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3.95 AVERAGE
Few could argue that Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill stood, and still stand, as the guiding forces behind the Allied victories in World War II. Together, they wrote a major part of the history that shaped our world, then and now. But there was far more to their relationship than merely being the leaders of two of the most powerful countries of their times. They were friends underneath the politics, sometimes uneasy friends and often as not, contentious. But their mutual respect and admiration was always present.
In this biography of the two great leaders, Meacham explores the personal relationship the two men shared. Often as not, it was the more emotional Churchill pursuing the far more reserved and devious FDR. This is not a simple history book, although one could hardly write about these two men without framing them in the history of their time. Meacham's gift is not just in relating history as if he were writing another textbook about WWII. He has a gift for bringing out the personality of his subjects, and giving the reader a glimpse into who the person was behind the public figure.
Meacham draws on history, yes, but also on new material including unpublished letters of FDR's secret love, Lucy Rutherford, the papers of Pamela Churchill, and interviews with some of the intimates of both men. He writes in a engaging and very listenable style, which is well-served by Grover Gardner's narration.
Any history buff who would like to know more of the men behind the politics during one of the most historic periods of both countries' histories will enjoy this in-depth look at a friendship that went beyond the power struggles and decisions that changed the world.
In this biography of the two great leaders, Meacham explores the personal relationship the two men shared. Often as not, it was the more emotional Churchill pursuing the far more reserved and devious FDR. This is not a simple history book, although one could hardly write about these two men without framing them in the history of their time. Meacham's gift is not just in relating history as if he were writing another textbook about WWII. He has a gift for bringing out the personality of his subjects, and giving the reader a glimpse into who the person was behind the public figure.
Meacham draws on history, yes, but also on new material including unpublished letters of FDR's secret love, Lucy Rutherford, the papers of Pamela Churchill, and interviews with some of the intimates of both men. He writes in a engaging and very listenable style, which is well-served by Grover Gardner's narration.
Any history buff who would like to know more of the men behind the politics during one of the most historic periods of both countries' histories will enjoy this in-depth look at a friendship that went beyond the power struggles and decisions that changed the world.
Interesting insights into the friendship that changed the course of WW II, and subsequently, world history. FDR sounds like he was a bit of a tosser on the personal level, but old Winston really put himself on the line for his country and people. Loved his comment about how he would live in the US full-time (his mom was American) if only Americans didn't stop drinking between meals.
Listened to this one on CD. Just could not get into it. SOME interesting stuff, but mainly I was bored... the book could have been half as long and twice as good.
This was one of the most intense and insightful reads I have ever come across. This book portrays Roosevelt and Churchill in a new, insightful, and deeply personal manner. You walk away from this book feeling as if you were there with Churchill and Roosevelt and have gotten to know them. This work provides fascinating analysis into the complex friendship and character of these two phenomenal leaders. This book is not a study of the special relationship between Great Britain and the United States, it is the study of the special relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt that laid the foundation of the Anglo-American special relationship and the modern age.
An intimate portrait of the friendship between two titans of the 20th century.
The last paragraph of Franklin and Winston by Jon Meacham:
There are memorials to Roosevelt and Churchill just inside the West Door of Westminster Abbey. The first, a gray tablet that hangs far below a window depicting Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve tribes of Israel, reads: TO THE HONORED MEMORY OF FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, A FAITHFUL FRIEND OF FREEDOM AND OF BRITAIN. Nearby, a large, dark green marble slab lies on the floor of the great nave, its inscription simple but profound: REMEMBER WINSTON CHURCHILL. On sunny days in London, light slips in the gloom of the ancient church, both through the stained glass and from the open doors--light from a world Roosevelt and Churchill together delivered from evil.
I know I'm far too sentimental for my own good, but I bawled my way through the last chapter of this very good book about the complicated, often strained, but enduringly affectionate relationship between two incredible leaders and men. The book made me feel rather cuddly about Churchill, who whatever his shortcomings and Victorian-era attitudes about certain things, was in Meacham's telling a deeply sentimental and forgiving man who made no secret of how much he loved and valued Franklin Roosevelt. This passage killed me:
Very late in Churchill's life, Clementine invited James Roosevelt to call on her husband in retirement. "He'd like that, and maybe it'd perk him up a bit," she said. "He's been a bit down." Churchill seemed feeble, but when he saw Roosevelt his face lit up. Holding his guest's hand, he asked him to sit and talk. "From time to time he'd ask me if I remembered someone I'd never met, and he spoke about a message he'd sent me, when he'd never sent me a message in his life," James recalled. "At first I was puzzled. Then I realized he thought I was my father." Seeing his mistake, Churchill was "terribly disappointed and his expression and posture seemed to sag." For a fleeting instant, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt had been at the pinnacle again, if only in an old man's mind, and the thought had been pleasing. "Churchill's attitude toward Roosevelt was one of profound affection and regard," recalled Anthony Montague Browne, "and it never changed."
