Of all the presidents before my own time, except Lincoln, I thought I knew and understood Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ted Morgan's provocative and finely balanced biography has shown me I was wrong. In it, FDR becomes far more than the mere colossus bestriding the mid-twentieth century he had always seemed to me, revealing himself as a richly complex man of base hungers, crass manipulations, and magnificent statesmanship. There's something here to surprise everyone, I think, from liberal worshipers to conservative antagonists to everything Roosevelt is believed to have been. The programs he initiated during the greatest financial crisis in American history altered the political and social landscape of the country in ways that have not reverted since. That he almost single-handedly created the social safety net has made him anathema to the rock-ribbed team, but the great revelation to me was how much of what he did was in direct service of capitalism and its survival. Morgan puts the lie to the notion that Roosevelt worked for, or allowed, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and makes a substantial effort to admit FDR into the army of those who gave their lives for the country during the war. All in all, for all the disillusionments that liberals will find here, for all the surprises conservatives may find, this is a major biography of one of the preeminent men of modern times, and the development of a rather spoiled young man into one of America's most selfless statesmen is a story well worth reading. ( )