Jonathan Darman

This latest offering about the life and career of Franklin Delano Roosevelt sheds new light on this well-known President. History readers will enjoy learning more about FDR and the ways in which he overcame adversity to become successful at his political roles. Particular attention is paid to how his physical disability and struggles with polio transformed him from a young man lacking in empathy to a strong, thoughtful, and successful political figure.

I received this book from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.… (mais)

It is one of the great stories in presidential history. I have read many books on Franklin D. Roosevelt, including another one about how polio shaped him as a man and a leader. Each time I am amazed how a priviledged, spoiled, intellectual lightweight who cheated on his wife suffered paralysis of his entire lower body and reinvented himself. He could have been a comfy invalid surrounded by his postage stamp collection, doted on by his imperious mother. Instead, he determined to look at the truth and work hard to reclaim his mobility. He believed he could do it. At Warm Springs, he helped other polio victims, who lovingly called him Doc. And when opportunity came to realize his dream, he put on that jaunty smile and took the world by storm. He proved that he was not on death’s door, not too frail to campaign across the country. And he proved that he understood that all Americans wanted was a fair deal, hope, a job.

FDR became one of our greatest presidents, shining hope in the midst of our worst days. In spite of his personal flaws, in spite of his disability, he led the nation through a banking crisis, a Depression, and war.

Becoming FDR focuses on leadership skills gained through FDR’s experience with polio, but it is also a marvelous brief biography of the man’s entire life. It is filled with the memorable people in his life: the wife he hurt who turned herself into a strong leader in her own right; Louis Howe who gave his life to shape FDR’s career, unable to let go even from a hospital bed; Al Smith, political ally turned foe. And all the children and adults who swarmed to Warm Spring, inspired by his example.

Even knowing the story, I was riveted and gained new insights.

It is a story every American should know; an example that every person should recall when facing seeming catastrophe. Look adversity in the eye and know it for what it is, believe you will prevail, and work to achieve your goal.

I was given a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.… (mais)

I want to start by saying that I often come to nonfiction books with mixed expectations. I don't know that I can explain it very well, but here goes. I don't necessarily expect to enjoy the reading (as in the word choices and the authorial voice) as much as I do with fiction, my expectation of enjoyment is in learning what the book is offering. I am not saying I accept poor writing, but in order to present information clearly the writing often tends toward basic exposition. Done well, it makes the information interesting and I really just don't notice the writing. In other words, most of the time it is simply the information that compels me to keep turning pages, not the writing. In Becoming FDR, Jonathan Darman took a compelling story and presented it in a writing style that still kept the information front and center but also made reading it enjoyable.

The idea presented is that FDR's polio battle wasn't so much the obstacle he had to overcome in order to become President (though he certainly did have to) but that the battle is what made him into the man who could become such an engaging and effective President. While I would probably, prior to reading this, thought there was some truth in it, I might have also thought it was overstatement. Now, I think it is definitely the case. No single factor makes a person great, yet in this case his coming to terms with polio is a far bigger factor than I would have thought. Darman makes an excellent case for this through not just the events of his presidency but in also looking back at who he was prior to it.

I would recommend this to those interested in biographies as well as those interested in 20th century history. I also think this would be a good book for those facing their own obstacles in life, not so much as a how-to but as a you-can.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (mais)

I have a fondness for books that take a deeper dive into a particular period in American history, the kind of tome that looks beneath the surface and attempts to explain why things happened the way they did, and shine a spotlight on events which were not apparent to those living through that piece of history day by day. In his book LANDLSLIDE: LBJ AND RONALD REAGAN AT THE DAWN OF A NEW AMERICA, author Jonathan Darman recounts the thousand days between the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November of 1963, which catapulted Lyndon Johnson to the Presidency, to the midterm elections in November of 1966, which saw the election of the former B movie actor as Governor of California by a margin of a million votes. The theme of Darman’s book is that during this three year interval, the governing consensus in America which had held at least since Franklin Roosevelt introduced the New Deal came apart, as stark divisions between the races, generations, and classes upended all that came before it. Darman further asserts that the main reason why this happened rests on the shoulders of Johnson and Reagan, two leaders with radically opposite political philosophies, but both offering heroic versions of themselves as men on horseback capable of solving difficult problems and tackling intractable issues, and leading the way to a Utopian future that was just around the corner.

