JOSEPH LELYVELD spent nearly four decades as a reporter and editor at The New York Times, and served as executive editor from 1994 to 2001. This is his third book since then, following Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India and Omaha Blues: A Memory Loop. An earlier book on apartheid, Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White, won the Pulitzer Prize.
A New York Times Notable Book of 2016 "A gripping, deeply human
account... Moving, elegiac." --The New York Times Book Review
"Splendid and richly detailed... President Roosevelt won reelection
in November, was inaugurated in January, and died in April, three
months into his fourth term. After that came the cold war and
atomic weapons and a new diplomatic policy called 'mutual assured
destruction.' Lelyveld shows with clarity and shrewd judgment how
it came about." --The New York Review of Books "Psychologically
intense... Pinning down FDR's innermost thoughts is always an
elusive goal for a scholar, but Lelyveld... has the fortitude and
skill to properly analyze FDR's decision-making process. What makes
His Final Battle so exceptional is Lelyveld's admirable ability to
write nonfiction with highly stylized lyrical beauty." --The
Washington Post "Gripping... Masterfully told... Lelyveld brings to
this project a complex mind (but approachable language) equal to
Roosevelt's complex character (but comforting rhetoric)... A heroic
and poignant picture." --The Boston Globe "A compellingly nuanced,
almost day-by-day account of the great man's final year of life."
--Time "A careful, somber and sometimes harrowing account of FDR's
last 16 months... [Lelyveld's] full and disciplined investigation
of an important theme makes a significant contribution to FDR
scholarship." --The Wall Street Journal
"A gripping book that will substantially deepen readers'
understanding of a critical time in U.S. history." --Foreign
Affairs
"Joseph Lelyveld combines his long-honed reporting experience with
a historian's eye firmly fixed on this important story... Chock
full of illuminating revelations... If you are faintly nauseated by
the current state of American politics, turn off the cable channel
that appeals to your prejudices, and let Mr. Lelyveld take you to a
vastly more enlightening time when the main characters had plenty
of flaws but also vastly compensating bravery and vision." --The
Washington Times "Lelyveld's storytelling skill, his investigative
thoroughness and his total dedication to historical fact remain
evident throughout... Intense and substantive." --The Buffalo News
"Rarely has Franklin Delano Roosevelt been portrayed with such
steely-eyed insight... A deeply revealing look at a famously
enigmatic president... A masterful study of a masterful politician,
a fresh look at one of the most beloved and complex of presidents."
--BookPage
"Meticulous... The author expertly puts together a string of
poignant clues to FDR's last acts... An elegant, affecting work
that offers fresh insights on a much-mythologized president."
--Kirkus, starred review "Joseph Lelyveld traces the last,
challenging months of FDR's life with a pitch-perfect blend of
meticulous reporting, careful analysis, and deep humanity. For all
that has been written about Roosevelt, this deeply-moving book adds
significantly to our understanding of that remarkable man." --Gay
Talese
"With a seasoned journalist's built-in skepticism and a gifted
historian's scrupulous respect for evidence, Joseph Lelyveld leads
us deeper into Franklin Roosevelt's 'thickly forested interior' at
the end of his life than anyone has ever gone before. His Final
Battle is now required reading for anyone who wants to understand
the twentieth century's most consequential--and most
mysterious--president." --Geoffrey C. Ward, author, The Roosevelts:
An Intimate History
"A spellbinding example of the biographer's craft, His Final Battle
by Joseph Lelyveld paints a portrait of Franklin Roosevelt as
president, statesman, and commander in chief, frail and dying, but
heroic in his resolve to win the war and preserve the peace that
would follow. Deftly interweaving the public and the private, the
political and the personal, making use of documents and details
others had neglected, Lelyveld offers us an unparalleled historical
narrative of the last year of the war and the dramatic story of a
singular man and the unthinkable challenges he confronted in the
final months of his presidency and his life." --David Nasaw,
author, The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of
Joseph P. Kennedy "A masterpiece, in dramatic prose, combining deep
research, subtle imagination, and ingenious speculation, as well as
a vivid analysis of 'The Great Tantalizer, ' the 'devout
utilitarian.' His Final Battle is the work of a seasoned
reporter/historian, elegantly written, hard to put down and
impossible to forget." --Fritz Stern, author, Five Germanys I Have
Known "Powerful, clear-eyed, and briskly-told, Lelyveld's account
of the last months of a 20th century colossus is great history.
It's a wonder Franklin Roosevelt was ever able to get out of bed,
let alone guide the Allies through the most perilous period the
world had ever known. If you think you knew FDR, think again--Joe
Lelyveld brings him to fresh life, in all his human dimensions."
--Timothy Egan, author, The Immortal Irishman "At once human and
analytical, His Final Battle illuminates the perplexing zone where
personal fate and large historical processes intertwine. The book
offers a beautifully-realized, impossible to put down chronicle
making fresh connections that deepen understanding of FDR's closing
confrontations with crises of health and global leadership." --Ira
I. Katznelson, author of Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins
of Our Time
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