暖冬cool夏

這裏一年四季溫暖如春,沒有酷暑沒有嚴寒......
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F.D.R--An Intimate History (Excerpts and Notes)

(2018-03-11 21:33:49) 下一個
Published in 1983, the book F.D.R. An Intimate History by Nathan Miller is old, thick and heavy. I carried with me almost every day to the work, hoping to find time in between to read.  Finally, after more than three months, after being renewed five times, the book can now be returned to the library.
 
Undoubtedly this is a great book, very well-written, very well-sourced and intriguing, being devoted to a fatherly figure of 32nd U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, a remarkable man who has “a second-class intellect but a first-class temperament”. The reading of this book is mostly fun, but confined by my own limited historical knowledge, the reading in the middle got bumpy, and I had to skip some parts to retain my passion.  During the reading, I took lots of notes, some in scribbles and some typed in the computer.  Copied down and saved here are some excellent paragraphs from the book, so that I can always come back and reread, and for you, my friends,  who might just be interested. 
 
 
 
F.D.R- An intimate History by Nathan Miller
 
1. From the book's front and back covers: 
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Whether the mention of his name calls to mind the famous photograph in a touring car; head thrown back, teeth clenched on the trademark cigarette holder, radiating the confidence so desperately demanded by the times; or evokes some of the unforgettable phrases. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” “a date which will live in infamy,” “a rendezvous with destiny”, or triggers damning criticism of him as a socialist masquerading as a democrat, the potency of his memo remains undimmed.
 
In this, the only one-volume, complete biography of FDR in print, Nathan Miller looks at the man whose remarkable talents and brilliant personality helped change the United States more than any other president.
 
From his youth at Hyde Park, Groton, and Harvard, to his political education supervised by Louis Howe, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, to his governorship of New York (which was but a carefully planned step on the road to the White House) and the dizzying madness of the 1932 convention, Miller Charts the forging of Roosevelt’s political and personal character—if indeed the two can be separated. For despite the hurdles thrown in his path, defeat when he ran for vice-president in 1920, disabling polio, the near wreck of his marriage to Eleanor, he proved himself unfailingly quick and discerning in marshaling his awesome charm and pragmatism to achieve his goals. The excitement of the New Deal. “one of the few successful gradualist revolutions in history,” is explained, as is FDR’s controversial handling of the Second World War. As this fascinating biography demonstrates, history and Roosevelt conspire to create, if not always a hero, always a man.
 
2. From the Foreword
 
“The President is dead!”
 
The news of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death came to Americans in varying ways that warm April afternoon in 1945. A breathless announcer breaking into a radio soap opera... a sudden telephone call from a friend… a snatch of conversation overheard on the street or in a shop. The shock was magnified by the fact that even though almost everyone realized that Roosevelt was in failing health, he had developed an aura of invulnerability, an air of immortality that made death unthinkable.
 
For Americans of my generation—I was just short of eighteen—Roosevelt’s passing was like a death in the family. We could remember no other President. He dominated our lives as no political leader has been able to do since. We gathered about the radio to listen to the mellifluous voice of the Fireside Chats, and his face dominated the newspapers, magazines, and newsreels that were part of every show at the neighborhood movie theater. And during the worst of the Great Depression, most of the people who patronized my parents’ grocery store, in South Baltimore, were kept from starving only by New Deal relief programs.
 
Experiences such as these lead me, like so many others, to measure all Presidents against Roosevelt’s long shadow and all administrations by the New Deal. Thus, the writing of this book has been a voyage of discovery into my own past, an opportunity to test the memories and impressions of my youth against my research. The results have sometimes been unsettling.
 
Although Roosevelt’s name can still evoke a wistful look in the eye or a hard set of the jaw in some quarters, most of the emotional fires generated by the New Deal has burned out. To young Americans, Roosevelt is merely a figure in grainy film clips, and they have little understanding of the passion he stirred nearly a half century ago. My book is an attempt to bring FDR to life for this audience. I have tried to paint a portrait that is fair and unflinching in its realism, a portrait that captures all sides of this flawed but essentially great man. In particular, I have tried to show how a man regarded by most of his contemporaries as little more than an amiable country squire became the trustee for all those who put their faith in the maintenance of humane, decent, and civilized values.
 
No book of the magnitude of this one could be written without the generous assistance of others.......
 
3. From the book
 
The weather matched the mood of the nation.
 
