Book Review - Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom by Conrad Black

My ongoing project to read a biography of every American president takes some unusual twists and turns. Two years ago, my plan was to read biographies of James Madison, James Monroe, and Ulysses S. Grant. Everything proceeded very nicely according to my plan, at least for a while...

Then, toward the very end of last year, I was completely thrown off-track by a Presidential biography I had never heard of before: Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom by Conrad Black. A massively thick volume running to 1,280 pages (1,134 pages of text), this one-volume study of the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was first published in 2003. It purports to incorporate the latest scholarship in the best, most comprehensive one-volume biography of Roosevelt ever written.

I purchased this heavyweight, which was originally priced at $40.00, from our library's used bookstore for $5.00. I suppose I bought it more out of curiosity than anything else.

I had never heard of Conrad Black, so I immediately questioned his credentials as a Presidential historian. My Internet search revealed him to be none other than Lord Black of Crossharbour, a Canadian-born billionaire with degrees in history and law from some of Canada's most prestigious universities; a media mogul and proponent of conservative political causes both in Canada and his adopted homeland, Great Britain. And, oh yes, by the way... a convicted felon, recently released on bail from a U.S. prison, pending an appeal of his 6½ -year sentence for fraud. Obviously, eminently qualified to write a scholarly biography of the 32^nd President of the United States...

The proof, they say, is in the pudding, so I settled back and began reading Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom - with, I must admit, a certain amount of skepticism. (I had already read some of what I consider the best FDR biographies ever written, including James MacGregor Burns' Pulitzer Prize-winning, two-volume Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox and Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom.)

It didn't take me long to realize that Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion Of Freedom was going to be a winner of a book in many ways: It's extremely well written; in shows obvious, painstakingly detailed, rigorous scholarly research; it is eminently fair and balanced toward its subject; it successfully draws the historical era in which FDR lived into the story of his life; and it provides well argued, sharply reasoned historical analyses all along the way.

Black narrates the now familiar story of FDR's life with an obvious affection for his subject, and he provides a tremendous amount of detail along the way. Black's portrait shows FDR as a supercilious, facile young man who stretches the truth often to the breaking point; the courageous quadriplegic, struck down by poliomyelitis at age 39, just as he was about to step onto the national political scene, but undaunted by his affliction; the reforming governor of New York (1928-1932); and the 32^nd President of the United States (1933-1945), by Black's standards one of the three greatest Chief Executives in American history (the others being Lincoln and Washington), and "the most important person of the twentieth century."

Black bases his argument concerning FDR's greatness on seven accomplishments:

1. Along with Winston Churchill, he saved western civilization by providing first the material assistance desperately needed by the beleaguered Allies, and then the military might of the United States once America entered the war;

2. He led American opinion from profound isolationism to an acceptance of, and indeed support for, the eventual entry of the United States into World War II, with a "Europe First" strategy, despite the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

3. He transformed the American state into the modern welfare state we know today, enabling the US to better care for its citizens, and to take its rightful place in the world as a champion of democracy.

4. As a war leader, he made sound strategic choices, and his choices of men to run the machinery of war were uniformly excellent. He communicated effectively with Allied leaders, especially Churchill and Stalin, and he maintained the confidence of the forces under his command, and the American public at large.

5. He created the circumstances that enabled succeeding Presidents to complete the allied victory in World War II, and, ultimately, to liberate Eastern Europe from Soviet domination.

6. He mastered the American political system as no other politician before or since. He maintained such a high degree of popularity with the electorate that he was elected to four terms as President. He used all the tools of his craft to maintain his mastery of the political system.

7. He triumphed over an affliction (polio and the resulting paralysis) that would have ended the careers of most other men.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion Of Freedom is a huge volume; despite its heft, however, it remains an immensely readable biography of FDR. Stylistically, it lacks the last ounce of polish found in books written by "professional" FDR biographers like James MacGregor Burns, Kenneth S. Davis, and Frank Freidel (three authors whose works about FDR sometimes border on hagiography).

That's not to say Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom isn't well written; it most decidedly is. Black's book has clear advantages over other, more "scholarly" biographies. Black is younger, and therefore is not a child of the Great Depression. He is not American, so he never experienced FDR's New Deal. This allows him to be more objective in his approach than other, older biographers whose works are tinted by their Depression/New Deal experiences.

Black's research is prodigious and his many sources are impeccable. His prose is refreshing in its simplicity, and his historical judgments and analyses are both incisive and well argued. Black, certainly no apologist for liberal political causes, could have interjected his own political agenda into this work, thereby creating a scathing biography of one of the most liberal of all Presidents. Instead, he did his research, and arrived at the conclusion that FDR was, along with Lincoln and Washington, one of America's greatest Presidents. That is a tribute to Black's ability as an historian and biographer, and gives his work tremendous credibility.

Despite its great length, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion Of Freedom is an excellent read, and highly recommended.