The Roosevelts, An Intimate History. Based on the Documentary Film by Ken Burns. With a Preface by Ken Burns. Picture Research by Susanna Steisel. Design by Maggie Hinders.
first edition
2014 · New York
by Ward, Georffrey C. and Ken Burns.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. First Edition, stated. Square quarto, gray cloth (hardcover), photo. illus. endpapers, 503 pp. Fine, in a Fine dust jacket. From dust jacket: A vivid and personal portrait of America’s greatest political family and its enormous impact on our nation -- the companion volume to the seven-part PBS documentary series... Geoffrey C. Ward, distilling more than thirty years of thinking and writing about the Roosevelts, and the acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns help us understand for the first time that, despite the firece partisanship of their eras, the Roosevelts were far more united than divided. All the history the Roosevelts made is here, but this is primarily an intimate account, the story of three people who overcame obstacles that would have undone less forceful personalities. Theodore Roosevelt would push past childhood frailty, outpace depression, survive terrible grief -- and transform the office of the presidency. Eleanor Roosevelt, orphaned and alone as a child, would endure her husband’s betrayal, battle her own self-doubts, and remake herself into the most consequential first lady in American history -- and the most admired woman on earth. And Franklin Roosevelt, born to privilege and so pampered that most of his youthful contemporaries dismissed him as a charming lightweight, would summon the strength to lead the nation through the two greatest crises since the Civil War, though he could not take a single step unaided. The three were towering personalities, but The Roosevelts shows that they were also flawed human being who confronted in their personal lives issues familiar to all of us: anger and the need for forgiveness, courage and cowardice, confidence and self doubt, loyalty to family and the need to be try to oneself. This is the story of the Roosevelts -- no other American family ever touched so many lives. (Inventory #: 60762bd)