Inauguration Day—March 4, 1933—dawned dour and cheerless and the Washington sky was as gray as the marble facades lining Pennsylvania Avenue. Rain had fallen off and on and sleet clung to the tree. Tugging at the flags and bunting hanging from buildings and lampposts, the raw wind chilled the spectators who had been gathering since early morning to see Franklin Delano Roosevelt installed as thirty-second president of the United States. Some stamped their feet to keep warms, others warded off the numbing cold by standing on newspapers, torn and grimy sheets that told of a country in the grip of the severest depression in history. It seemed a destructive force beyond human control.
 
Upwards of fifteen million Americans—more than a quarter of the work force-drifted hopelessly from factory gate to factory gate in search of jobs that no longer existed. Statistics had failed, the number of jobless may have totaled as high as seventeen million.
 
Panicked depositors besieged the banks, vainly trying to withdraw the savings of a lifetime before the banks closed—or collapsed.
 
America’s anguish was everywhere. It was in the sad eyes of women as love and laughter vanished from their lives. It was in the face of a Baltimore grocer who saw the store fixtures for which he could no longer pay carried away. And it was in the desperation of the thousands of young people who were riding the rails…
 
P.197
 
This implies a mystical metamorphosis—a spiritual rebirth akin to being born again—but Roosevelt was too much the pragmatist to be a mystic. Behind his lighthearted banter was a vaulting ambition that had caused him to seek important position in public life. The struggle against polio gave him a depth he lacked as a young man, a compassion for the afflicted, and added shadows to an outwardly sunny personality; yet it did not transform him. Since he came close to death, Roosevelt’s victory over polio reinforced his private religiousness but it did not alter his ideas, his basic philosophy, or his view of life.
 
Prolonged illness can lead to narcissistic self-absorption, and it would have been easy for Roosevelt to give up his political aspiration and retire to the comfortable life of Hyde park. His refusal to bid farewell to a normal life testifies to his courage and determination-  and the strength of his ambition. The iron core of will, this stubbornness, rather than any alteration in character resulting form the crisis, enabled him psychologically to survive the shattering ordeal.
 
He brought his listeners to their feet with a call for unity. “You equally who come from great cities of the East and from the plains and hills of the west, from the slopes of the Pacific and from the homes and fields of the Southland, I ask you in all seriousness…
 
He has a personality that carries to every hearer not only the sincerity but the righteousness of what he says.
 
Both daring and cautious, Roosevelt could seize upon an idea and make a decision with breathtaking speed; yet, at other times, he might temporize until almost the last moment. He could be extremely flexible but had an underlying vein of steely stubbornness. He delighted in breaking precedents and loved tradition as dearly as the most conservative member of the .. He could be ruthless, yet, hating to fire anyone….
 
No one was allowed to penetrate his armor of aristocratic nonchalance. “Never let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,”
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閱讀 ()評論 (33)
評論
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '每天一講' 的評論 :一講,好好做股票,一台電視(而且是protection)小錢啊。謝謝一講的信息,得好好關注了。一起來關注!
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '夏圓' 的評論 : 師傅好!師傅過獎了。那徒兒是不是被promoted了,變高徒了,哈哈,叩謝師傅!
夏圓 回複 悄悄話 厲害了,我的高徒!
師傅要向徒兒好好學習!
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '每天一講' 的評論 : 一講,買保險就是一種賭博。我Samsung的電視沒有任何問題的,我第二台電視是一兩年前買的是TCL,才四多百塊錢,所以根本沒買protection.三星的服務是差的,不過我最後倒是拿回部分錢,也算很不錯,過程比較煩。你自己看吧,不要被嚇到,其實再好的產品,網上有時還是有差評的。
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '每天一講' 的評論 : 一講,我也不買protection的,相信這麽多年了電視的質量應該過關了。我找來當時為Refund上網查時的link,給你看一看,你看看抱怨電視的人多不多(這是所有的,包括冰箱,洗衣機等)。祝好運!
http://www.returnsandrefunds.com/Samsung/Returns?
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '獅子羔羊' 的評論 : 獅子好!你客氣了,我也算讀得少的,現在偶爾讀讀,還像蝸牛在爬,慢死了。祝獅子這周愉快!
獅子羔羊 回複 悄悄話 向暖冬學習,多讀書,讀好書,多讀原著!
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '每天一講' 的評論 : 一講,我們家的彩電也是三星的,大概2011-2012年左右買的,一直挺好,所以才買了後來的冰箱。但是,我有個鄰居,也是三星的彩電,買的比我早,一年左右就壞了,所以,看運氣,不知你是在哪兒買,我這次的冰箱是Costco買的,同樣的產品Costco的warranty要比別家店長。你記得保管好發票,如果網上買的,及時打印receipt。祝好運!
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 'Once-always' 的評論 : Oncemm過獎了,我們那個年代的條件不好,功底不行,加上自己來這以後也是忙著生存,懶,沒有好好利用。我知識麵很窄的,差點讀不下去的,隻是因為書的文字好,吸引我, 隻是我讀書速度太慢了些。你真是sweet,該怎麽謝你的大花籃啊,看來我今晚抱著它睡了:))
Once-always 回複 悄悄話 暖mm你太厲害了,能讀完這本偉人傳記,可見你的英文功底和知識麵,我這對曆史政治一點不敢興趣的人一看題目就暈了。你居然還記筆記啊,太偉大了,我要給你搬個大花籃過來!
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '7grizzly' 的評論 : My bad. Have to correct twice to get it right.:)))
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '每天一講' 的評論 : I made quite some mistakes in my comments here, such as as "is, historical figure, being bullish and bearish, etc. " Sorry about that.
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '7grizzly' 的評論 : Nice catch! I corrected it. Thanks a lot, my friend, for reading and pointing out. I have more notes in my computer that I shall organize better to put them here. Thanks again.
7grizzly 回複 悄悄話 Thanks for the phrase "narcissistic self-absorption." That describes me a bit ;-)

