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Unlikely Heroes: Franklin Roosevelt, His Four Lieutenants, and the World They Made Audiobook
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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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“Readers discover the various backgrounds that contributed to this New Deal team…along with descriptions of issues such as child labor, dangerous factory conditions, widespread malnourishment, and violent raids on immigrant communities.”
— Library Journal
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“Demonstrates that the cultivation of diversified and resilient talent was essential to the administration’s endurance.”
— Booklist -
“A nuanced study of reformist government in action and its behind-the-scenes players.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“A fine-grained study of the ties that bound this consequential administration…An enlightening investigation into the alchemy of successful governance.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Enables readers themselves to feel like insiders during that desperate time…Among the many books about Franklin Roosevelt, none grants us such insight and access as does Unlikely Heroes.”
— Major General Mari K. Eder, US Army (Ret.), former deputy chief, US Army Reserve -
“The most exciting book written about FDR’s presidency in decades. Finally, we see exactly how he led the nation.”
— James Strock, author of Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership -
“A fresh and challenging portrait of the man and his inner circle, bold and convincing enough to invite a rethink of much historical assumption.”
— Richard Norton Smith, author of An Uncommon Man -
“A brilliantly captivating portrait of Roosevelt and his four most important associates, revealing their interwoven lives and friendships…full of illuminating insights into the upheavals of America today.”
— Liaquat Ahamed, Pulitzer–winning author -
“A fascinating and absorbing analysis of FDR’s brilliantly chosen team of four courageous and creative men and women. It was collective leadership at its best.”
— Susan Dunn, author of 1940
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About Derek Leebaert
Derek Leebaert is the author of Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy, The Fifty-Year Wound: How America’s Cold War Victory Shapes Our World, and To Dare and to Conquer: Special Operations and the Destiny of Nations, and the coauthor of the MIT Press’s trilogy on the information technology revolution. He has led a global management consulting firm for the last fifteen years and serves on the board of Providence Health System and other public service institutions. He is a former Smithsonian Fellow and professor at Georgetown University, and a founding editor of three enduring periodicals: the Harvard/MIT quarterly International Security, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and, for investors and central bankers, the International Economy. Leebaert is also a founder of the National Museum of the United States Army. He lives in Connecticut and Washington, D.C.
About L. J. Ganser
L. J. Ganser is a multiple Audie Award–winning narrator with over six hundred titles recorded to date. Prized for versatility, his work ranges from preschool books to crime noir thrillers, from astronomical adventures in both science and science fiction, to Arctic Circle high school basketball stories. He lives in New York City with his family and dog, Mars.