At the end of a long, hard-fought presidential campaign, it’s a lesson well worth remembering. Brands’s wonderful new biography of Roosevelt, Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, reminds us of the power of presidential leadership to rally the citizenry to face seemingly insurmountable problems. The challenges that faced Roosevelt when he assumed the presidency – an economic crisis, a shaken and dispirited population, and serious foreign threats – are as real today as the evening news. But current events provide a potent reminder that even well-known history can be as fresh as today’s headlines. The books that examine the life and presidency of Franklin Roosevelt could easily fill a small library and it’s hard to imagine that another biography of this iconic figure would add much to our understanding of his life and work.
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