Franklin Roosevelt used to say his most difficult constituency was his own family. "One of the worst things in the world is being the child of a President," he maintained. "It's a terrible life they lead." Eleanor and Franklin's six children ran up a total of 19 marriages; two spouses committed suicide, many more seemed to drink themselves silly. The siblings called it "the body count."
Peter Collier and David Horowitz have made a business of probing the underbellies of grand American families in books about the Kennedys and the Fords. In The Roosevelts: An American Saga (Simon and Schuster; 542...
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