
The Defining Moment
FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope
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Narrated by:
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Grover Gardner
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By:
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Jonathan Alter
About this listen
Instead of becoming the dictator so many wanted in those first days, FDR rescued banks, put men to work immediately, and laid the groundwork for his most ambitious achievements, including what eventually became the Social Security Administration. Alter explains how FDR's background and experiences uniquely qualified him to pull off an astonishing conjuring act that saved both democracy and capitalism.
Jonathan Alter, a Newsweek Senior Editor, has written the widely acclaimed "Between the Lines" column since 1991, examining politics, media, and society at large. For the last decade, he has also worked as an analyst and contributing correspondent for NBC Broadcasting, including Today, NBC Nightly News, and MSNBC.
Grover Gardner is one of the spoken word industry's most esteemed and versatile performers. He has recorded hundreds of books and has garnered an Audie Award, 18 Earphones Awards, and was deemed to have one of the "Best Voices of the Century" by AudioFile magazine. He was also named Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly.
©2006 Jonathan Alter, recorded by arrangement with Simon & Schuster, Inc. (P)2006 The Audio Partners Publishing Corp.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"A most readable book....A reflection on the way that Roosevelt reinvented the presidency....Alter's account has a refreshing buoyancy, not unlike its protagonist." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Alter goes on to document FDR's early programs, pronouncements, and maneuvers with succinct accuracy." (Publishers Weekly)
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- By: Lois Duncan
- Narrated by: Jaselyn Blanchard
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Nore Roberts didn't ask for a new life, but now that her mom is gone and her dad is newly married, she has to settle in at Shadow Grove, the old Civil War mansion her stepfamily calls home. When she meets her stepmother, Lisette, Nore is shocked by her youth and a beauty that gives her chills - and a hint of something sinister. There's hope of becoming friends with her stepbrother and sister, until Nore realizes they're hiding something....
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The performer was difficult to listen too
- By Marissa on 06-01-16
By: Lois Duncan
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Off Kilter
- Scottish Highlands Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: Hannah Reed
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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After the recent death of her mother and the dissolution of her marriage, 30-something Eden Elliott is seriously in need of a fresh start. At the urging of her best friend, best-selling author Ami Pederson, Eden decides to embark on an open-ended trip to the picturesque village of Glenkillen in the Scottish Highlands, to do some hands-on research for a book of her own. But almost as soon as Eden arrives in the quaint town, she gets caught up in a very real drama....
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And yet I enjoyed it...
- By Constance Jenkins on 05-20-18
By: Hannah Reed
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Of Earthly Delights
- By: Goldy Moldavsky
- Narrated by: Diana Bustelo, Michael Crouch
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Aspiring artist Rose Pauly is not happy moving from her home in New York City right before her senior year of high school. But on her first miserable day in Connecticut, she meets Hart Hargrove. The two share an immediate, undeniable connection. Hart introduces Rose to his slice of paradise–the immense private garden nestled behind the Hargrove family mansion. There, the two spend a fever dream of a summer together. But as their bond blossoms into love, Rose can't shake the feeling that all is not as it seems.
By: Goldy Moldavsky
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Left to You
- By: Daniel J. Volpe
- Narrated by: Thomas Gloom
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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What would you do to save a loved one? Robert’s mother, Helen, is ravaged with cancer. Every day could be her last, and Robert dreads losing the last member of his family. Robert’s friend and Holocaust survivor, Josef, tells him an unholy story and leaves him a way to save his dying mother. But, as with everything in life, the salvation comes with a steep price.
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Fantastic narration!
- By HannahNola on 06-21-23
By: Daniel J. Volpe
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Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man
- The Sherston Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Siegfried Sassoon
- Narrated by: Malk Williams
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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A highly decorated English soldier and an acclaimed poet and novelist, Siegfried Sassoon won fame for his trilogy of fictionalized autobiographies that wonderfully capture the vanishing idylls of Edwardian England and the brutal realities of war. In this first novel of the semiautobiographical George Sherston trilogy, Sassoon wonderfully captures the vanishing idylls of the Edwardian English countryside.
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The Not So Secret Football Agent
- By: Barry Silkman
- Narrated by: Colin Mace
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In his memoir Barry Silkman tells the incredible story of his career from player to agent with colourful anecdotes of all the characters he encountered along the way, along with some touching, personal recollections of his life so far. Silkman boasts an impressive playing career which lasted 16 years, playing for 11 different clubs including Manchester City. A gifted and skillful player, he was your archetypal Cockney, with Romany gypsy appearance with a shock of black curly hair, tan and socks rolled around his ankles.
By: Barry Silkman
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FDR
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 32 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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One of today's premier biographers, Jean Edward Smith, has written a modern, comprehensive, indeed ultimate book on the epic life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This is a portrait painted in broad strokes and fine details. We see how Roosevelt's restless energy, fierce intellect, personal magnetism, and ability to project effortless grace permitted him to master countless challenges throughout his life. Smith recounts FDR's personal battles and also tackles head-on and in depth the numerous failures and miscues of Roosevelt's political career.
