A Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of FDR
H.W. Brands brings his well honed biographical style (Andrew Jackson, Benjamin Franklin) to the already well covered FDR. Not surprisingly, this biography trods little new ground and continues the narrative that is now ingrained in so much early 20th century American history. In fact, Brands lauding of FDR and the New Deal may have been in response to new works such as Amity Shlaes’ The Forgotten Man.
Like so many writers before, Brands picks up the theme that were it not for the New Deal, America would have come apart resulting in a European style totalitarianism. Not even Brands makes the case that the New Deal led to prosperity but rather was a bridge between the crash and World War II.
What comes through in many of FDR’s quotes admiringly used in Brands’s work is the concept of redistribution as the answer to American economic challenges. Like his distant cousin and role model, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and his biographer show much greater faith in their own personal ability to set things right then in the innovation of the American people or the dynamism of the market. Even the title carries significance. It is noted as a surprise that a man like Roosevelt, who had so much provided for him by his wealthy family, would become a major redistributionist. Yet it seems easier for a person who never truly had to work in his life to give away a portion of his income rather than someone like Wendell Wilkie who had to work his entire life to obtain what Roosevelt had at birth.