Brands makes a compelling case that it is not hyperbole to state that the President was, as the title of his book suggests, a “traitor to his class”. A well-known joke of the time — one that the President purportedly told on himself — went something like this:

A wealthy Wall Street banker/investor – an elegantly dressed, mustachioed, JP-Morgan type – stops by a newsstand on Wall Street every morning before going to his office. He quickly scans the top of the newspaper and then moves on. This goes on daily for years and years.

One day the newsstand owner finally says, “Buddy, every day you stop here for a few seconds, skim the paper, and then leave. What’s the deal?”

The banker says, “I’m just looking for an obituary”.

The newsstand owner says, “What, are you crazy? Obituaries are always in the back of the paper”.

The banker says, “My good fellow, I guarantee you the one I’m waiting for will be on the front page”.

The lengthy subtitle of this book says it all: “The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt”. Brands is a terrific writer — a history scholar who doesn’t write like one. He chronicles Roosevelt’s unlikely journey from New York patrician to the champion of the downtrodden. Although the author is an academic, he most assuredly does not write like one. We learn all about FDR’s larger-than-life personality, his brilliant political skills, the quirks of his decision-making, the people he relied on for advice (including his wife Eleanor), and the many twists and turns of policy-making and fortune that occurred during his 13 years in office.

Personal connection

A “young” Franklin with his wife Eleanor