I think Darman’s assertion is something of a stretch, as both Johnson and Reagan really belonged to very different political eras, and whose political styles couldn’t have been more different. LBJ could be brooding and insecure, possessing a bad temper which he inflicted on all those close to him. He was also a master legislative tactician, and a true workhorse who knew how to attend to detail and get an impossible job done. Reagan was genial and relaxed, a good actor who mastered the art of communication early and put it to use when the movie roles dried up. He could deliver an inspirational speech, but did not sweat the details. Yet as Darman shows, both of them had something in common in November 1963: impending middle age failure. Johnson was Kennedy’s Vice President, a job he hated because of its limited power, a position where he was constantly disparaged by JFK’s inner circle, especially the President’s brother, Bobby, the Attorney General, and shut out of the decision making process. Reagan had taken the job playing the villain in THE KILLERS, a violent gangster film opposite Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson. It was the only acting job he could get and he hated the role. Then an assassin’s bullet makes Johnson President, and he quickly moved to make his own mark, winning a landslide election over Barry Goldwater in 1964, while enacting landmark civil and voting rights legislation; ushering in his Great Society program, while backing the country into a war in Southeast Asia. Reagan finds a new career for himself during the campaign in ’64 by making a highly effective televised speech on behalf of Goldwater, as Reagan is a far more effective communicator of the conservative viewpoint than the Republican candidate. This is a skill he had honed for years by making speeches for General Electric touting the virtues of the free enterprise system and denouncing the evils of communism. After Goldwater went down in flames, the men who could stroke the big checks to candidates began looking at Reagan as the next Republican to run for Governor in California, and after that, possibly the Presidency.

Where Darman is on his most solid ground is when he is writing about LBJ, who grabs the reins of power in the wake of Dallas, and runs with them. Johnson is determined to finish the work of the New Deal, and surpass his idol FDR in accomplishment. There is grandiose rhetoric claiming that the scourges of poverty and racism will be banished forever by his Great Society, not to mention a generation of peace, a claim he makes to visiting high school kids at the White House on the day he signs orders escalating the country’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The summer of ’65 brings riots by Blacks in the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles, as America’s cities begin to burn with racial unrest. The President’s words and reality rapidly diverge as the nation’s mood turns darker as the casualties mount in Vietnam. Race and poverty prove to tougher to solve than the Great Depression, the Great Society is no New Deal, and the Republicans sweep the midterm elections in ’66, ending LBJ’s ambitious agenda. Darman is good at detailing the behind the scenes tensions between Johnson and the Kennedy family, along with JFK’s holdovers in the administration, and how both sides attempted to manipulate the press to their advantage. LBJ was a supremely difficult man, and it can be hard to make him likable, but I think Darman does a good job of portraying a man of great accomplishments whose pride was wounded often, and who often responded poorly. One person whom I came away from this book admiring more is Lady Bird Johnson, who stands up to her husband and his advisors, and insists they do right by Walter Jenkins, a close aide to the President who was arrested for committing a homosexual act in the middle of the ’64 campaign. The problem with the sections on Reagan is that they simply lack the drama of LBJ, as Reagan moves from the host of DEATH VALLEY DAYS to becoming a full time candidate for Governor of California. His message was the reverse of Johnson’s: that the Great Society made nothing great, and the great big taxes that came with it only made problems worse. Big Government was the enemy, and only freedom from it, along with a fierce individualism, would bring about a better America. It’s a message which resonated with California voters in the fall of ’66, as Reagan trounced the two term incumbent Democrat, Pat Brown, who had been close to both the Kennedys and Johnson. But this was only the beginning of Reagan’s political career, the bigger and fuller story is yet to come, and it pales compared to the rise and fall of LBJ.

Darman makes a point of admiring JFK’s pragmatism and realism, stating that he, and the men who sat in the Oval Office before him, believed that change came slowly, and that it required as much patience as effort, and blames Johnson and Reagan for breaking with this tradition by making themselves the heroes of their stories, and saviors who would put things right in short order, by raising expectations that could never be met, thus insuring failure and disillusionment. In the end, neither massive spending on the part of government, nor equally huge tax cuts, could insure permanent prosperity. The dramatic loss of trust in public institutions that followed the thousand days covered in this book is much their fault. That may be true to a point, but in the long decades since, few candidates for President of either party have offered JFK’s approach to governing, and those who did, were seldom successful, and for that, blame ultimately lies with the voters, not two Presidents whose tenures have long since come and gone. Still, I enjoyed Darman’s book, at 376 pages it is a relatively short read, and he does sum things up nicely in the afterward. Most of this material has been covered in greater depth by other authors. I would recommend NIXONLAND by Rick Perlstein, and the multi volume biography of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro. The book’s biggest fault is that it came out in 2015, and I wonder how Darman would interpret all this history in the aftermath of the Trump years, which surely sheds a different light on all that came before it.… (mais)