> live in infancy
should be "live in infamy"
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 'ziqiao123' 的評論 : 子喬早!這本看到一半也差點看不下去了,太多曆史事件和事實,我的知識麵太窄。但是書寫的好,文字好,花了這麽長時間讀完了,LD常說我的學習方法有問題:))最近找了一本女兒書堆裏最薄的一本,結果看了幾頁,太薄了,不知被我隨手放哪兒了:))子喬周二好!
ziqiao123 回複 悄悄話 我現在很厚的英文書不太敢看,有好幾本看了一半就扔那兒了。看來還是自己心不夠靜。要向暖冬學習。
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '每天一講' 的評論 : It is very likely that we will teeter between being bull and bear, and get scared:)). But don't worry. I checked the library online, and the libraries close by don't carry the book. I will see if I can place hold and have it delivered to the nearest library. I will see. Thanks for your kindness!
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '每天一講' 的評論 : No, but I will borrow it from the library and read it. Thank you very much for your recommendation! I appreciate it.
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 First of all, I am not a romantic person. Inspired by an online friend (who us a poet and novelist), I started my poem a year ago, before that I did not even read poems. Neither did I ever think that I would be interested in historic figures like FDR. But the readings turned out to be great joys, to know history and the great man, as history repeats itself, (like the stock market crashed in 1929). You are absolutely right that Franklin was a fervent stamp collector, whose vision and knowledge of the world was expanded through the collection. But meanwhile his costly stamp , book, and print collection and five children made him financially dependent on his mother, who controlled him by pulling the purse string. You must be very knowledgeable about him and the world history. I wrote another post a couple of months ago about FDR and his women both in Chinese and English, if you are interested. Hope you will like it. Thanks, yijiang, for your visit and comments!
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '土豆-禾苗' 的評論 : 土豆謙虛了,幽默了,被你笑倒了,還好我放了書的封麵了,這下知道了F.D.R.=Franklin Delano Roosevelt,:)))問候土豆!
土豆-禾苗 回複 悄悄話 回複 '菲兒天地' 的評論 : 菲兒好建議,我確實一個字也沒看懂,看到FDR,以為是聯邦毒品機構的呢。
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 '菲兒天地' 的評論 : 菲兒提醒的對,我上網下載了書的封麵,我手上的這本色彩沒有這麽鮮亮。菲兒過獎,現在什麽英文專業,大家都在北美那麽久,已經沒什麽區別了,我以前還不好意思提呢:))問候菲兒新周好!
菲兒天地 回複 悄悄話 暖冬可以放個書封麵,不然全是英文又沒有圖片會有些不容易看。我也喜歡讀總統的書,我一般聽得多。暖冬英文專業厲害:)
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 回複 'GraceX' 的評論 : Grace好!這本書字又小又厚,真是花了點時間的,不過寫得確實好。你忙著唱歌也挺好,至少自己喜歡enjoy.謝謝你的留言,祝好!
GraceX 回複 悄悄話 暖冬算是把這本書讀得相當透徹了,既了解了這位總統的個人曆史,也長進了英文,我最近都忙著唱歌了,沒時間好好讀英文書,現在該是平衡一下唱歌和讀書的關係了。^_^
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