Unlikely Heroes: Franklin Roosevelt, His Four Lieutenants, and the World They Made
About this audiobook
Drawing on new materials, Unlikely Heroes constructs an entirely fresh understanding of FDR and his presidency by spotlighting the powerful, equally wounded figures whom he raised up to confront the Depression, then to beat the Axis.
Only four people served at the top echelon of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Administration from the frightening early months of spring 1933 until he died in April 1945, on the cusp of wartime victory. These lieutenants composed the tough, constrictive, long-term core of government. They built the great institutions being raised against the Depression, implemented the New Deal, and they were pivotal to winning World War II.
Yet, in their different ways, each was as wounded as the polio-stricken titan. Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickes, Frances Perkins, and Henry Wallace were also strange outsiders. Up to 1933, none would ever have been considered for high office. Still, each became a world figure, and it would have been exceedingly difficult for Roosevelt to transform the nation without them.
By examining the lives of these four, a very different picture emerges of how Americans saved their democracy and rescued civilization overseas. Many of the dangers that they all overcame are troublingly like those America faces today.
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About the author
Derek Leebaert won the biennial 2020 Truman Book Award for Grand Improvisation: America Confronts the British Superpower, 1945–1957. His previous books include Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy from Korea to Afghanistan and To Dare and to Conquer: Special Operations and the Destiny of Nations, both Washington Post Best Books of the Year. He was a founding editor of the Harvard/MIT journal International Security and is a cofounder of the National Museum of the United States Army. He holds a D.Phil from Oxford and lives in Washington, DC.
L. J. Ganser is a triple Audie Award-winning narrator with over 600 titles recorded to date. Prized for versatility, his work ranges from hard science to magical fantasy, from stinging ants to the Civil War, from Roger Rabbit to infinity-and yes, even beyond. Some of his favorite titles include: Jurassic Park, Capital in the 21st Century, The Guns at Last Light, and The Game of Stars and Comets. He lives in New York City with his family and dog, Mars.
