FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America
November 3, 2008
New York Times
editorial board member Cohen (coauthor, American Pharaoh
) delivers an exemplary and remarkably timely narrative of FDR's famous first “Hundred Days” as president. Providing a new perspective on an oft-told story, Cohen zeroes in on the five Roosevelt aides-de-camp whom he rightly sees as having been the most influential in developing FDR's wave of extraordinary actions. These were agriculture secretary Henry Wallace, presidential aide Raymond Moley, budget director Lewis Douglas, labor secretary Frances Perkins and Civil Works Administration director Harry Hopkins. This group, Cohen emphasizes, did not work in concert. The liberal Perkins, Wallace and Hopkins often clashed with Douglas, one of the few free-marketers in FDR's court. Moley hovered somewhere in between the two camps. As Cohen shows, the liberals generally prevailed in debates. However, the vital foundation for FDR's New Deal was crafted through a process of rigorous argument within the president's innermost circle rather than ideological consensus. Cohen's exhaustively researched and eloquently argued book provides a vital new level of insight into Roosevelt's sweeping expansion of the federal government's role in our national life.
Starred review from December 15, 2008
This year marks the 75th anniversary of "The Hundred Days" in 1933 that signified the beginning of Franklin D. Roosevelt's assumption of the presidency. Cohen (assistant editorial page editor, "New York Times"; "American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Dailey") displays his strong prose style and research skills in this story of the precedent set by FDR against which later Presidents are judged: the so-called honeymoon period after inauguration and before the media and the opposition inevitably begin to critique and attack. Cohen wisely tells the New Deal story through the biographies of five of its most important players: Raymond Moley and Lewis Douglas (director, bureau of the budget)both of whom broke with FDR rather early onand the more liberal Henry Wallace (secretary of agriculture), Frances Perkins (secretary of labor), and Harry Hopkins. The author presents FDR as a nonideological pragmatist who adapted to the times and the New Deal as an ad hoc program rather than a blueprint for the social welfare state. Frances Perkins, who served FDR the longest, emerges as the hero of the story. Though disliking the media and showing little interest in aiding congressional patronage, Perkins was the driving soul behind the New Deal. Cohen does not uncover new information, but he presents a crucial human story which goes beyond that found in most FDR biographies. Superbly readable and informative, this is an essential purchase for all public and academic libraries. The current financial meltdown and the eve of inaugurating a new president make it that much more timely a purchase.William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport
Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
December 1, 2008
Written by an editor ofthe New York Times, this well-researched narrative of Franklin Roosevelts first months in the White House approaches the fabled Hundred Days through five of FDRs executants. Harry Hopkins, Frances Perkins, and Henry Wallace were present at the creation of the New Deal, remaining dependably liberal administrators throughout FDRs presidency. At the start, too, were the chief of FDRs brain trust, Raymond Moley, and budget director Lewis Douglas, who, in contrast, became disenchanted out-of-office critics of the New Deal. Through a mixture of biography and chronicle, Cohen productively recounts the roles of his quintet in the political drama of the Hundred Days. His profiles impart the background and political inclinations each person brought to Washington, while his descriptive detail brings to life the capital citys beaten look and mood of crisis in early 1933. With his emphasis on the influence of his five protagonists on the alphabet agencies created in the Hundred Days, Cohen captures the flow of power at a crucial historical moment, which is always a winning formula to readers of political history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)