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Review
| Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Biography, by Jeffrey W. Coker. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 172 pages. $29.95, cloth.
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| Like the other volumes in the Greenwood Biography Series, Franklin D. Roosevelt is a concise, readable book designed specifically for high school students. In twelve succinct chapters spanning 157 pages of text, Jeffrey W. Coker recounts the life of America's thirty-second president. Although devoid of footnotes and other scholarly apparatus, the book contains a brief bibliographical essay. The author presents his narrative in engaging prose and proves adept at synthesizing a wealth of material without grossly oversimplifying or doing significant damage to the historical record. Although he occasionally references other historians' judgments of the Roosevelt record, Coker avoids protracted historiographical discussions that would likely derail the narrative and lull students to sleep. In short, while the book's brevity and absence of detail would disappoint Roosevelt specialists, it seems well-suited to a high school student readership. |
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So what sort of Franklin D. Roosevelt emerges in this book and how does he compare with the Roosevelt constructed by other biographers? Coker presents a clear-eyed, unsentimental portrait of his subject that frequently stops short of praise for the Roosevelt presidency. He lauds White House speech writers, for example, but concludes that the president was not a particularly gifted orator—an assessment that deviates from the conventional view of Roosevelt as a powerful and persuasive public speaker. While virtually all historians readily agree that the New Deal fell far short of conquering the Great Depression they also recognize that policies crafted in Washington provided at least a modicum of relief for a beleaguered populace, halted a rapidly deteriorating economic situation, created a series of stabilizers that restored confidence in financial institutions, and offered hope to the American public in its darkest hour. Coker only acknowledges Roosevelt's success in resuscitating morale. The author seems somewhat ambivalent about Roosevelt as a wartime leader, characterizing the president as reacting to events more often than setting clear policy goals. He praises the president for delegating authority to his generals but suggests that he may have overestimated his ability to control Stalin and the Russians. Coker's critical depiction of Roosevelt may well leave admirers of the thirty-second president concerned that, in a quest for "balance," he has overlooked some noteworthy achievements. |
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Reviewers can always quibble about an author's decision to omit certain topics or emphasize others, especially in relatively short works of synthesis where the need for brevity overrides the full consideration of complex issues. Painting a portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, with adequate coverage of the subject's formative years, the New Deal, and the Second World War, is a daunting task—even more so on such a limited canvas. Coker does remarkably well at a very challenging task, for the most part, but his discussion seems severely limited in places. The author ignores the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in his discussion of government-sponsored work programs, for example, and the Farm Security Administration (FSA) also goes unmentioned. The failure to consider the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), purportedly Roosevelt's favorite agency and one that enjoyed unparalleled public popularity in the 1930s, is especially curious. In general, I would have liked a fuller and more nuanced consideration of the New Deal. This could have been achieved, without lengthening the book appreciably, by trimming the chapters on the pre-presidential years. Still, Coker's biography will be useful for high school history teachers looking for a concise treatment of one of the twentieth century's most compelling personalities. The book can be used to spark discussion on the important events and issues of the 1930s and 1940s in American history. |
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| Illinois State University |
Roger Biles |
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