Customer Reviews

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny

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This one volume biography of FDR is probably the best distillate possible, though the task is daunting and the result is less than perfect. At times, the book 'drags' a bit, particularly through the 30s. Explanations of New Deal politics perhaps don't lend themselves to the kind of exciting story-telling that wartime meetings at places such as Tehran and Yalta do. In fact, I sometimes felt the book lapsed into an economics textbook, but it is still mostly quite readable. Freidel does not editorialize much about his subject and so (fortunately) one is left to draw one's own conclusions about FDR.

This book was quite interesting, involving Roosevelts entire life, including every little nugget of his political life. If you are moderatly interested in FDR, read this book, but be warned, if you are just a casual reader, it may be best not to get a book that is so detailed. I certainly enjoyed this book, and would recommend to any political science student, or a person studying history. FDR was an interesting man, and it was a joy to read about this brilliant president.

I've revisited this book, which I read years ago, with hopes of including it in my set of recent reviews of books about the Depression of the 1930s. I hear so much ill-informed chatter from self-defined conservatives about the New Deal that I feel an urge to provide the reading material to deepen their understanding. This book, however, although it is the standard biography of FDR in many college classes, offers very little insight into the New Deal years, spending most of its energy on the later wartime FDR. It is unquestionably a book of muted adulation, almost a hagiography, and Roosevelt detractors will find it shallow and irritating at best. Myself a Roosevelt respecter but not partisan, I find it shallow, also, and particularly where it matters most. Freidel describes the politics of FDR's "court packing" failure without analyzing what was really at stake and to what degree FDR's threats forced the American judiciary to reformulate much of the law of labor relations to suit a mixed liberal democracy (liberal in the classic economic sense).
It's not only quixotic but also destructive to swelter in anarcho-capitalist or libertarian myths about FDR and the New Deal. Critics of Roosevelt are advised at least to know their man.

Obviously, a life like Roosevelt's is hard to condense into just one book due to the breadth of its importance and his impact on U.S. history. FDR's complex personality makes it even more difficult. Frank Freidel does a pretty good job of it in "A rendezvous with Destiny." The book starts with a brief look at FDR's early life, and ends with his death just after Yalta. The bulk of the book covers his political years.

I really liked Freidel's account of FDR trying to manipulate gold prices. You really get a good behind the scenes look of FDR trying to implement his programs in the early 1930's. You will discover that FDR was fairly quick to catch on to the danger that Hitler presented to the free world. Amazingly, you will discover how the attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor was either partially brought about, or brought about more quickly by a clerical error while FDR was on one of his many vacations.

I really enjoyed this book. Even if you are a well seasoned student of history, you will find a lot of little known facts, mostly behind the scenes details, in this fine work by Freidel. A great place to start your study of FDR's amazing life.

Frank Freidel has written a pretty good book about one of our most complex and admired presidents, but it certainly is not exhaustive. Freidel goes a good job explaining the who, what, where and when, but leaves out the all-important "why" in many of FDR's decisions. I would have loved to read more of FDR's thought processes and what went into his various decisions, especially at the all-important "Big 3" meetings at Tehran and Yalta. For instance, in David McCullough's Pulitzer-Prize winning tome, "Truman," we get plenty of meat on Truman's thoughts during the Potsdam conference - words from his diaries, notes to subordinates, etc. McCullough gives readers dozens and dozens of pages on Truman's analysis and thought processes during the critical conference. In contrast, readers really don't get terrific, exhaustive details in Freidel's book, and it's a letdown. These details separate a good presidential biography from a great one.

However, this is not a horrible book by any stretch. The author offers readers plenty about the 1932 election, FDR's disastrous decision to pack the Supreme Court, his thoughts and actions following Pearl Harbor, FDR's wartime strategy on the home front, his four presidential elections and even his death on April 12, 1945. Freidel covers the milestones of FDR's presidency well, but the devil is in the details. While I have not yet read Conrad Black's mammoth 1,200-page bio on FDR, one would hope it goes deeper than Freidel's 600-page tome. This book is recommended as a starter, or as part of a series of books to understand and study FDR.

Frank Freidel of Harvard is the greatest historian of Franklin Roosevelt. Freidel spent years researching Roosevelt. He documented more interviews of people in Roosevelt's life than any other historian. His contribution to the historiography of Franklin Roosevelt is unsurpassed.

