Description

Easton Press leather edition of James MacGregor Burns's "Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox, Volume one and "Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom," Volume two, COLLECTOR'S editions, part of the LIBRARY OF THE PRESIDENTS series, published in 1985. Bound in navy blue leather, the books have decorative paper end leaves, hubbed spine, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn binding, a satin book marker, gold gilding on three edges---in near FINE condition. COLLECTOR'S NOTE is included. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who lived from 1882-1945, was an only child and born into an affluent Hudson River Valley family. "My son Franklin is a Delano, not a Roosevelt at all," Sara used to say. FDR attended GROTON and graduated from HARVARD, a "mild and liberal school which sent young men into the world as respectable citizens." Roosevelt married his fifth cousin, Eleanor, in 1905. The Roosevelts' marriage was complicated from the beginning by Franklin's controlling mother, Sara. The Roosevelts, who lived in Sarah's house in Hyde Park, became parent to five children in 10 years: Anna in 1906, James in 1907, Elliott in 1910, FDR, Jr. in 1914, and finally John in 1916. When Eleanor learned that her husband was having a sexual affair with her social secretary, LUCY MERCER RUTHERFORD, Eleanor agreed to stay married---but her bedroom door was CLOSED! She persuaded Franklin to stay in politics after he was stricken with debilitating polio in 1921, which cost him the use of his legs, and Eleanor Roosevelt began giving speeches and appearing at campaign events in his place. Following Franklin's election as Governor of New York in 1928, and throughout the remainder of Franklin's public career in government, Eleanor Roosevelt, reshaped and redefined the role of "first lady," for her outspokenness, particularly her stance on racial issues. She was the first presidential spouse to hold regular press conferences, write a daily newspaper column, write a monthly magazine column, host a weekly radio show, and speak at a national party convention. She advocated for expanded roles for women in the workplace, the civil rights of African Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights of World War II refugees. Roosevelt was a New York State Senator when WOODROW WILSON appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and in 1920 he was nominated for the Vice Presidency. In 1932, Roosevelt was swept into office, determined to restore American confidence. The New Deal that roosevelt easily persuaded the Congress to implememt altered the structure of society, particularly the WPA program that put people back to work building, roads, national parks, libraries, etc. His SOCIAL SECURITY has proven to be a popular program. FDR is the only man elected four times to the Presidency. Boundless energy, combined with pragmatic and adventurous nature, enabled him to end the major depression of the 1930s and to help defeat the Axis power in World War II. In 1940, FDR pleaded with Congress for moral and financial assistance to help Britain and her allies defeat the Axis powers. America's response was the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, FDR told Congress that it was a "date which will live in infamy," a reference to the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. By the time of the 1945 YALTA conference, when FDR met with STALIN and CHURCHILL, he was physically an old man. MacGregor concludes that "he was indeed, in all the symbolic and ironic senses of the term, "a soldier of freedom." I offer Combined shipping.