Reviews
Advance Praise for Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life "Robert Dallek has brought a lifetime's immersion in the American presidency to produce what will almost certainly be seen as the most authoritative single-volume biography of our most important 20th Century president. Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life is a landmark work that deserves to be placed on the same shelf as those of Arthur Schlesinger Jr., James MacGregor Burns, and William E. Leuchtenburg." --Richard Moe, author of Roosevelt's Second Act: The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War "A great liberal historian has written the best one-volume biography about our greatest liberal president. Sparing neither criticism nor admiration, Robert Dallek offers an FDR relevant to our sharply divided nation: a master politician who gained the trust of most of his fellow Americans by empathizing eloquently with their problems and working himself to death to solve them." --Michael Kazin, author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918 "Robert Dallek is a leading authority on the presidency and his book on Roosevelt is a masterful and complex portrayal of one of America's greatest presidents, a leader who had the vision and character to reveal to the country its potential as a great nation." --Howard Dean Praise for An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963 "One of the most engrossing biographies I have ever read. . . . An Unfinished Life is nothing less than a masterpiece." --David Herbert Donald, author of Lincoln "It's hard to believe that someone could find anything new to say about John F. Kennedy, but Dallek succeeds in this riveting and well-documented biography." -- The New Yorker "Comprehensive, judicious, evenhanded, original. An Unfinished Life has the sober judgement and nuanced accuracy that make it rung true in all the controversial and tricky parts." --Jack Newfield, Los Angeles Times "Neither debunking nor further mythologizing, Dallek fashions a balanced but fast-paced tale of sex and power that scribes from Shakespeare to Jacqueline Susann would have killed for" --Steve Dougherty, People, "[Dallek] takes on the daunting task of providing a comprehensive one-volume biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He succeeds in presenting the abundance of information in a flowing and highly readable narrative, and he supports FDR's story with memorable sketches of the president's many associates . . . his varied opponents, the foreign leaders who served opposite him (Dallek is particularly good on Churchill), and many others. Eleanor, too, is portrayed in full, complete with a notably honest account of her marriage to Franklin. . . . A first-rate biography and a must-buy for most public-library history collections." -- Booklist (starred review) "Robert Dallek has brought a lifetime's immersion in the American presidency to produce what will almost certainly be seen as the most authoritative single-volume biography of our most important 20th Century president. Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life is a landmark work that deserves to be placed on the same shelf as those of Arthur Schlesinger Jr., James MacGregor Burns, and William E. Leuchtenburg." --Richard Moe, author of Roosevelt's Second Act: The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War "A great liberal historian has written the best one-volume biography about our greatest liberal president. Sparing neither criticism nor admiration, Robert Dallek offers an FDR relevant to our sharply divided nation: a master politician who gained the trust of most of his fellow Americans by empathizing eloquently with their problems and working himself to death to solve them." --Michael Kazin, author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918 "Robert Dallek is a leading authority on the presidency and his book on Roosevelt is a masterful and complex portrayal of one of America's greatest presidents, a leader who had the vision and character to reveal to the country its potential as a great nation." --Howard Dean, former DNC chairman and six-term governor of Vermont "Robert Dallek's brilliant portrayal of Franklin D. Roosevelt is an inspiring read, a timely reminder that political leadership involves judgment and intelligence. Battling the Great Depression and a global war, the 32nd president harnessed wisdom to decision making, and political acumen to governance. No historian understands FDR better than Dallek, who has captured in this single page-turning volume how America was really 'made great again.'" --Martin J. Sherwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer Praise for An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963 "One of the most engrossing biographies I have ever read. . . . An Unfinished Life is nothing less than a masterpiece." --David Herbert Donald, author of Lincoln "It's hard to believe that someone could find anything new to say about John F. Kennedy, but Dallek succeeds in this riveting and well-documented biography." -- The New Yorker "Comprehensive, judicious, evenhanded, original. An Unfinished Life has the sober judgement and nuanced accuracy that make it rung true in all the controversial and tricky parts." --Jack Newfield, Los Angeles Times "Neither debunking nor further mythologizing, Dallek fashions a balanced but fast-paced tale of sex and power that scribes from Shakespeare to Jacqueline Susann would have killed for" --Steve Dougherty, People, Praise for Camelot's Court "Dallek's portraits of advisers including Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Walt Rostow are lapidary, and it is difficult to quarrel with his judgments." --The New York Times Book Review "Dallek is an assiduous digger into archives. . . . The story of how a glamorous but green young president struggled with conflicting and often bad advice while trying to avoid nuclear Armageddon remains a gripping and cautionary tale of the loneliness of command." --Evan Thomas, The Washington Post "Think The Best and the Brightest meets Team of Rivals . . . . Dallek is one of the deans of presidential scholarship." --Beverly Gage, The Nation "Dallek brings us closer to the complexity and the humanity of Kennedy's geopolitics, and helps us grasp the uncertainties he and his men faced in an abbreviated presidency." --USA Today
