Roosevelt’s Purge

Dunn delves into a fascinating and overlooked aspect of the FDR presidency: Roosevelt's brazen effort to assert control over his own party in the summer of 1938. Dunn has written an engaging story of bare-knuckled political treachery that pits a president at the peak of his popularity against entrenched congressional leaders who didn't like where he was taking the country and their party. FDR tried to use the power of the White House, and his personality, to run his opponents out of the Democratic Party. He failed miserably. -- Jonathan Karl Wall Street Journal 20101013 Dunn's examination of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's summer of '38, when he attempted to rid his party of conservative elements, couldn't be more relevant. The author colorfully and thoroughly chronicles the strategies that a once-popular president, who had helped America rise from a debilitating depression, employed when critics within his own party threatened his New Deal legislation...Roosevelt helped manipulate the outcome of Democratic primaries and supported liberals who challenged the seats of conservative incumbents...Even though FDR's efforts ultimately failed, costing him political capital and bringing a beating upon Democrats in the midterm elections, the purge was the precursor of a historic transformation of American political parties that colors American Politics to this day. As the past prepares to repeat itself once more, FDR in '38 is a perfect lens through which to view our current climate. Publishers Weekly 20101018 [An] engrossing book. -- Sam Rosenfeld American Prospect 20101108 Dunn does an excellent job of putting this purge attempt into historical as well as political context, and demonstrates that the method to FDR's madness can be seen in his effort to bring greater ideological consistency not only to the Democratic Party, but to the two-party system as well...Dunn's book is clearly argued and well written, and gives a glimpse of the inner workings of the Roosevelt White House and the Roosevelt mind. It sheds light on not only presidency studies but also the FDR era. -- M. A. Genovese Choice 20110501