Cynthia Koch's Reading List

"Franklin Roosevelt is not as well known today as he should be among students. And everybody appreciates a book that is less than a hundred pages long. There are many, many, wonderful biographies of Roosevelt, beginning with the ones done by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and James McGregor Burns. Then Jean Edward Smith and Roger Daniels. The genius of what Alan did is to make Roosevelt’s story accessible by getting it down to a hundred pages. I love it. I’m glad that you said that sometimes faculty look to your organization for advice on books for syllabi, because this title is particularly fit for teaching."

"William Leuchtenburg is the preeminent historian of the New Deal. He first published this book in 1963 and it remains the standard treatment. It’s the wellspring for almost everything we understand about the New Deal. It lays out, in a concise volume, the story of the New Deal. Leuchtenberg brings to life the suffering of the people in the early years of the Great Depression. There are stories of the people living along railroad tracks and families going through the garbage to find food. The picture he’s able to draw gives a sense of why Roosevelt’s promise of change catapulted him to the presidency. Things were so dire that the electorate was desperate for change. They weren’t quite sure what the New Deal was. Roosevelt made statements about fundamental reforms of the system that were put together by his advisory group, which the press called the Brain Trust. The public found the difference between the misery of the early Great Depression and the energy of Roosevelt and the New Dealers refreshing. Then the book goes on to describe the unfolding of the emergency measures of the First Hundred Days and of the Second New Deal, which brought us Social Security and many other important reforms."

"In Freedom from Fear , Kennedy condenses—into one very large volume—the story of how Roosevelt brought the country out of the Great Depression and into World War II . He begins in the Hoover years and explores some of the structural problems with the economy. He takes you right through the New Deal years, including the failure of New Deal programs during the late 1930s when political opposition mounted. And he carries you all the way through World War II and the early years of the Cold War that immediately followed. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . As its title says, Freedom from Fear is really a history of the American people during these decades—the 1930s and 1940s. When I want to look for what was happening at any moment of Roosevelt’s presidency, I turn to Freedom from Fear . It has a great index. Once you’ve read it through, it’s a wonderful work to have on your shelf and return to in pieces."

"It Can’t Happen Here gives us a window into an aspect of the 1930s that is often forgotten. Roosevelt was elected during a period when authoritarianism was on the rise around the world, with the elevation of Adolf Hitler and the consolidation of Mussolini’s powers. Popular sentiment was not uniformly behind the New Deal and Franklin Roosevelt. In fact, by 1935 FDR was facing serious challenges, both from the right and from the left. It was a time when many Americans—including leading pundits like Walter Lippmann—worried that democracy was failing and demagogues could easily gain a grip on power. That’s why the Sinclair Lewis book It Can’t Happen Here is so useful. Based loosely on Adolf Hitler’s rise, it shows in a frightening way how a democratic republic like America can fall prey to authoritarianism. It tells the story through the eyes of a small-town New England journalist who watches as demagogues seize control of different organs of society and as citizens swallow disinformation about what is happening when they are fed unrealistic promises—that never materialize—of a better future. It’s a novel that is worth revisiting to remember the atmosphere in America when Roosevelt was elected. And it remains relevant today, as we can see in Russia and with Donald Trump’s continued control of the Republican Party."

"Cook has dedicated much of her scholarly life to a three-volume biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. Since I’ve been involved with what I call the world of the Roosevelts, I turned to this book for the granular view of what was going on with Mrs. Roosevelt. Blanche helps readers see the ways in which Eleanor advanced progressive causes, publicly and privately. Eleanor made contributions, both from the sidelines and out front—visiting coal mines, impoverished communities, and New Deal projects. She traveled all over the country speaking on issues of importance not only to FDR’s presidency, but on issues she wished to advance. She became increasingly involved with civil rights as the 1930s wore on. It’s a story of Eleanor’s awakening and how she brought Franklin along. Franklin’s presidency would not have been what it was, by any measure, if it weren’t for the contributions that Eleanor was making. Eleanor was pretty much a 180-degree reversal of the traditional role. She didn’t want to be a White House hostess. She had seen the role of the first lady up close during Woodrow Wilson’s administration and during her uncle Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency. Eleanor also did not want to return to Washington because she had developed a very independent life during the 1920s. She was teaching, working on women’s labor issues and with Val-Kill Industries (a workers cooperative she founded with two friends on the Roosevelt estate), and was active in politics as the chair of the Women’s Committee of the Democratic Party. Blanche Wiesen Cook has called her the most important woman in national politics in the late 1920s. Mrs. Roosevelt changed the role of First Lady. In partnership with the reporter Lorena Hickok—who was, perhaps, her lover—she began women-only press conferences where, mixed in with “women’s issues,” she often addressed national policy. She continued to write a column, which was a homely mixture of what her family was up to and what she was interested in in terms of national issues. She shared insights into the private life of the Roosevelt family, making them familiar figures to Americans and the president and his policies more accessible. She was public facing in a way that I don’t think any other First Lady has ever been. His guile contributed to his greatness. FDR called himself the juggler because he had to keep so many things going at the same time. For instance, he wanted to stop lynching but knew that he couldn’t get an anti-lynching bill through Congress without antagonizing the southern wing of the Democratic Party—which would have ended the New Deal. He was willing to try guile and charm rather than turning to confrontation. FDR is criticized for trusting Stalin too much. I don’t think he trusted Stalin, but he was optimistic enough to believe he could use his charm to find common ground in the search for a peaceful world. He didn’t let people know what he was thinking. He was manipulative in a way that moved his policies forward. Guile—used in service to the New Deal, winning World War II, and planning for peace—was key to his success in many ways. More American history book recommendations"