The Roosevelt presence

by Patrick J. Maney

Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only twentieth century president commonly ranked by historians with the Founding Fathers and Abraham Lincoln. His leadership in the darkest hours of our history, the depression years and the Second World War, has endowed him in the eyes of many with an aura of unsurpassable greatness. His presidency has been the explicit or implicit model for all subsequent occupants of the White House from Truman to Bush. Moreover, popular expectations of what the president should do and be trace their origins to FDR's presidency. He remains, nearly five decades after his death, an enduring presence in American life. Like the Founders and the Great Emancipator, FDR as a historical figure is surrounded by a penumbra of mythology, indeed, of mystification, that has made his personality and presidency more enigmatic than they need be. In this concise biography, Patrick J. Maney provides an original and insightful examination of Roosevelt's life and legacy.^ Maney carefully di