Welcome to My Blog!

I write this blog in order to introduce you to things I most enjoy on the internet. In many ways this is also my daily intellectual diary. The blogs, podcasts and videos I introduce here are only of the highest quality. I've linked to them because I've learned a great deal from them or they triggered some intensive self-reflective thought.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Jean Edward Smith's new biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is Masterful

Rarely does a biography merit as much attention as Jean Edward Smith's new biography of FDR does. The prose is simple, clear, lucid and ultimately graceful as it propels the reader onward. Heading into the book my own feelings on FDR were mixed- but when Smith quoted Churchill as saying FDR was the "greatest man he had ever known," I knew I needed to re-evaluate the man. Like all biographers, Smith clearly gets a little too hagiographic about their subject matter - but- I couldn't help but think after reading this work that FDR was perhaps the best American politician to ever have lived. He knew how to delegate, he knew how to pick subordinates, he knew how to massage egos and finally his presence commanded attention despite his physical condition. This book is one of the best, smoothest flowing biograhies I have ever read. Highly recommended.

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