Freidel originally wrote an outstanding four-volume biography of Franklin Roosevelt that meticulously detailed FDR's life from childhood, through his ordeal with polio, to the early years of FDR's presidency. Read that well-written biography if you want a deep understanding of the man and his times. Freidel never finished that multi-volume biography of Roosevelt into the war years; it was suppose to be six volumes.

Instead, Freidel wrote this excellent one-volume Roosevelt biography called Rendezvous with Destiny, which condenses Freidel's lifelong research into one volume. The coverage of FDR's early years and Eleanor Roosevelt's story are especially excellent. This is the standard reference biography of Franklin Roosevelt by probably the best historian of Roosevelt.

This biography starts with a superb background into Roosevelt's early life in upper class New York. His personal life was fascinating. FDR was born secure and confident. His mother was assertive and doted on her only child. Franklin attended Groton and Harvard. He loved to sail and greatly admired his cousin Theodore Roosevelt. He courted Eleanor, married, and then chose a life of public service - then a nasty world of politics. This biography details Roosevelt's New Deal programs, how he achieved his legislative goals, and who the other players were. Freidel briefly, yet vividly, describes the Great Depression era. If you read only one book about Franklin Roosevelt, this would probably be your best choice.

However, I thought that something was missing. Because Freidel of Harvard sticks closely to the strict rules of historians, he rarely provides opinions or commentary. There are no opinionated points of view - just the accurate events of FDR and his times. The book could have been better at describing the epic drama of World War II.

Readers should supplement this book with a great book on World War II, such as the masterpiece A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II by Gerhard Weinberg or the masterpiece Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich by William Shirer. After first reading Freidel's biography of FDR, I would then read the massive Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion Of Freedom by Conrad Black, which covers the war years extensively and brilliantly, and is loaded with opinions and juicy insider tidbits.

For the Great Depression years, readers should consider Arthur Schlesinger's three-volume Age of Roosevelt history of the Great Depression era. If you are interested further in FDR's fascinating private life, read Geoffrey Ward's award-winning A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt.

This book would be a great first book to read about FDR. If you were to judge this book on historical accuracy, then you would have to give the book the highest rating possible. However, people highly interested in the era, especially the war, will need to read other books.

When I read the other reviews I wondered if we had read the same book. Unlike the other reviewers, I thought the prose was dry and the details lacking. I don't really mind that the author has a pro-Roosevelt bias, but he breezes over the highlights of Roosevelt's life without giving out any juicy details. It reminded me of my old high school textbooks. There are better Roosevelt biographies out there.

FDR is one of those presidents that, love him or hate him, you can't ignore him. So I picked up this history book a while back to become better informed about the man and his accomplishments. Certainly, Mr. Freidel makes a good case for considering FDR as one of the greatest presidents ever. Mr. Freidel chronicles FDR's 12 years in office very well and with very few complicating internal debates that can bog down other histories. FDR's struggles during the Great Depression and World War II are given unbiased consideration here and this is a great starting point for anyone interested in his accomplishments. In case you've noticed, I use the word "history" to describe this book because, while this is a great history, it is not a very good biography. There is practically no analysis of what made FDR tick. His whole life prior to the presidency makes up less than 90 pages of the whole narrative. His whole adolescence and schooling, approximately the first 28 years of his life, are only given one thirteen-page chapter. And up until the last two chapters, Mr. Freidel only glances over FDR's personal life in favor of his political accomplishments. Particularly shocking was when Mr. Freidel devoted only one or two sentences to the fact that the Roosevelts lost a son in infancy and only one or two pages to FDR's affair with Lucy Mercer. Very little is said about Franklin and Eleanor's marriage other than that it was strained afterwards. Very disappointing. So, in short, this is a great place to start if you want to know more about FDR's presidency, especially if you're in an AP U.S. History or a college introductory U.S. history class, but if you're looking for a biography that injects some flesh and blood into the man, you may want to look somewhere else.

The best one volume biography on America's greatest President. As a historian I higly recommend this tome.

If one wants to start learning about the life of the 32nd President, this is the book the start. Friedel devoted his life to chronicling the life of this great leader. The book is very readable and covers all the important events in Roosevelt's life. The general reader and historian will be impressed.