PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Iwan Morgan is Professor of US Studies emeritus at the Institute of the Americas, University College London, UK. He is also a distinguished fellow of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, UK. He was the recipient of the British Association of American Studies Honorary Fellowship in 2014, and winner of the Richard Neustadt Book Prize in 2010. He is the author of Reagan: American Icon (2016), named by The Times/Sunday Times as a Politics Book of the Year.
This is not the same old stuff about Franklin Roosevelt. Iwan Morgan has given us a more thoughtful and thorough examination of FDR as politician than many of the political biographies written in the last score of years. Using a topical approach... FDR emerges as a wise man, though occasionally with feet of clay. The persuasive and comprehensive epilogue pulls all the various topics -- economic reform, political economy, race relations, party politics, foreign policy and the 2nd World War, et al. -- neatly together. * Warren F. Kimball, Robert Treat Professor of History (emeritus), Rutgers University. USA * In his fresh and highly original examination of an old, familiar figure, Iwan Morgan reveals why Franklin Roosevelt must be regarded as the inventor of the presidency as we know it today. Other presidents had been strong leaders, but Morgan convincingly argues that it was FDR who institutionalized the chief executive as the federal government's center of power. Morgan's crisply argued book is an expert guide to one of the most transformational figures in American history. * Andrew Preston, author of American Foreign Relations: A Very Short Introduction (2019) * Iwan Morgan's new book is a deeply knowledgeable and important study of FDR's transformational presidency. Today, as the United States strives to recover from the aberrant presidency of Donald Trump and as autocracies arise around the world, Morgan's absorbing examination of FDR's political skills and moral vision of democracy could hardly be more timely and urgent. * Susan Dunn, author of '1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler - the Election Amid the Storm' * Washington inaugurated the presidency and Lincoln sustained it, but as Iwan Morgan convincingly demonstrates in this important full assessment, Franklin Delano Roosevelt forged the office we know today. FDR's was 'an heroic presidency,' Morgan tells us, and this thoughtful and timely book will be the go-to volume for understanding this presidential great for years to come. * Jeffrey A. Engel, Director of the Center for Presidential History, Southern Methodist University, USA *
