Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny

Frank Freidel's "Franklin D, Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny" is overall an exceptionally good book, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants an introduction to the life of one of our greatest presidents. The chapters covering Roosevelt's life up to being elected president could have provided more detail though. Some of the information in the book which I thought was especially interesting included how tentative... Read Full Review

Frank Freidel of Harvard is the greatest historian of Franklin Roosevelt. Freidel spent years researching Roosevelt. He documented more interviews of people in Roosevelt's life than any other historian. His contribution to the historiography of Franklin Roosevelt is unsurpassed. Freidel originally wrote an outstanding four-volume biography of Franklin Roosevelt that meticulously detailed FDR's life from childhood, through... Read Full Review

This one volume biography of FDR is probably the best distillate possible, though the task is daunting and the result is less than perfect. At times, the book 'drags' a bit, particularly through the 30s. Explanations of New Deal politics perhaps don't lend themselves to the kind of exciting story-telling that wartime meetings at places such as Tehran and Yalta do. In fact, I sometimes felt the book lapsed into an economics... Read Full Review

The best one volume biography on America's greatest President. As a historian I higly recommend this tome.

This book was quite interesting, involving Roosevelts entire life, including every little nugget of his political life. If you are moderatly interested in FDR, read this book, but be warned, if you are just a casual reader, it may be best not to get a book that is so detailed. I certainly enjoyed this book, and would recommend to any political science student, or a person studying history. FDR was an interesting man,... Read Full Review