FDR: The Beckoning of Destiny, 1882-1928 [Hardcover]

Kenneth S. Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2004

Francis Parkman Prize Edition!

Product Details

• Hardcover: 936 pages
• Publisher: History Book Club; BOOKCLUB edition (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965086763
• ISBN-13: 978-0965086769
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,034,830 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #78 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( R ) > Roosevelt, Franklin D.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Huge biography that reads at the pace of a great novel., January 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: FDR: The Beckoning of Destiny, 1882-1928 (Paperback)

I can't wait to read the other books in this serial biography. Davis rarely overtells or undertells details of FDR's early years. The book moves quickly, and leaves an insatiable desire to read the next installation - if you can find it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Davis lacks focus, February 18, 2004

By 

D. M. Nott (Melbourne, Vic Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FDR: The Beckoning of Destiny, 1882-1928 (Paperback)

Let me start by saying that Kenneth S. Davis is a naturally talented writer and historian and this biography is very informative and entertaining. However it is simply too bloated, it does not just want to be a biography of FDR but a history of the aristocratic Hudson River society, Groton, Harvard, Tammany Hall and the Woodrow Wilson administration. I am a firm believer in a model of biography that puts the subject in their historical context, since no person can be understood without looking at the kind of envirnoment that formed their actions.
However Davis simply takes this too far by focusing on these particular aspects of the biography without really any explanation of why this is essential to understanding the character of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Davis is also to fixated on Eleanor and parts of the biography ignore his role in their relationship and focus on her life.
Overall this is a well written, compelling biography but it is simply too long and there are parts where the man himself gets lost in the world surrounding him. The fact that this volume is 853 pages and only gets as far as his election as the governor of New York shows how overblown the book is. Overall more editing was required to make this volume flow better and to give us a sense of Rooselvelt himself, this is a shame since this biography has so much more going for it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How it all began..., March 20, 2003

By 

M. A Newman (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: FDR: The Beckoning of Destiny, 1882-1928 (Paperback)

This book was awarded a well-deserved Parkman for the quality of its scholarship. This is the best book on the early years of FDR. It follows his childhood and explores the relationships with the key people in his life: the formidable Sara Delano Roosevelt, his marriage to Eleanor, and his political education from Louis Howe.

This book also has a great deal to say about polio and how FDR and each of these people responded. This is not "Sunrise at Campabello, although it is clear that polio did make Roosevelt into the person who was able to become the greatest president of the 20th century.