Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (167 page)

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Authors: H. W. Brands

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BOOK: Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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S
OURCES

The sources for this book, as for most other works of history, fall into two categories: primary sources and secondary sources. The primary sources are those generated by participants and eyewitnesses: their letters, diaries, public statements, memoirs, and the like. The secondary sources are the books and articles produced by historians and others who weren’t there when the events recorded occurred.

The chief repository of unpublished primary sources on Roosevelt is the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, New York. Established by Roosevelt himself, the Roosevelt Library set the model for American presidential libraries. It houses the papers of Roosevelt and many of his associates. Documents from this library cited in the text and identified in the notes below are indicated by the abbreviation FDRL.

The published primary sources on Roosevelt’s life and presidency are legion. Three published collections of his correspondence have been most important for the writing of this book:

FDR: His Personal Letters.
Edited by Elliott Roosevelt et al. 4 volumes. 1947–50.
Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence.
Edited by Warren F. Kimball. 3 volumes. 1984.
My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin.
Edited by Susan Butler. 2005.

Unless otherwise noted, letters identified below come from these collections. Correspondence with Churchill is from the second collection, with Stalin from the third, with other persons from the first. Because these collections are ordered by date, page references have been unnecessary.

Roosevelt’s public papers, addresses, press conference transcripts, and other statements can be found in three collections primarily:

Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
13 volumes. 1938–50.
Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
25 volumes. 1972.
Public Papers of the Presidents.
Digital collection of the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara:
www.presidency.ucsb.edu
.

Unless otherwise noted, the Roosevelt statements listed below come from these collections. The third collection contains many of the documents of the first two. It also has audio versions of some of Roosevelt’s speeches, including the Fireside Chats. As with the correspondence, these are ordered by date, making further identification superfluous.

Three published collections of government documents have been essential in telling the story of Roosevelt’s foreign policy:

Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS).
Various volumes and years.
Peace and War: United States Foreign Policy, 1931–1941.
1943.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs.
Edited by Edgar D. Nixon. 3 volumes. 1969. (A second series under this title, of facsimiles compiled by Donald B. Schewe and published from 1979 to 1983, adds another 14 volumes.)

The first is the official published record of American foreign relations. The second and third are more specialized.

Roosevelt’s family and associates were assiduous and verbose in recording their experiences and their impressions of Roosevelt as a man and as president. The following are the most important of the memoirs, diaries, and collections of letters:

Berle, Adolf A.
Navigating the Rapids, 1918–1971: From the Papers of Adolf A. Berle.
Edited by Beatrice Bishop Berle and Travis Beal Jacobs. 1973.
Churchill, Winston S.
The Second World War.
6 volumes. 1948–53.
Daniels, Josephus.
The Cabinet Diaries of Josephus Daniels, 1913–1921.
Edited by E. David Cronon. 1963.
Farley, James A.
Behind the Ballots: The Personal History of a Politician.
1938. Volume 1 of his memoir.
Jim Farley’s Story: The Roosevelt Years.
1948. Volume 2.
Hassett, William D.
Off the Record with F.D.R., 1942–1945.
1958.
Hickok, Lorena.
One Third of a Nation: Lorena Hickok Reports on the Great Depression.
Edited by Richard Lowitt and Maurine Beasley. 1981.
Hull, Cordell.
The Memoirs of Cordell Hull.
2 volumes. 1948.
Ickes, Harold L.
The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes.
3 volumes. 1953–54.
Kennedy, Joseph P.
Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy.
Edited by Amanda Smith. 2001.
Lash, Joseph P.
Eleanor and Franklin.
1971.
Lindley, Ernest K.
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1931.
Moley, Raymond.
After Seven Years.
1937.
Morgenthau, Henry Jr.
From the Morgenthau Diaries.
Edited by John Morton Blum. 3 volumes. 1959–67.
Perkins, Frances.
The Roosevelt I Knew.
1946.
Roosevelt, Eleanor.
This Is My Story.
1937. Volume 1 of her autobiography.
This I Remember.
1949. Volume 2. (Referred to as ER.)
Roosevelt, Eleanor, and Anna Roosevelt.
Mother and Daughter: The Letters of Eleanor and Anna Roosevelt.
Edited by Bernard Asbell. 1982.
Roosevelt, Elliott.
As He Saw It.
1946.
Roosevelt, Elliott, and James Brough.
An Untold Story: The Roosevelts of Hyde Park.
1973.
Roosevelt, James, and Sidney Shalett.
Affectionately, F.D.R.: A Son’s Story of a Lonely Man.
1959.
Rosenman, Samuel I.
Working with Roosevelt.
1952.
Sherwood, Robert E.
Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History.
1948.
Tugwell, R. G.
The Brains Trust.
1968.
Tully, Grace.
F.D.R., My Boss.
1949.

