Potus Geeks Book Review: Roosevelt's Second Act
As the US Presidential Election of 1940 approached, Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced a decision that no President before him had realistically faced: whether or not to violate the sacred but unwritten rule of presidential politics and seek a third full term in the oval office. (At the time this was not yet prohibited by the Constitution.) Since George Washington had set the precedent, followed by Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and almost all others, every two term president had relinquished the office after eight years.
In Roosevelt's Second Act historian Richard Moe describes how FDR kept his cards close to his vest in making his last minute decision to seek a third term in office and how he made his precedent setting choice, balancing a desire to return to private life as an elder statesman with his concern over developments in Europe as the Second World War began. Moe tells us who the other potential candidates were, which were acceptable to Roosevelt and which weren't. He also ably describes the political landscape at the time, a time when the President's popularity was in the ascendency following his failed court-packing plan and his equally unsuccessful effort to replace members of his own party who did not support his New Deal policies, as well as the hangover from the so-called Roosevelt Recession of 1937-38. Moe also captures the mood of the times with the political and emotional conflict between internationalists, like FDR, who favored aid to those threatened by Hitler and the isolationists led by Charles Lindbergh, Robert Taft and others in and out of FDR's party, who wanted the United States to keep out of the conflict on the other side of the Atlantic. There were also those Democrats on both sides of this question who were firmly opposed to a third term for any president, while others believed that no one but Roosevelt could lead the nature at a time of such unprecedented conflict.
Moe describes how, right up until just before the Democratic convention, Roosevelt considered the options of running and not running and how he skilfully manipulated his party into nominating him for a third term, while giving the appearance of not wanting the nomination. The author's description of the poorly run Democratic convention, the fight over the nomination of Vice-President Henry Wallace (a former Republican with leftist leanings and a flaky past) and also of the surprising Republican convention, where a former Democrat outsider named Wendell Willkie came out of nowhere to capture his party's nomination, all make for fabulous reading.
The author gives an exceptional account of the pivotal election of 1940, in which the nation wrestled with the question of whether to aid Europe against the Nazi invaders or whether to remain isolationist in order than no American youth would be sent to their death on foreign soil. It generated record voter turnout for its time and Moe capably describes the strategic brilliance and blunders of both campaigns. In the words of one Democratic congressman of the day, FDR didn't campaign against Wendell Willike, he campaigned against Adolf Hitler. The author describes how this strategy played out and how it looked for a time that Roosevelt would be unsuccessful.
Richard Moe packs a lot of detail into 330 pages, including detailed descriptions of meetings and conversations that FDR had with his strategists and friends and foes alike. While the book is predominantly about Roosevelt, there are also a lot of other interesting figures that we learn much about, including Willkie, Wallace, appeasement-minded US Ambassador to Britain Joseph P. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, FDR's chief advisor Harry Hopkins, Democratic Party Chairman (and FDR's competitor for the nomination) James Farley, and many others. While at times the book makes for slow reading because of the detail it provides, it builds to a crescendo and will leave the reader with a hunger for the history of this period well-nourished. It was a most interesting time in American history, a time when an incumbent president faced difficult choices and perplexing, seemingly insurmountable problems. Richard Moe does a terrific job of helping to understand those times and those problems and of explaining how a brilliant political thinker was able to confront them.
In Roosevelt's Second Act historian Richard Moe describes how FDR kept his cards close to his vest in making his last minute decision to seek a third term in office and how he made his precedent setting choice, balancing a desire to return to private life as an elder statesman with his concern over developments in Europe as the Second World War began. Moe tells us who the other potential candidates were, which were acceptable to Roosevelt and which weren't. He also ably describes the political landscape at the time, a time when the President's popularity was in the ascendency following his failed court-packing plan and his equally unsuccessful effort to replace members of his own party who did not support his New Deal policies, as well as the hangover from the so-called Roosevelt Recession of 1937-38. Moe also captures the mood of the times with the political and emotional conflict between internationalists, like FDR, who favored aid to those threatened by Hitler and the isolationists led by Charles Lindbergh, Robert Taft and others in and out of FDR's party, who wanted the United States to keep out of the conflict on the other side of the Atlantic. There were also those Democrats on both sides of this question who were firmly opposed to a third term for any president, while others believed that no one but Roosevelt could lead the nature at a time of such unprecedented conflict.
Moe describes how, right up until just before the Democratic convention, Roosevelt considered the options of running and not running and how he skilfully manipulated his party into nominating him for a third term, while giving the appearance of not wanting the nomination. The author's description of the poorly run Democratic convention, the fight over the nomination of Vice-President Henry Wallace (a former Republican with leftist leanings and a flaky past) and also of the surprising Republican convention, where a former Democrat outsider named Wendell Willkie came out of nowhere to capture his party's nomination, all make for fabulous reading.
The author gives an exceptional account of the pivotal election of 1940, in which the nation wrestled with the question of whether to aid Europe against the Nazi invaders or whether to remain isolationist in order than no American youth would be sent to their death on foreign soil. It generated record voter turnout for its time and Moe capably describes the strategic brilliance and blunders of both campaigns. In the words of one Democratic congressman of the day, FDR didn't campaign against Wendell Willike, he campaigned against Adolf Hitler. The author describes how this strategy played out and how it looked for a time that Roosevelt would be unsuccessful.
Richard Moe packs a lot of detail into 330 pages, including detailed descriptions of meetings and conversations that FDR had with his strategists and friends and foes alike. While the book is predominantly about Roosevelt, there are also a lot of other interesting figures that we learn much about, including Willkie, Wallace, appeasement-minded US Ambassador to Britain Joseph P. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, FDR's chief advisor Harry Hopkins, Democratic Party Chairman (and FDR's competitor for the nomination) James Farley, and many others. While at times the book makes for slow reading because of the detail it provides, it builds to a crescendo and will leave the reader with a hunger for the history of this period well-nourished. It was a most interesting time in American history, a time when an incumbent president faced difficult choices and perplexing, seemingly insurmountable problems. Richard Moe does a terrific job of helping to understand those times and those problems and of explaining how a brilliant political thinker was able to confront them.