
Frank and Al
FDR, Al Smith, and the Unlikely Alliance That Created the Modern Democratic Party
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Narrated by:
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Danny Campbell
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By:
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Terry Golway
About this listen
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Democratic Party was bitterly split between its urban machines - representing Catholics and Jews, ironworkers and seamstresses, from the tenements of the Northeast and Midwest - and its populists and patricians, rooted in the soil and the scriptures, enforcers of cultural, political, and religious norms. The chasm between the two factions seemed unbridgeable.
But just before the Roaring Twenties, Al Smith, a proud son of the Tammany Hall political machine, and Franklin Roosevelt, a country squire, formed an unlikely alliance that transformed the Democratic Party. Smith and FDR dominated politics in the most-powerful state in the union for a quarter-century, and in 1932, they ran against each other for the Democratic presidential nomination, setting off one of the great feuds in American history.
The relationship between Smith and Roosevelt, portrayed in Terry Golway's Frank and Al, is one of the most dramatic untold stories of early 20th-century American politics.
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What listeners say about Frank and Al
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- Josephine Halpert
- 01-18-25
The relationship between FDR and Al Smith.
The background of FDR and Al Smith and their rise to power. Plus the history of NYC.
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Overall
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- J&L Hely
- 08-27-23
Solid and important history
Well written and a good listen. Very relevant in today’s political climate. Our ethnic and cultural wars continue.
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