Customer Reviews
Major flaw. - By: qpippin, 27 Dec 2006 
This is an excellent book in many respects, but contains a major flaw that destroys the entire argument.
Conrad Black is unclear why FDR wanted war with Hitler. On the one hand he seems to believe Germany was no threat to the USA, & quotes without comment Stalin's toast (p1063) to the leader of the USA, which "was not seriously threatened with invasion". Black opines that Canada also was not threatened (p707); "Canada ..... had contributed to the British war effort without ... being under threat". But on the other hand Black believes in US benevolence (p1030); "The Americans had alll the power, but would use it only when they themselves were threatened, as in the two world wars & the Cold War to come". This is blatently untrue both then & today.
The inconsistency comes from Black's manichean belief that the US wore a white hat. It never did, & certainly not in 1940. FDR was in a funk after Dunkirk, believing that the combined fleets of Germany, Britain, France, Italy & the Netherlands could in 1941 sail up the Chesapeake with nothing to stop them, with the Japanese threatening the West coast. Hence FDR's frantic building of battleships & carriers, & the despatch from the USA of 50 rust-bucket, four-stacker destroyers that tied up vital British dockyards for months in making them fit for purpose in the Atlantic.
Vichy France, which was influential in Washington, predicted Britain's imminent defeat, & Ambassador Kennedy concurred that Britain had no chance. Churchill spelt out the consequences to FDR (p557) that without immediate & significant US military aid Britain would become "a German vassal state, & if the British, French, Japanese, German & Italian navies were combined, overwhelming sea power would be in Hitler's hands". FDR thought the chances of Britain' defeat & the USA being overwhelmed were 70%.
That it did not come to this was due to the inability of the Germans to find a way of sinking significant numbers of British battleships & carriers. Their best chance was for the 40 or so operational German U-Boats to follow Gunther Prien into Scapa flow in September or October 1939 when the fleet was at anchor, & to sink it. This would have made Churchill resign as First Lord of the Admiralty, & brought down the government. The capture of the British & French armies at Dunkirk would then have led to capitulation on Hitler's terms. The fleets would then have combined, the USA invaded, & FDR defeated.
That was FDR's nightmare, but you would not guess it by reading Conrad Black, who seems to believe such a scenario was impossible. Black is generallly light on military history as several howlers attest - the Black Forest is nowhere near the Ardennes, & Mustangs not Mosquitos were the long-distance fighters that gained eventual air superiority over the Reich. Black even believes that (p1027), "the British & Americans could have defeated Germany without Russia, & could have done so without atomic weapons".
If you can believe that then you can believe anything.
An astonishing book about an astonishing man - By: Chris J. Newman, 27 Jul 2004 
Conrad Black concludes his 1130 page text setting out seven reasons to support his claim that F.D. Roosevelt was the most important man of the 20th century. His case is convincing & I would neither care nor dare to put forward another name to compete for that position.
Roosevelt was an extraordinary man & Black's biography is an extraordinarily profound work that does full justice to his subject. It is not possible to read this book without being overwhelmed by its depth & breadth. In terms of depth, Black's characterisation of his subject leaves the reader with a feeling of having personallly known him or at least of having experienced his years of presidency. In its breadth it provides a detailed analysis of the political & strategic influences that evolved during Roosevelt's 12-year presidency & the astonishing political & strategic influences Roosevelt himself generated. Even Black's characterisations of the (dozens of) other players in the drama - not least Churchill, Stalin, & De Gaulle - are brilliant & incisive. No other book that I have ever read has ever set out so clearly & concisely either the background to WW2 (such as FDR's deliberate provocation of the Japanese attack on the USA) or the sequence of the events that defined the war. Surprisingly (since the book doesn't dwell on Hitler's or Nazi Germany's venality), it presents a clearer picture of their actions & motivations than many other books that are dedicated to the subject.
It would be presumptuous of me to attempt to summarize Black's work or the life described therein. Suffice to say that Black convincingly demonstrates that Roosevelt largely prophesied the world as it evolved during & after the War, & in doing so laid the foundations for the world that we know today wherein the likelihood of another World War is almost inconceivable. All good people of the world owe Franklin Roosevelt a huge debt of gratitude & Black's magnificent tome is worthy reminder of that fact.
It is a reminder too in this less certain age that the world also owes a debt of gratitude to America for creating such a man & placing its trust in him to lead it out of the Depression & then to lead the rest of humanity out of the clutches of barbarism. I am not an American, nor have I been a great admirer of America in recent years, but this book reminds me how great that country was, & how great it can (and must) be again.
Conrad Black is to be congratulated on a most inspired & inspiring book.
