Assuredly the best single-volume Roosevelt biography. -Eric Rauchway, Times Literary Supplement

Meticulously researched and authoritative. . . . Adequate single-volume biographies about FDR abound. But none are as heroically objective and wide-angled as this fine Dallek effort. . . . By tapping into the vast correspondence between Churchill and Roosevelt, Dallek discerns a more strained relationship between the leaders than presupposed. . . . Luckily for us, Roosevelt is with us again in Dallek's outstanding cradle-to-grave study. When it comes to choosing the two indispensable presidents in U.S. history, Dallek places Roosevelt alongside Abraham Lincoln, the other great improviser with Providence on his side. -Douglas Brinkley, The Washington Post

Dallek fully incorporates into his narrative Roosevelt's complicated, conflicted relationship with the several women in his life and is especially good on the role Eleanor played, as goad and political advisor. He also makes it clear, in a way other biographers do not, that almost from the moment he entered office, Roosevelt set out to educate the nation to the fact that the United States was threatened not only by economic depression at home, but also by fascist aggressions abroad. . . . Dallek's is a workmanlike addition to the literature on Roosevelt. -David Nasaw, The New York Times

Dallek constantly seeks to find an answer to FDR's political trajectory: What fueled his ambition to serve in the political arena and with what political aims? Also the extent to which it was FDR's experiences-abroad as a child, then at school, at Harvard, in the New York legislature-that determined his later progress in the real world. Undergirding all of these, Dallek sees Roosevelt's moral war on deceit and corruption. In an era in which moral, linguistic, and financial corruption hold sway, this story could not be more timely. . . . From beginning to end Dallek has earnestly followed his own curiosity as a citizen and as a teacher, so that at last we come to see in FDR the magisterial, central figure in the greatest and richest political tapestry of our nation's entire history. -Nigel Hamilton, Boston Globe

[Dallek] believes that FDR was a born politician of ferocious and very nearly infallible instincts, and through a combination of extensive research and first-rate storyteller's gifts, he makes the reader believe it, too. His Roosevelt is a man of great but always complicated drives, a worrier and second-guesser who nonetheless often believed the intensely stirring things he so often said and wrote. . . . Dallek relates in fine and compelling detail all the thorniest scandals of the FDR years. . . . But far more prominent than scandal in these pages-and far more welcome-are Dallek's frequent examinations of the now-forgotten political opposition FDR faced at every stage of his long tenure as president. . . . We see FDR afresh, which is an amazing feat in its own right. -Steve Donoghue, Christian Science Monitor

An insightful, incisive and intelligent one-volume work of biography and history-and a pointed primer on how things in Washington get done. In a period defined by division, gridlock and tweet storms, Dallek crafts a pointillist portrait of the four-term president, who knew almost intuitively how to use the power of his office and how to reach consensus. -Peter M. Gianotti, Newsday

Few scholars have the qualifications of Robert Dallek to tell this story. . . . Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life covers much more than the momentous challenges faced by FDR as president. It gives an honest outline of his life including his attitudes as a privileged 'undemocratic snob' who used 'the influence of men he considered unworthy of public influence.' . . . Despite the book's size, the complexity of its subject, and the narrative's variance with common public memory, it is a fast engaging read that corrects, even scatters, misconceptions. The author provides a