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Interesting but flawed
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-15-13
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Aeneid
- By: Virgil
- Narrated by: Paul Scofield, Jill Balcon, Toby Stephens, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
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Virgil's Aeneid, one of the greatest classical poems, tells the story of Aeneas, son of Priam, after the fall of Troy. His quest is to find the site "in the west" where he will found a new town prophesied to be the seat of a world empire: Rome.
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Great but Abridged
- By Madeleine on 05-17-08
By: Virgil
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The Promise
- President Obama, Year One
- By: Jonathan Alter
- Narrated by: Jonathan Alter
- Length: 20 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Barack Obama’s inauguration as president on January 20, 2009, inspired the world. But the great promise of “Change We Can Believe In” was immediately tested by the threat of another Great Depression, a worsening war in Afghanistan, and an entrenched and deeply partisan system of business as usual in Washington. Despite all the coverage, the backstory of Obama’s historic first year in office has until now remained a mystery.
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Tiresome
- By Matthew on 05-21-10
By: Jonathan Alter
Mr Alter first provides us with a perfectly workable, although short, biography of Franklin Roosevelt from his birth through this successful campaign for the Presidency in 1932. I had not yet read a regular biography of FDR so this was helpful to me in understanding the background to his Presidency and the identity and backgrounds of the advisers he brought with him into office. While I knew their names from many other books I had read of the period I did not know who they really were in terms of personalities and what their backgrounds and opinions were. This book was very helpful in filling in those blanks.
The book was well written and contains a great deal of useful information, but the book suffers from a excessive case of hero-worship. Franklin Roosevelt was a great man and a great President and there is much to admire in what he did and how he went about doing it, but he, like all of us, had his faults and made his mistakes, some of them very serious, and a serious book needs to not only examine those faults and mistakes but clearly admit them to be what they were. This book does not do that. Examples abound, but I will list only two since I do not wish this review to sound like a polemic.
Franklin Roosevelt refused to help the Hoover Administration in its attempt to alleviate the suffering caused by the Depression prior to Roosevelt's inauguration. Mr Alter admits this but is quick to make excuses for Franklin Roosevelt. He (FDR) wanted the US to get as far down in the Depression as it could so he (FDR) could step in and rescue them. This does not sound like the action of a responsible person. People were suffering and FDR worsened that suffering for political purposes. It is hard to excuse that kind of action, but Mr Alter manages to do so by saying that FDR could better save them if they were far worse off than otherwise. What kind of an excuse is that?
The Roosevelt Administration adopted, almost completely, the Hoover Administration's mechanisms for combating the Depression. The policies the Roosevelt Administration put in place were those formed by the Hoover Administration. Mr Alter admits this. But the Roosevelt Administration refused to give any credit to the Hoover Administration for all of their efforts. Politics may be a hard game, but what is the purpose of throwing dirt on the names of the people whose programs you are adopting? Mr Alter has no problem with what seems to me to clearly be irresponsible behavior.
Grover Gardner''s narration is, as always, a pleasure to listen to and adds greatly to the quality of this book. My review of the book itself would be 3 ½ stars if I could award half star ratings, but, since I cannot, I can only give this book 3 stars. Mr Alter had a great deal of material to work with and could have produced a more balanced look at the start of a very important Presidency, but chose to lose himself in adoration and hero-worship. FDR and Audible's readers deserve better.
Fawning hero worship
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The personal bio of FDR, especially how his paralysis affected him was much more interesting than I anticipated.
The key debate now is over the claim from the reactionaries that FDR caused or prolonged or worsened the Depression. From this book, it is absolutely clear that FDR did not cause the Depression because it was fully under way while Hoover was in office. One can't really tell from this book if he worsened it because the book focuses on the beginning of FDR's first term. It seems undeniable though that FDR gave the country a huge psychological boost right away with his speeches and all his programs, and that's something. Again, Alter's point is that the choice wasn't just between Depression and immediate recovery. Revolution, complete chaos, communism, dictatorship and other disasters were all possible outcomes at the time and that context needs to be remembered.
FDR did not cause the Depression
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Interesting but not excellent.
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if you've ever felt the need to copulate with yourself while listening to a man's voice--i haven't but I can dig those who do--this Grover gleland whatever his name is... he's the dude
the greatest narrator this side of Kenneth branagh
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More that the 100 Days
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By concentrating on the first 100 days the author is able to supply suficient details behind the historic events. The author's premise is that FDR'S various character traits both good and bad were responsible for his success and strong leadership skills, during the critical time of early 1933, when the depression came close to dragging the U.S. into chaos. A must read for all American history buffs.
defining book on FDR
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Well written and engaging.
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Very interesting!
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Part 1 is sufficient
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odd
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