The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope (Paperback)

by Jonathan Alter (Author)
Key Phrases: inaugural parade, domestic recovery, White House, New York, New Deal (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Newsweek senior editor Alter attempts to explore FDR's famous first "hundred days" in office, when the president laid the foundation for national recovery from the Great Depression. Eventually, Alter succeeds in providing a brief consideration of those key months. But exposition dominates: the early chapters recite Roosevelt's biography up until his White House candidacy (the well-known tale of privilege, marriage, adultery and polio). Then Alter chronicles the 1932 election and explores the postelection transition. Only about 130 pages deal with the 100 days commencing March [4], 1933, that the title calls FDR's "defining moment." Alter attaches much weight to a few throwaway phrases in a thrown-away draft of an early presidential speech—one that could, through a particular set of glasses, appear to show FDR giving serious consideration to adopting martial law in response to the monetary crisis. Despite this, Alter goes on to document FDR's early programs, pronouncements and maneuvers with succinct accuracy. The book, however, contains misstatements of historical detail (Alter suggests, for instance, that it was Theodore Roosevelt, rather than Ted Jr., who served as a founder of the American Legion). (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The Washington Post
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Some speeches live forever, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 inaugural address, carried to tens of millions of Americans by radio at the lowest depths of the Great Depression, remains among them. Eight days later, FDR delivered his first "fireside chat." When a special session of Congress adjourned after exactly 100 days, major programs for economic regulation, relief, reform and recovery were in place. Hope and optimism had been restored.

Jonathan Alter's The Defining Moment focuses on this brief period, but also ranges backward and forward in time to set the stage and assess the consequences. A Newsweek columnist, Alter has given us a "journalistic" take, in both the good and not-so-good aspects of that adjective. His narrative moves along well but will disappoint readers who expect new facts or interpretations. Neither a history of the New Deal nor a biography of FDR, the work is strongest when it focuses on personalities and political tactics, weakest when it describes policies. Alter has a reporter's eye for the good story but at times dwells on the sensational rather than the significant.

Those who know the extensive literature on Roosevelt will recognize familiar stories long since delivered by other authors -- the machine-gun emplacements on Inauguration Day and FDR's fear of house fires, to name two. More problematic is Alter's claim to an original discovery -- an unused sentence in a draft of an address to the American Legion: "As new commander-in-chief under the oath to which you are still bound I reserve to myself the right to command you in any phase of the situation which now confronts us." He takes this as evidence that FDR, or one of his speechwriters, was considering the establishment of "a makeshift force of veterans to enforce some kind of martial law." This, Alter writes, "was dictator talk -- an explicit power grab." Come now.

It only shows that the author is not quite at home in the world of the 1930s. One finds numerous misconceptions, mangled names and flubbed dates; for example, he moves Sen. Bennett Champ Clark from Missouri to Pennsylvania and refers to Eleanor Roosevelt's cherished cooperative community project, Arthurdale, as "Allandale." None of these errors is fatal, but the accumulation is unsettling.

Also unsettling are the present-day similes that create more confusion than understanding. We learn that Roosevelt's closest political adviser in the pre-presidential days, Louis McHenry Howe, was "FDR's Theodore Sorensen, Michael Deaver, and Karl Rove rolled into one." Roosevelt's success in forcing the rapid establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps inspires an assurance that if FDR had been president after 9/11, he would have needed only four months, not four years, to secure U.S. ports and make the FBI fix its computer system.

Alter recalls that at the age of 11 he wrote in a school essay that FDR "was not physically strong but his spirit was," and then declares "That's all you need to know." His biographical chapters give us no easy answers to the riddles of Roosevelt's complex personality, but they are absorbing and filled with plausible judgments. He excels in detailing how FDR played the Washington press corps and intelligently analyzes his radio appeal. Alter is spot-on when he declares that action was more important to Roosevelt than policy substance: Activism that attacked the Depression's symptoms was as effective politically as finding a cure.

