Roosevelt's Navy

March 26, 2012
Focusing on a pre-presidency Franklin Delano Roosevelt, de Kay's (A Rage for Glory) excellent and engaging character study begins by recounting the young boy's fascination with distant cousin Theodore Roosevelt and his thrilling book The Naval War of 1812, and ends with his unsuccessful bid for the vice-presidency in 1920, focusing throughout on FDR's abiding interest in naval warfare, and his development as an individual and a politician. In an elegantly sparing style, de Kay takes readers through Roosevelt's transformation from bellicose neophyteâin 1914 when war with Mexico seemed unavoidable, FDR was "thrilled by the news" and "prepared to rattle his saber" in supportâto a more somber man of experience, who famously declared in 1936, "I hate war." Roosevelt is additionally revealed through his letters, where he is at times surprisingly witty and sardonicâwriting to Eleanore in 1914, Roosevelt remarked that a certain government official, in response to the current crisis in Europe, was "feeling chiefly very sad that his faith in human nature and civilization and similar idealistic nonsense was receiving such a rude shock." Despite the cynicism, Roosevelt remains principled and dedicated to his country. For fans of biographies and political history, de Kay's newest is an expertly crafted work of intense focus and broad appeal. Photos.

December 1, 2011
Long before he steered the country through both the Depression and World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) was a headstrong fellow who knew what he wanted, played for keeps and mastered the art of taking charge. FDR inspires the love of biographers, and naval historian de Kay (A Rage for Glory: The Life of Commodore Stephen Decatur, USN, 2007, etc.) can lay on his ardor with a trowel. Nonetheless, his book, focused on Roosevelt's first forays into public office, tells a convincing story of how a privileged young man proved he was as good as his famous name. Starting political life as a New York state senator, he ran afoul of Boss Charles F. Murphy of Tammany Hall when he backed the wrong horse for a U.S. Senate seat. As a "crusader for good government," he gained the approval of Woodrow Wilson, the newly elected and equally reform-minded New Jersey governor who would soon become president. As Wilson's Assistant Secretary of the Navy, FDR, a naval enthusiast from boyhood, tackled his new role with the plucky presumption of a young man who was sure he ought to be running the place. FDR was hawkish on America's entry into World War I, frequently locking horns with his boss, Josephus Daniels, and his commander in chief. De Kay is sympathetic to FDR as a bull-headed problem-solver who let nothing stand in his way where his Navy was concerned, the man who took the initiative on numerous major wartime projects. The author is also fair in noting FDR's overreach, his ego and his gambler's instinct--whether it meant having a potentially career-wrecking affair with his wife's secretary or making an ill-advised run for the Senate. A highly readable, somewhat fawning, ultimately credible biography of an ambitious, energetic risk-taker.

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