Unlikely heroes : Franklin Roosevelt, his four lieutenants, and the world they made

Leebaert, Derek, author.

First edition.

Book

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2023.

©2023

viii, 488 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

"Drawing on new materials, Unlikely Heroes constructs an entirely fresh understanding of FDR and his presidency by spotlighting the powerful, equally wounded figures whom he raised up to confront the Depression, then to beat the Axis. Only four people served at the top echelon of President Franklin Roosevelt's administration from the frightening early months of spring 1933 until he died in April 1945, on the cusp of wartime victory. These lieutenants composed the tough, constrictive, long-term core of government. They built the great institutions being raised against the Depression, implemented the New Deal, and they were pivotal to winning World War II. Yet, in their different ways, each was as wounded as the polio-stricken titan. Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickes, Frances Perkins, and Henry Wallace were also strange outsiders. Up to 1933, none would ever have been considered for high office. Still, each became a world figure, and it would have been exceedingly difficult for Roosevelt to transform the nation without them. By examining the lives of these four, a very different picture emerges of how Americans saved their democracy and rescued civilization overseas. Many of the dangers that they all overcame are troublingly like those America faces today"-- Provided by publisher.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945 -- Friends and associates.

Hopkins, Harry L. (Harry Lloyd), 1890-1946.

Perkins, Frances, 1880-1965.

Ickes, Harold L. (Harold LeClair), 1874-1952.

Wallace, Henry A. (Henry Agard), 1888-1965.

Cabinet officers -- United States.

New Deal, 1933-1939.

World War, 1939-1945 -- United States.

United States -- Politics and government -- 1933-1945.

United States -- Social conditions -- 1933-1945.

United States -- Economic policy -- 1933-1945.

Introduction -- Stepping forward: from inauguration as governor, January 1, 1929, to the October crash -- Economic plague: October 1929 to campaign Summer 1932 -- Surge to power: November elections 1932 to Roosevelt's inauguration, March 1933 -- Action now: the hundred days, March-June 1933 -- New frontiers: Summer 1933 to the midterm elections, November 1934 -- Getting the habit: midterm elections 1934 to Summer 1936 party conventions -- Crest of the wave: FDR's campaign of 1936 to Christmas 1937 -- Facing the world: a super island-state in the mid-1930s -- Faith and maintenance: January to Summer 1938 -- Turning points: reforms of Summer 1938 to a new Congress, January 1939 -- Spark to flame: "Munich" in Autumn 1938 to war in Europe, September 1939 -- Line of fire: war in September 1939 to attack in Western Europe, May 1940 -- Devotees of force: Blitzkrieg of May 1940 to FDR's inauguration, January 1941 -- Eleventh hour: inauguration 1941 to Pearl Harbor, December 7 -- New extremes: attack at Pearl Harbor to November 1942 midterm elections -- Washington wars: Operation Torch, November 1942, to the coal strikes, November 1943 -- Hard pounding: Stalin in Tehran, November 1943, to D-Day, June 1944 -- Long shadows: Operation Overlord, Summer 1944, to FDR's death, April 1945 -- Epilogue.

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