The Roosevelts and the Royals: Franklin and Eleanor, the King and Queen of England, and the Friendship that Changed History [Hardcover]

Will Swift (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 21, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0641770669 | ISBN-13: 978-0471459620 | Edition: 1

Advance Praise

"Fascinating and well researched.... Dr. Swift is the first to concentrate on this unusual subject with such a wealth of sympathetic detail."
–Sarah Bradford, author of America’s Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain’s Queen, and The Reluctant King: The Life and Reign of George VI, 1895—1952

"A splendid addition to our understanding of an extraordinary Anglo-American partnership. Both intimate and expansive, Will Swift’s vigorously researched book is timely, illuminating, and dramatic."
–Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 1: 1884-1933 and Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 2: The Defining Years, 1933-1938

"The Anglo-American alliance has long been a bedrock of the global order, and Will Swift’s The Roosevelts and the Royals details an important chapter in that fascinating story with warmth and verve."
–Jon Meacham, author of Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship

"Those who remember only that the Roosevelts served hot dogs to the royals will be fascinated by this well-researched account of an historic and ennobling relationship–a great story!"
–James MacGregor Burns, author of The Three Roosevelts: Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America and Roosevelt: Soldier of Freedom

"A gripping account of four very different lives that were woven together to change the world in wartime."
–Hugo Vickers, author of Cecil Beaton and Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece

"Written in fluid and lucid prose, this book is not only eminently readable but also historically illuminating. It explores the contrasting personalities of the four main protagonists with skill and insight and it is both convincing and refreshingly candid."
–Brian Roberts, author of Randolph: A Study of Churchill’s Son and Cecil Rhodes and the Princess

"This book brings to life my grandmother and her royal friends. Reading it, I found myself reliving the times I shared with them. A wonderful story."
–Nina Roosevelt Gibson, Ph.D., psychologist and granddaughter of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This melodramatically subtitled footnote to history by Swift, a longtime writer on royal history for Majesty magazine, focuses on the brief visits, in the summer of 1939, by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to Washington, D.C., and Hyde Park. Foreign visits by heads of state are carefully choreographed. This one was especially so, as the president was wheelchair-bound and the king, more withdrawn than his outgoing queen, was a stammerer and still new to his role as sovereign. On both sides of the Atlantic, the abdication of Edward VIII to marry a twice-divorced American was still deplored. The colorless George VI was on probation. Massive press hype—as well as diplomatic reticence—made the brief visits, which also included a stop at the New York World's Fair, a success. King George was still colorless, but few noticed, and his royal style during the war beginning that September was sufficiently self-effacing and quietly steadfast to erase concerns about his authority on the throne. Even stretched with asides, though, the royal progress encompasses only 47 pages. The rest— following the protagonists from the 1880s to the 1950s—is padding. A passionate collector of royal memorabilia, Swift has packaged a book for collectors of royal memorabilia. 44 b&w illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Psychologist Swift is an American royal-watcher and contributor to niche publications devoted to monarchical celebrities. Here he assembles meetings that in various permutations occurred among Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, Britain's King George VI and consort Queen Elizabeth, and ancillary members of the four principals' siblings and progeny. He covers a century of chronology, beginning with the youthful Franklin's encounters with British blue bloods and ending with a 2002 trip by Prince Andrew to Roosevelt's Hyde Park home. Prince Andrew went there to commemorate the central event of Swift's compendium, George VI's 1939 visit to the U.S., the public relations highlight of which was Their Majesties' (as Swift loyally denominates his subjects) plebeian consumption of hot dogs. Swift's rendition of that trip captures all details of protocol, whether trumpeted in the press at the time or committed to a diary, and characterizes his presentation of subsequent royal-Roosevelt meet-ups during World War II and afterward. Historical minutiae much of it may be, but Swift's work strikes an undeniably popular chord of interest. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (June 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0641770669
• ISBN-13: 978-0471459620
• ASIN: 0471459623
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #939,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #66 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( R ) > Roosevelt, Franklin D.
  • #83 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( R ) > Roosevelt, Eleanor

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Royal - Roosevelt Read., June 29, 2004

By 

karen Tunney (patterson, ny United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Roosevelts and the Royals: Franklin and Eleanor, the King and Queen of England, and the Friendship that Changed History (Hardcover)

An excellent recollection of the relationship between the Roosevelts and the King and Queen of England. This book is filled with fascinating details, stories and antedotes that keeps the reader engrossed from beginning to end. Will Swift clearly has a great understanding not only of British Royal History but American History as well, this knowledge combined with a effortless, free flowing writing style makes this book a pleasure to read. For anyone with a interest in the Roosevelts and/or the King and Queen of England this is a definite must read. Don't miss this book and the story of infamous first royal hot dog.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Account of Fascinating Historical Figures, July 15, 2004

By 

Kyle Maddux (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Roosevelts and the Royals: Franklin and Eleanor, the King and Queen of England, and the Friendship that Changed History (Hardcover)

If you like a blend of biography and history as I do, you will love this book. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth are vividly portrayed here. Their alliance and, later friendship, and their commitment to mix charm and duty for the public good are set against Joseph Kennedy and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's self-serving attempts to gain attention and power. The author, a psychologist, shows us the inner workings and motivations of all the main characters without sounding like he is doing a case study.
Most of us are aware how FDR and Churchill worked together to build the "special relationship" between America and Britain, but this book rounds out the story by showing the complicated three-way partnership between Churchill, Roosevelt and the king. I was surprised by how little I knew about the king and queen's role in softening American isolationism and in persuading Roosevelt to send war materials to Britain when it was at the brink of extinction.
I was fascinated by how the king and queen won over Americans in Washington and New York during their 1939 state visit. The author gives us the full drama of the hot dog picnic at Hyde Park and explores how it helped to heal British-American relations.
The Roosevelts and the royal family remained friends until Eleanor's death in 1962. There is a wonderful vignette in the book about Eleanor's visit with her granddaughter to Buckingham Palace for tea with Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. The Roosevelt- royal connection has recently been revived by Prince Andrew on visits to Hyde Park.
The author has obviously done his homework- with careful research at both the FDR Library and Windsor Castle- and has talked to many of the Roosevelt grandchildren. Like Jon Meacham's Franklin and Winston, and Doris Kearns Goodwin's No Ordinary Time, this book brings historical relationships to life, and provides an accurate depiction of a period in time. This is a truly impressive biography of four of the twentieth century's greatest leaders.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Must Be Read, July 8, 2004

By 

stephen storen (Forest Hills, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Roosevelts and the Royals: Franklin and Eleanor, the King and Queen of England, and the Friendship that Changed History (Hardcover)

Will Swift does a terrific job in bringing to life the personalities and issues of a critical time in world history. This book is a must read for those interested in the events of the time, and how those events influenced today's relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States.