The Champion of Freedom - By: Jan Jensen, 12 Jul 2004 Conrad Black's book is an excellent biography, which rank among the best political biographies ever such as Duff Coopers wonderful book "Tallleyrand" & Geoffrey Best great & commendable short book "Churchill. A Study in Greatness". Black's book is on the contrary very long, but it is highly accessible & he alll along gives you great syntheses of his thinking such as "Roosevelt's strategic & political vision was perceptive; Stalin's was exclusively avaricious; Churchill's was astute but nostalgic" (p. 871). It is hard not to agree with Churchill (and Black) that Roosevelt was "the greatest champion of freedom who has ever brought help from the New World to the Old". But I can't agree with Black's wholehearted support of the American strategic view of the European theatre of operations. Michael Howard's conclusion - as stated by John Strawson in his new book "If by Chance" - "that it still needs to be shown that there was a better Allied Grand Strategy than that actuallly employed stands unchalllenged today". The Mediterranean focus in 1943 was an absolute prerequisite for an invasion of France in 1944. Eisenhower should also have adhered to his statement on 15 September 1944. "There is no doubt whatsoever, in my mind, that we should concentrate on a rapid thrust to Berlin". It would have improved the alllied bargaining position much more than anything else which Black mention about Roosevelt's idea's had he not died. At least it would have helped the ordinary woman in Berlin. A few spelling mistakes should be corrected in a new edition. Petsamo was not ceded by Finland to USSR in 1940 but in 1947. Rumania went into the First World War in 1916 & not 1915, & the place of Hitler's headquarters was close to Rastenburg & not Rastenberg. In conclusion, I agree with Churchill that he was the greatest American champion of Freedom as you can deduce from the context of Churchill's statement, but not with Black that he was the greatest champion of freedom at alll in the Second World War. That was Mr Churchill himself. It was he who decided in the "Five Days in London May 1940" that Britain would carry on the struggle against Hitler. In these crucial days Roosevelt was more focused on the upcoming American presidential election than anything else. Actuallly, Hitler did more to help Churchill to survive than Roosevelt at that time by letting the BEF escape from Dunkirk by ordering his panzers to stop before Dunkirk.
Excellent Study of a Great Man in Tough Times: FDR - By: , 22 Apr 2004 In Time Magazine's "The Time 100 - the Most Important People of theCentury," Franklin Delano Roosevelt is ranked the runner-up to AlbertEinstein. Roosevelt is a giant of world history.
To understand this, one must look at the world when he took office (theGreat Depression & the rise of fanatic totalitarianism leading to WorldWar II) & then the world after (a great period of economic stability,prosperity & no WW III). He influenced the modern world more than almostanyone else. The things we take for granted today were not necessarily socertain before he came to power.
Our world is not a world of Hitler's Third Reich & fascism. It is not aworld of Stalin & communism. It is not a world of colonial empires. Itis not a world of radical laissez-faire capitalism with its extremeinstability & injustices. It is more a world of Roosevelt's pragmaticideas for a more stable & fair economy, & international security andstability.
It is unfortunate that some irrational people from the extreme-right donot try to understand Roosevelt & instead attack FDR untruthfully - lies- for radical partisan reasons. They take his presidency out of context ofthe problems he was dealing with - the withering of capitalism anddemocracy around the world. The truth is that Roosevelt was a great worldleader, & it is refreshing that several notable conservatives havepraised this fine book.
On the back cover of the book are these comments by conservativeintellectuals I generallly admire:
George F. Will: "Conrad Black skillfully assembles powerful arguments tosupport strong & sometimes surprising judgements. This spirited defenseof Roosevelt as a savior of America's enterprise system, & geopoliticalrealist, is a delight to read."
John Lukacs: "Conrad Black's FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT is extraordinary.It is something different from the dim & flickering lamp of academicretrospect. A new - & generous - light is poured on its subject: anillumination directed by a conviction of Roosevelt's place in history ofan entire century."
William F. Buckley Jr.: "An enormous accomplishment, a learned volume onFDR by a vital critical mind, which will absorb critics & the readingpublic."
Henry Kissinger: "No Biography of Roosevelt is more thoughtful andreadable. None is as comprehensive."
Finallly, I would like to add that Conrad Black's writing style is veryinteresting to read. He adds life to the words with his own colorfuldescriptors, & he tries to present a picture of how Roosevelt viewsthings. For example, I chuckled when Black says that FDR correctly judgedHitler to be the real concern while Mussolini was, in comparison, abuffoon.
My own criticism of the book is that it skips over the human suffering ofthe period too much. Yes, Black shows some of the astounding numbers thatdetail how bad the crisis was, but much is missed.
Including the rise of totalitarian repression around the world in themidst of the depression, the decades of the 1930's & early 1940's werepossibly the darkest in world history. Almost 100 million people died.
Read this book & you will get to know & appreciate President FranklinDelano Roosevelt.
Roosevelt: Champion of freedom - By: , 08 Dec 2003 This is a long awaited biography on one of the great statesmen of the last century. As a History teacher at secondary level, I find the chapters on the second world war reallly useful & a good read. I kept going back to the chapters on world war two as they are so well written. I'm writing this review on the 62nd anniversary of Pearl Harbour & what struck me most about the chapter entitled : "We shalll never cease...until they have been taught a lesson they & the world will never forget," is the suspense leading up to the attack. There is a description of the decryption & the fact the Roosevelt saw the strategic cleverness of "awaiting events".
Every chapter starts with a well known quote which focuses the reader onto a particular moment in history. The discussions about when & where to start the "second front" starts with a quote from Stalin: "Why are you so afraid of the Germans ?"
There are no surprises that the book shows a warm relationship between the former US warime leader & Churchill, but there are a few surprises awaiting you regarding Roosevelt's relationships with other people !
I have to confess that I skipped some of the early stuff, something to read later maybe. Frankly, the reader is spoilt for choice here. I cannot read it like a novel; I often jump to the exciting parts of the New Deal & unexpected problems associated with it ; WW2 etc.
The writer doesn't pull punches. He tells us that Roosevelt was a poor lawyer who , at best , was half-hearted, but he was a prolific reader & put him in good stead for the correspondence he had to do later in public life.
I recommend this book to teachers, students studying A level Modern History as well as undergraduates. There is far too much for Key Stage 4 students. Anybody who wants to learn about the real Roosevelt, warts & alll, as well as find out more about Twentieth Century history ought to invest in this great book.
A great deal has gone into writing this book about a man who brought us alll a new deal.