The secondary sources on Roosevelt’s life and career constitute nothing less than a library of American history during the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Any comprehensive bibliography of such secondary sources would be far too large to include here. The interested reader may consult Kenneth E. Hendrickson Jr.,
The Life and Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: An Annotated Bibliography,
3 volumes (2005).

The secondary sources from which direct quotations or specific, hard-to-verify facts have been taken are indicated in the notes. Several secondary works have been especially useful:

Burns, James MacGregor.
Roosevelt.
2 volumes. 1956–70.
Cook, Blanche Wiesen.
Eleanor Roosevelt.
2 volumes to date. 1992–.
Dallek, Robert.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945.
1979.
Davis, Kenneth S.
FDR.
5 volumes. 1972–2000.
Freidel, Frank.
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
4 volumes. 1952–73.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns.
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt; The Home Front in World War II.
1994.
Kennedy, David.
Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945.
1999.
Leuchtenburg, William E.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932–1940.
1963.
Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr.
The Age of Roosevelt.
3 volumes. 1958–60.
Ward, Geoffrey C.
Before the Trumpet: Young Franklin Roosevelt, 1882–1905.
1985.
———.
A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt.
1989.

N
OTES

PROLOGUE

“This means war”: Sherwood, 426–27.

“There’s a report…No”: Hull, 2:1095.

“In all my fifty years of public service”:
FRUS: Japan, 1931–1941,
2:787.

“Mr. President, what’s this…simplifies things”: Churchill, 3:605–06.

“Japan started this war…a combat division”:
New York Times,
Dec. 8, 1941.

“burning bitterness”:
Time,
April 27, 1936.

CHAPTER
1

“I will not say”: Daniel W. Delano Jr.,
Franklin Roosevelt and the Delano Influence
(1946), 164.

“He never took his eyes”: Rita Halle Kleeman,
Gracious Lady: The Life of Sara Delano Roosevelt
(1935), 101.

“James Roosevelt is the first person”: Allen Churchill,
The Roosevelts: American Aristocrats
(1966), 155.

“At a quarter to nine”: Ibid., 156.

his earliest surviving letter:
Personal Letters,
1 (after p. xvi). Unless otherwise noted, letters to and from FDR below can be found in this collection. They are cited simply by date.

“Papa is going to buy”: To Deborah Delano, April 10, 1891.

“On this paper”: To Muriel and Warren Robbins, May 30, 1891.

“Thanks very much”: To Sara and James Roosevelt, Sept. 27, 1896.

“I played football”: To Sara and James Roosevelt, Sept. 18, 1896.

“I managed to dislocate”: To Sara and James Roosevelt, Oct. 11, 1896.

“I am all right”: To Sara and James Roosevelt, Sept. 18, 1896.

“Very good”:
Personal Letters,
1 (after p. 32).

“Today is
broiling
”: To Sara and James Roosevelt, May 13, 1900.

“I told him”: To Sara and James Roosevelt, April 28, 1899.

“
Make Papa rest
”: To Sara and James Roosevelt, Nov. 19, 1900.

“I am so glad”: To Sara and James Roosevelt, Nov. 23, 1900.

“I am too distressed”: To Sara and James Roosevelt, Dec. 3, 1900.