A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt
by Geoffrey C. Ward
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A portrait of the private world, personal ordeal, and public triumph of the thirty-second president.Tags
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I have long regarded Franklin Roosevelt as one of the greatest American presidents, but I don't think I fully appreciated him as a person until I read Ward's book while I was in college. While the preceding volume, [b:Before the Trumpet|641176|Before the Trumpet The Young Franklin Roosevelt|Geoffrey C. Ward|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|3344880], is good, it's this second one, which covers FDR's life from his marriage to Eleanor Roosevelt to his successful campaign for the governorship of New York in 1928, that is truly brilliant. Credit is due not just to Ward's skills as a writer, but the insight he brings to FDR's life as a fellow polio victim. After reading it it's impossible show more not to appreciate the role the infliction of the disease played in making FDR who he was as president. show less
2782 A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt, by Geoffrey C. Ward (read 12 Sep 1995) (Book of the Year) (National Book Critics Circle biography award for 1989) This great volume covers FDR from his marriage on March 17, 1905, to Nov. 1928 when he was elected Governor of New York. This is a truly magnificent volume, and I found it superlative and it told me much I did not know before. The years from 1913 to 1920, when he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, his run in 1920 for Vice-President, and then the highly dramatic story of his effort to deal with his polio, from 1921 on--all I found excellent reading. Ward himself is a "polio" and I just can't admire enough--and hadn't realized how bad FDR's polio was--the show more fight FDR made. The book is not unfailingly laudatory, and I am glad it isn't, because we know FDR had flaws. This is the best book I read this year. show less
Tried to read, but found it too detailed. It just wasn’t holding my interest.
This is a first class biography. A pleasure to read.
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603 works; 12 members
Author Information
86+ Works 9,182 Members
Geoffrey C. Ward is an author, historian, and screenwriter. He has written for numerous documentary films, and has won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Francis Parkman Prize, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Geoffrey Champion Ward was born in 1940 in Newark, Ohio. He was a graduate of Oberlin College in 1962. He is an editor, show more author, historian and writer of scripts for American history documentaries for public television. He is the author or co-author of 18 books, including five companion books to the documentaries he has written. He is the winner of seven Emmy Awards. He was the founding editor of Audience Magazine (1970-1973) and the editor of American Heritage Magazine (1977-1982). His 1989 biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, A First-class Temperament: the Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt, won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The principal writer of the television mini-series The Civil War, Ward has collaborated with its co-producer Ken Burns on most of the documentaries he has made since, including Jazz, Baseball, The War and Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. This work has earned him five Emmy Awards. He also won two Emmys for the American Experience series, including The Kennedys, in 1992 and TR,The Story of Theodore Roosevelt in 1996. His script for the documentary Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, won the Writers Guild of America Award in 2005 and the accompanying book won the 2006 William Hill Sports Book of the Year and the Anisfield-Wolf Award for best biography. His works include The War: An Intimate History, Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz can Change Your Life and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. His title The Roosevelts: An Intimate History made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2014. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- Important places
- USA
- Original language
- English
- Canonical LCC
- E807 .W328 1989
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 973.917 — History & geography History of North America United States 1901- World Wars and Depression Era (1901-1953) Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1937) New Deal, Social Security Act
- LCC
- E807 .W328 — History of the United States United States Twentieth century Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administrations,
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 177
- Popularity
- 184,322
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.38)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 3
