Traitor to His Class

It's an old story but still a good one even in a re-telling, especially with a writer who displays the narrative energy, historical perspective, and political balance of H. W. Brands, professor of history at the University of Texas. I enjoyed reading the book in the late days of last winter, as the Obama administration was getting underway and our hopes for another New Deal came back to life. And as we were being told that we are in the worst recession since the Great Depression.

H. W. Brands, Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (New York: Doubleday, 2008).

Thomas J. Sugrue reviews the book in The Nation: Thomas J. Sugrue, "The Hundred Days War: Histories of the New Deal," The Nation, 27 April 2009. Sugrue also reviews Adam Cohen, Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America.