimate books about Franklin D. Roosevelt. Secret Service agents, family, and old sailing pals share stories about their days on the water with America’s greatest seafaring president. The author argues that the skills required to be a good sailor are the same skills that made FDR a successful politician: the ability to alter courses, make compromises, and shift positions as the situation warrants. This perspective on Roosevelt shows how his love of the sea shaped his presidency, and its unique look remains refreshing even today.

The central volume in the definitive biography of America's most important First Lady. "Engrossing" (Boston Globe). The captivating second volume of this Eleanor Roosevelt biography covers tumultuous era of the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the gathering storms of World War II, the years of the Roosevelts' greatest challenges and finest achievements. In her remarkably engaging narrative, Cook gives us the complete Eleanor Roosevelt—an adventurous, romantic woman, a devoted wife and mother, and a visionary policymaker and social activist who often took unpopular stands, counter to her husband's policies, especially on issues such as racial justice and women's rights. A biography of scholarship and daring, it is a book for all readers of American history.

FDR was at the helm when the United States escaped from its greatest economic depression, and thus he earned an important place in history. His supporters, for the most part, are adamantly uncritical and tend to overlook lapses and mistakes he made, especially during his third and fourth terms, and the changes in FDR's acumen brought on by the burdens of office, ill health, and age, not to mention an innate self-confidence that developed into arrogance. This book examines the personal and administrative qualities of FDR and from that perspective analyzes the U.S. response to the changing global scene between the two world wars. Governments during the period preceding and throughout World War II were not without defects, yet despite lapses and mistakes made by the U.S. Administration in Washington between 1939 and 1945, the accumulated errors did not equal either of two major ones committed by wartime enemies: 1) Hitler's judgment in invading the Soviet Union, and 2) Japan's decision to attack Pearl Harbor. World War I had reduced most of Western Europe to rubble, and in the aftermath of that debacle extreme poverty, due in large part to the harshness of peace treaties, swept over the defeated nations. The hardships of those times made it inevitable that some governments would attempt recovery through authoritarian and military means. In the United States, conditions first flourished and then, after the stock market crashed in 1929, sank into a Great Depression. Stresses were very grave, but rather than resorting to arms American citizens yielded to reforms instituted through measures of the New Deal, the hallmark of Roosevelt's presidency. Meanwhile, totalitarian leaders in Germany and Italy encouraged huge rearmaments programs and began encroaching upon neighboring governments. Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and smaller nations were taken over by Nazis, thereby adding to a Reich which der Fuhrer (the leader) and his cohorts claimed would last a thousand years. Driven by that zeal, the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) in 1939 invaded Poland, and another World War was begun. Roosevelt and his interactions with Churchill, who was urgently seeking U.S. assistance -- while the American population wanted no part in another war -- make up a central theme of the current work. The Rise and Fall of Franklin D. Roosevelt will appeal to readers who want to know more about the Great Depression, the New Deal, and events leading to World War II. There are hundreds of histories of the Franklin Roosevelt period, but in the main they are mere recitals of events or profiles of characters who participated in them. Those works that offer any judgment tend to be laudatory or critical across the board. Few, if any, recognize the changes in FDR's acumen brought on by the burdens of office, ill health, and age, not to mention an innate self-confidence that developed into arrogance. But despite his obvious achievements, important errors can be traced to FDR that would have driven a lesser idol from office, as this book demonstrates. The book is written in a narrative style that is engaging and easy to grasp for students as well as adults, yet the work has sufficient documentation to satisfy discriminating historians.

Presents a breakthrough portrait of America's longest-serving first lady that covers her major contributions throughout critical historical events and her essential role in advancing international human rights.