His Roosevelt is not always attractive. In the days before that first inauguration, Alter writes, "It is hard to avoid the conclusion that he intentionally allowed the economy to sink lower so that he could enter the presidency in a more dramatic fashion." This is too harsh, but over the next several years FDR failed badly in his efforts to end the Depression and pursued some policies that surely made things worse. The author concedes that if World War II had not intervened, Roosevelt would be remembered as a much lesser chief executive. He also thinks there is no reason to believe any of the possible alternatives would have done better, and he may well be right.

Most Americans believe Roosevelt was a great man and a great president. Alter shows us that in the end magnificent rhetoric and action do not always bring concrete results. The historian Richard Hofstadter once described FDR's distant cousin Theodore Roosevelt as a "master therapist" whose "hectic action" preserved an existing order with the illusion of change. Did the talent run in the family?

Reviewed by Alonzo L. Hamby
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743246012
• ISBN-13: 978-0743246019
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #49,204 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At the hour of deepest crisis , May 7, 2006

By	Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope (Hardcover)

The picture Alter paints of the United States on March 5,1933 as FDR is about to make his First Inaugural is truly frightening. It is a country in which banks are closing in which there is rampant and growing unemployment, a country which has lost confidence in itself, in the institutions of democracy and its leaders. And therefore there are many including the most influential columnist of the time Walter Lippman who are contemplating the need for dictatorship.
Alter arrestingly describes how at this moment FDR prepared himself to take power. He had rejected a Hoover offer to undertake 'joint emergency' measures in the interim between his election and his taking office. He understood that drastic reform measures must be taken. In the course of his Inaugural the famous " The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" Roosevelt begins the dramatic action which will rescue American democracy.
Alter carefuly describes the the seven and a half months between Franklin D. Roosevelt's election as president and the end of the special session of Congress that quickly became known as the "Hundred Days.He describes the background of Roosevelt and how he was groomed for political greatness. And he too provides a dramatic and moving understanding of how Roosevelt won the hearts of the American people.
This is a riveting read, and most highly recommended.


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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting take on FDR, June 29, 2006

By	CJ (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope (Hardcover)

Pros of this book - Contrary to some other reviews, this book is not particularly about politics and more about FDR's personality and leadership, and how he got (or sometimes did not) get things done. The author does the best old journalistic try to try not to directly appeal to blue or red staters, kudos to him (the frequent references to Reagan I'm sure do not hurt). I also learned quite a bit about the 1932 -1933 banking crisis, this book is quite informational with those pages.

Cons - The pre-1932 chronology is sometimes interesting but does not contribute substantially to the "Hundred Days" story. It is a bit misleading to have a book about the hundred days but have less than half the book deal with the particular subject. The author also puts a lot of emphasis on a discarded draft of the inauguration speech that had the US shift into more of an authoritarian mode. Nobody knows how seriously the FDR administration took that draft. As mentioned in a couple of other reviews, there are a few minor factual errors (matching names of politicians to states) that are not fatal but annoying.

I still think this book is worth reading, but it is only a contributing text to the FDR legacy, not a definining text. A better book would focus more on policies, less on personality, and consistently use more sophisticated language (in parts I felt like I was reading a long Newsweek article).

50 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revisiting The Depression In 1933, May 6, 2006

By	C. Hutton "book maven" (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope (Hardcover)

There are countless books on the most influential president of the 20th century : Franklin D. Roosevelt who guided America through the Great Depression and World War II. Geoffrey Ward's two volume study (1985 & 1989) of the pre-presidential Roosevelt focus upon the man while Conrad Black's "FDR : Champion of Freedom" (2003) is a 1000+ page political biography. Now Mr. Alter does a more focus study of the famous first 100 Days of his presidency in 1933 (and from which all future presidents are measured).

Mr. Alter assumes that the reader has no prior knowledge of FDR and the first half of the book re-visits familiar biographical territory of FDR's first 50 years. This is a prologue to his discussion of the 100 Days when FDR and his staff improvised legislation proposals on failing banks, failing farms, unemployment (hovering at 25%), etc. for passage by the Congress. The author is a skilled storyteller who will hold the reader's interest for a drama that unfolded over 70 years ago. "The Defining Moment" is an excellent introduction to the historical moment that FDR turned into legend.