The Defining Moment: FDRs Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope

FDR’s furious Hundred Days

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N ewsweek 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 election and explores the postelection transition. Only about pages deal with the days commencing March 3, , that the title calls FDR's "defining moment.

William Hearst produced a movie called "Gabriel over the White House" about a president becoming a benevolent dictator as a way of softening the public up to the idea. Also, did you know that Huey Long a senator from Louisiana was calling for all wealth over 5 million dollars contained in one family should be handed over to the people? Where are the senators like that now?

Did you know that FDR was almost assassinated in Miami a few weeks before he took office!? All the juicy days details are contained within this very readable history.

Plenty of "alphabet soup" programs to dip your brain spoon in and try to figure out what it all meant. It meant that someone took charge who decided America was worth saving, but in order to save us he needed to try everything under the sun to get it to work. And he also needed to teach us that government could look out for all of us and not be a dictatorship.

Aug 21, Steven Kaminski rated it it was amazing. Fascinating book that takes us back in time right before FDR took office and a lot of the strategy that FDR used to bring the country together and to calm the country down. I mean I know I talked to my grandparents who were alive then but this book creates and describes vividly the absolute terror that people in America were experiencing.

Before FDR took office Most businesses that were small business went right behind them and rig Fascinating book that takes us back in time right before FDR took office and a lot of the strategy that FDR used to bring the country together and to calm the country down. Most businesses that were small business went right behind them and right after that the jobs of the people in those cities. So many of these towns small towns with one bank Everyone was holding their breath because they literally were convinced society was falling apart in front of their very eyes.

Alter points to a few big things at the time that helped Roosevelt emerge as a leader that the country needed, restored confidence and got the country back up and rolling. The first truly beneficial thing Roosevelt had going for him was he was replacing a man who although he was seen as intelligent Hoover approached the financial crisis of very much like a deer in the headlights. And compounding the problem was he didn't want to take responsibility for any decision.

He didn't know what to do and was paralyzed by the crisis. He also wanted Roosevelt to sign on to every decision he was going to make to combat the crisis. Roosevelt refused. Roosevelt argued very persuasively that there only one President at a time. He would look favorably on decisions Hoover made but left those choices to Hoover. Hoover dithered and did nothing.

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

Even his most ardent supporters who were bankers were ripping their hair out screaming for him to do something. The inaction by the federal government put forward an idea that the government had no control over what was going on and was a helpless bystander. It cemented the correct perception that Hoover was not in command. It also gave FDR the ability to show a clean break when he came into office. Second, FDR realized that half of the country's problem with the Federal government and Hoover was about the perception government wasn't involved and wasn't doing anything.

So this led to the first days.

Every day of activity was frenzied. It was about rolling out possible solutions. It was about the willingness to be able to try anything to help the common man. FDR got everyone involved in projects often assigning the same project to multiple people just to see who could come up with the better solution. It got the buy in of the America people.

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It gave them confidence that government was trying to work to make their lives better. The third and I think most crucial thing that happened was FDR developed and created the 'fireside chat'. He knew that he needed to speak directly to the American people in a way that was soothing, calming, confident and gave them real updates on what his administration was trying to do. FDR worked for hours on each address. He emphasized sayings like 'my friends' to make it feel like he was with those people in those small towns. That decision was fundamental in restoring confidence to the American people but also to them having confidence in the institutions that were so dangerously close to falling apart.

A month after he was elected FDR went on the radio, reassured them that solutions were coming and that everything was going to stabilize and be all right. He became their champion. And even though the great depression was underway his voice was in many ways a connection to them in their homes that they felt was tangible. The words he spoke reassured them, gave them the confidence to get through and gave him time to put the programs in place to life the country up again.

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Really interesting stuff Ask almost anyone to name the best U. Along with the ubiquitous Washington and Lincoln, you will more than likely get a lot of responses that include Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And why not? Roosevelt was elected a record four times, is widely credited for getting America out of the Great Depression, and helped defeat Nazi Germany. Pretty good stuff.

About this time of year in , the Democratic nomination for president was up for grabs. Most Americans believed the next president would most likely be a Democrat given the many problems the incumbent Republican, Herbert Hoover, was having with the economy, but Democrats were divided as their convention neared. Sound familiar? In my view, it is a must-read for anyone interested in politics.

In its pages, we are reminded that the legend who has become three initials known by every American older than the age of six — FDR — began as a young, well-heeled politician who many of his contemporaries thought was not ready for prime time.

THE DEFINING MOMENT by Jonathan Alter | Kirkus Reviews

The decisions that were required of the president-elect even before he took office and that led to sleepless nights for both him and outgoing President Hoover, right up until inauguration day, were truly remarkable. We get a front-row seat for that critical part of American history. Wall Street was edgy. Public confidence in financial institutions was at a low point.

A new president was on the horizon. Perhaps this information is important to a fuller understanding of him, but this is a book not about the fullness of the man or his career, but about the early days of his presidency. In my view, Alter belongs in a select category of political non-fiction writers who are able to br ing their subject alive with energetic prose and fast-moving chapters. In so doing, he lets us consider more than just the book itself.

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He lets us think about the extraordinary nature of the election year of , and he made me wonder whether we may, right now, be involved in another such election. Those of us alive now have a difficult time understanding the degree of fear and uncertainty felt by people in when the banks were closing and they had no idea what the future held.

One had to live through the time to know how it felt.

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