The Improbable Wendell Willkie
The Businessman Who Saved the Republican Party and His Country, and Conceived a New World Order
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Narrated by:
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Mike Chamberlain
About this listen
In the wake of one of the most tumultuous conventions in Republican history, the party of Lincoln nominated in 1940 a prominent businessman and Wall Street attorney for president. Though Wendell Willkie would lose to FDR, David Levering Lewis reveals in this news-making reclamation that the story of this Hoosier-born corporate chairman's life is the story of an America that could have been. Popular for his down-home Midwestern charm and unaffected candor, Willkie possessed a supple intellect and a concealed disdain for political opportunism that, had he not died prematurely, would have revolutionized American politics with its advocacy of bipartisanship and social responsibility. Not only was he the first presidential candidate to speak before the NAACP, advocating a civil rights movement in the 1940s, but Willkie also bucked American isolationism and became the first to champion the nation's involvement in international politics. Vibrantly recounted, The Improbable Wendell Willkie affirms the legacy of an American icon.
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By: Lynne Olson
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The Road to Camelot
- Inside JFK's Five-Year Campaign
- By: Thomas Oliphant, Curtis Wilkie
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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A behind-the-scenes, revelatory account of John F. Kennedy's wily campaign for the White House, beginning with his bold failed attempt to win the vice presidential nomination in 1956. A young and undistinguished junior plots his way to the presidency and changes the way we nominate and elect presidents. John F. Kennedy and his young warriors invented modern presidential politics.
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Absolutely excellent
- By T-Ward on 08-22-20
By: Thomas Oliphant, and others
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The Triumph of William McKinley
- Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters
- By: Karl Rove
- Narrated by: Karl Rove
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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From New York Times best-selling author and political mastermind Karl Rove comes a fresh look at President William McKinley, who found a message that healed his nation, pried his party away from its bosses, and extended its reach to forge a governing majority that lasted 30 years.
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Understand Modern Presidential Campaigns
- By Anon on 02-27-16
By: Karl Rove
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1920
- The Year of Six Presidents
- By: David Pietrusza
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 20 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The presidential election of 1920 was among history's most dramatic. Six once-and-future presidents--Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt--jockeyed for the White House. With voters choosing between Wilson's League of Nations and Harding's front-porch isolationism, the 1920 election shaped modern America.
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A fascinating view into the US at the end of WWI
- By D. Littman on 12-31-09
By: David Pietrusza
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1932
- The Rise of Hitler and FDR - Two Tales of Politics, Betrayal, and Unlikely Destiny
- By: David Pietrusza
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Two Depression-battered nations confronted destiny in 1932, going to the polls in their own way to anoint new leaders, to rescue their people from starvation and hopelessness. America would elect a Congress and a president - ebullient aristocrat Franklin Roosevelt or tarnished "Wonder Boy" Herbert Hoover. Decadent, divided Weimar Germany faced two rounds of bloody Reichstag elections and two presidential contests - doddering reactionary Paul von Hindenburg against rising radical hate-monger Adolf Hitler.
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What a waste of time
- By Pam Sullivan on 07-06-19
By: David Pietrusza
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Roosevelt's Second Act
- The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War
- By: Richard Moe
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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On August 31, 1939, nearing the end of his second and presumably final term in office, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was working in the Oval Office and contemplating construction of his presidential library and planning retirement. The next day German tanks had crossed the Polish border; Britain and France had declared war. Overnight the world had changed, and FDR found himself being forced to consider a dramatically different set of circumstances.
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Puts listener in the moment.
- By Jake on 05-16-14
By: Richard Moe
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Star-Spangled Men
- America's Ten Worst Presidents
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Andy Caploe
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Picking America's best presidents is easy. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt usually lead the list. But choosing the nation's worst presidents requires more thought. In Star-Spangled Men, respected presidential biographer Nathan Miller puts on display those leaders who were abject failures as chief executive. With pointed humor and a deft hand, he presents a rogues' gallery of the men who dropped the presidential ball, and sometimes their pants as well.
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Entertaining and factual
- By Sean on 10-25-14
By: Nathan Miller
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Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher
- A Political Marriage
- By: Nicholas Wapshott
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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It is well known that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were close allies and kindred political spirits. During their eight overlapping years in office, the U.S. president and the U.K. prime minister worked together to promote lower taxes, deregulation, free trade, and an aggressive stance against the Soviet Union. But according to Nicholas Wapshott, the Reagan/Thatcher relationship was much deeper than an alliance of mutual interests.
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A Better Half
- By peter on 06-01-11
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The Greatest Comeback
- How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority
- By: Patrick J. Buchanan
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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After suffering stinging defeats in the 1960 presidential election against John F. Kennedy, and in the 1962 California gubernatorial election, Nixon's career was declared dead by Washington press and politicians alike. Yet on January 20, 1969, just six years after he had said his political life was over, Nixon would stand taking the oath of office as 37th President of the United States. How did Richard Nixon resurrect a ruined career and reunite a shattered and fractured Republican Party to capture the White House?
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The comeback kid
- By Jean on 07-23-14
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The Defining Moment
- FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope
- By: Jonathan Alter
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In this dramatic and fascinating account, Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter shows how Franklin Delano Roosevelt used his first 100 days in office to lift the country from the despair and paralysis of the Great Depression and transform the American presidency.
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Very infomative, and also refreshingly honest
- By Andy on 02-19-09
By: Jonathan Alter
What listeners say about The Improbable Wendell Willkie
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Joel Adams
- 06-22-20
Disappointing coverage of an interesting time.
I was personally ignorant of Wendell Wilkie and this particular period of American history and politics. So I learned a lot from this book. But I found the writing to be unnecessarily verbose and complex. So many adjectives in each run-on sentence. And the addition of current day editorial comment was really a subtraction.
The reader/performer did well given the difficulty of the material
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- Jean
- 12-12-18
Compelling
Wendell Willkie ran against FDR in the 1940 election and, of course, lost. Professor Lewis provides a new biography of Willkie. I think that what is going on in the country today pointed out some key items about Willkie that might have gone unnoticed in the prior biographies. Willkie is noted for putting the country before party. He also advocated what he called Responsible Bipartisanism.
The book is well written and researched. Lewis brings out the character of Willkie. Lewis is able to reveal Willkie’s life against the background of United States history. The author shows how Willkie was dedicated to Civil Rights and opposed racism. Lewis reveals Willkie’s work with the NAACP. The book appears to be balanced and reveals more about the man than prior biographies. I found this a most fascinating biography and learned a great deal from it.
Paul Levering Lewis is Professor of History at New York University. Lewis won two Pulitzer Prizes for vol. one and two of the biography of W. E. B. DuBois.
The book is twelve hours and forty-eight minutes. Mike Chamberlain does a good job narrating the book. Chamberlain is an actor and voiceover artist.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Maddie
- 05-02-19
Frequent errors are a concern.
The story is very interesting and moves quickly. Frequent errors are a concern. Consistently referring to North Dakota Senator Gerald Nye as representing South Dakota draws many facts into question.
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- Venetia
- 12-05-19
A condensed account of the life of Wendell Wilkie
Wendell Wilkie had an interesting life and the author does a noble job of condemning it all into a short book. He is skilled in dense writing. Sadly he offers very little detail that helps one understand who WW really was or what motivated him. I found the book unsatisfying, though well intended.
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- Michael Burke
- 06-10-23
incoherent
this is the most incoherent document I've ever seen published. the sentences are grammatical but appear at random in the text. some of them are about Wendell willkie.
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