THE ROOSEVELTS: An American Saga

The co-authors of The Kennedys and The Rockefellers reunite for an encompassing portrait of the dreams, triumphs, vanities, and achievements of the Roosevelt family, from Teddy to Eleanor and Franklin. 100,000 first printing. BOMC.

The Roosevelt dynasty that gave the U.S. two presidents was divided into hostile factions, show Collier and Horowitz ( The Kennedys ). Theodore (TR), the Republican president from 1901 to 1909, led the Oyster Bay branch of this New York family, while his cousin Franklin (FDR), a four-term Democratic president (1933-1945), represented the Hyde Park Roosevelts. Relying heavily on quotes from earlier studies, the authors deliver an entertainingly gossipy but unbalanced history of the clan that focuses on TR, FDR and their wives and children. Bestowing a heroic man mantle on TR, they justify his controversial acquisition of Panama while portraying him as a caring family man. FDR, who overcame the crippling effects of polio, is credited with shrewd political instincts but presented as emotionally withdrawn. The most unflattering portrait is of Eleanor, TR's niece and FDR's wife, who is depicted as unattractive and neurotic, a terrible wife and mother who was responsible for the problems of her five adult children. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A dubious new examination of the Roosevelt clan by the team that has previously delved into the lives of several American dynasties. Any new book about the Roosevelts carries a big burden. There have, of course, been many books already about the family, many of which are termed ``excellent'' and ``brilliant'' by Collier and Horowitz. The authors have their own reputation to reckon with, too. Coauthors of previous dynasty books (The Kennedys, not reviewed, etc.), they have been accused, by turns, of superficiality, sensationalism, and inducing boredom. The Roosevelt book is rarely boring and certainly not sensationalistic. It is, however, troubling in another way: The authors place more emphasis than previous biographers on the conflict between the two branches of the Roosevelt family. Writing in the singular voice, they explain: ``My own inclination has been to try to treat the story of the Oyster Bay [Teddy and Eleanor] and Hyde Park [Franklin] branches, usually seen as two casually related stories, as one complex dynastic drama. There is a familial civil war at the heart of the story....'' Previous Roosevelt chroniclers, while sometimes mentioning the ``civil war,'' have refrained from building a book around it. Collier and Horowitz have done just that. Accordingly, they seize every opportunity to accent interbranch conflict, dwelling, for example, on the subtle and not-so-subtle slights traded among relatives at the 1905 wedding of Eleanor and Franklin, exchanges that overshadowed the ceremony itself. More than 80 years later, according to the authors, the internecine strife finally lessened as the two branches more or less reconciled at a reunion. At times entertaining, this family-conflict approach (based largely on derivative, sometimes skimpy sources) requires some liberal interpretations of events for the sake of dramatic continuity. Readers unfamiliar with the available Roosevelt literature may find this approach informative and fun. Others--well-read in Roosevelt literature and not titillated by the bickering--will find it irritating. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Portraits of the Oyster Bay and Hyde Park Roosevelts, always hung separately, are now framed together by Collier and Horowitz, family biographers of the Rockefellers, Kennedys, Fords, and, recently (by Collier alone), The Fondas (LJ 1/91). The preface advertises "a family civil war with almost Homeric overtones," yet the misdeeds, squabbles, and triumphs cataloged here more readily call to mind an average TV miniseries than classical epic. Academic libraries can pass because scholars will find nothing new concerning Theodore, Eleanor, or Franklin and little of interest about the lesser-known generations that followed. The book is an optional purchase for public libraries, whose readers will enjoy a more satisfying read in any one of many more finely crafted books about either Roosevelt branch.
Robert F. Nardini, North Chichester, N.H.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

People who love plutocrats love Collier and Horowitz, who have earned a living with glamorous biographies of the Fords, Rockefellers, and Kennedys. With their trademark accent on family domesticity, sibling rivalries, and secret paramours, this duo indeed delivers dirt--in the Rooseveltian cases, foibles known for decades. They also bring balancing insight into the principal figures' psychological motivations. That's their ticket, which readers will eagerly punch as they revel yet again in the courses the relatives of Theodore and Franklin followed in their orbits around those two leading lights. Most widely known are probably the tragedy of TR's dissolute brother Elliot, told previously in McCullough's Mornings on Horseback (1982), and the smartaleckys life led by TR's cynically chatty daughter Alice R. Longworth (Prince Alice by Carol Felsenthal, 1989), but others of the tribe get equal time. Who among them could equal the irrepressible TR, with his "combative brio"? But they, the men at least, all tried, venturing out on death-defying safaris, or getting killed in war, as did TR's son, Quentin, in a WWI dogfight. The script covers Franklin's battle with polio and a bitter political rivalry with TR, Jr.; his unfaithfulness to the unbeautiful Eleanor; and their progeny as they lived under FDR's legacy. Though weightless as history, this well-ordered family lore will exert wide appeal. Gilbert Taylor