(3 of 3)
History or Hagiography? Author Schlesinger's panoramic style captures much of the sweep and excitement of an era more historically dramatic than most. Occasionally, his copious research numbs the memory it is meant to jog. He periodically confuses hagiography with history, so that F.D.R.'s New Deal becomes a kind of King Arthur's court peopled with Sir Rexford, and Sir Harry, and Sir Felix and other knights of the Round Table. With consummate showmanship, Franklin Roosevelt did embody something of the gallantry of a tilt with the dragons of poverty and unemployment. The credo Schlesinger finally inscribes for him is less mythic than modest, and may be no more than just: "He had no philosophy save experiment, which was a technique; constitutionalism, which was a procedure; and humanity, which was a faith."