The overall picture of their relationship as they worked together during the war years is of Churchill trying terribly hard to woo FDR, while FDR accepts his wooing and reciprocates for a while before finally growing somewhat weary of his overly effusive and needy friend. Roosevelt could turn on the charm, but he could turn it off just as easily when it suited him. He was a very hard man to know -- a man of secrets -- and Churchill found that hurtful as the years wore on. Reading about FDR's treatment of Churchill during their meetings with Stalin was painful. Roosevelt basically threw Churchill under the bus and developed an "us against silly old Winston" attitude when interacting with Stalin, and while there were political reasons behind what he was doing in trying to charm Stalin into cooperating with US goals (yeah, good luck with that), it was still hard to read about.
All that makes the book sound so shallow, and it isn't. After all, we're talking about two strong, intelligent men who had the fate of the world very much in their hands and who led their countries through unimaginably crushing problems. They weren't kids fighting over who was the coolest and most popular in school, or about who liked who more. Still, there are elements of that dynamic in their relationship. Meacham does a good job of making both of them human, and with that comes an honest look at their all-too-human failings.
In the end they had more ups than downs as friends, however, and all the time they spent together at work and at play, at the White House, at Hyde Park, at Camp David (then named Shangri-La), and elsewhere truly did change the course of history. Some of their times together -- singing hymns at a religious service on board the HMS Prince of Wales, comforting and assisting each other after dreadful losses in battle, spending holidays together at the White House, watching the sun set over the Atlas Mountains -- were moments of true bonding and friendship, deeply felt by both men. (Churchill painted the mountain sunset -- his only painting of the war years -- and gave it to Roosevelt.)
Early in the book Meacham quotes one of Churchill's children (Mary, I believe) as saying that whenever she thought about her father and Roosevelt she remembered the French proverb: "In love, there's always one who kisses and one who turns the cheek." Churchill was always kissing and FDR was always turning the cheek to be kissed. Churchill was aware of it himself: "No lover had ever studied the whims of his mistress as I did those of President Roosevelt." In any relationship it seems there's always one who loves more, but that doesn't mean that love isn't reciprocated, albeit less intensely.
Franklin and Winston was a really interesting book and a quick, entertaining read. It made me want to find out more about Churchill, since I hardly knew anything about him prior to this.
There are memorials to Roosevelt and Churchill just inside the West Door of Westminster Abbey. The first, a gray tablet that hangs far below a window depicting Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve tribes of Israel, reads: TO THE HONORED MEMORY OF FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, A FAITHFUL FRIEND OF FREEDOM AND OF BRITAIN. Nearby, a large, dark green marble slab lies on the floor of the great nave, its inscription simple but profound: REMEMBER WINSTON CHURCHILL. On sunny days in London, light slips in the gloom of the ancient church, both through the stained glass and from the open doors--light from a world Roosevelt and Churchill together delivered from evil.
I know I'm far too sentimental for my own good, but I bawled my way through the last chapter of this very good book about the complicated, often strained, but enduringly affectionate relationship between two incredible leaders and men. The book made me feel rather cuddly about Churchill, who whatever his shortcomings and Victorian-era attitudes about certain things, was in Meacham's telling a deeply sentimental and forgiving man who made no secret of how much he loved and valued Franklin Roosevelt. This passage killed me:
Very late in Churchill's life, Clementine invited James Roosevelt to call on her husband in retirement. "He'd like that, and maybe it'd perk him up a bit," she said. "He's been a bit down." Churchill seemed feeble, but when he saw Roosevelt his face lit up. Holding his guest's hand, he asked him to sit and talk. "From time to time he'd ask me if I remembered someone I'd never met, and he spoke about a message he'd sent me, when he'd never sent me a message in his life," James recalled. "At first I was puzzled. Then I realized he thought I was my father." Seeing his mistake, Churchill was "terribly disappointed and his expression and posture seemed to sag." For a fleeting instant, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt had been at the pinnacle again, if only in an old man's mind, and the thought had been pleasing. "Churchill's attitude toward Roosevelt was one of profound affection and regard," recalled Anthony Montague Browne, "and it never changed."
The overall picture of their relationship as they worked together during the war years is of Churchill trying terribly hard to woo FDR, while FDR accepts his wooing and reciprocates for a while before finally growing somewhat weary of his overly effusive and needy friend. Roosevelt could turn on the charm, but he could turn it off just as easily when it suited him. He was a very hard man to know -- a man of secrets -- and Churchill found that hurtful as the years wore on. Reading about FDR's treatment of Churchill during their meetings with Stalin was painful. Roosevelt basically threw Churchill under the bus and developed an "us against silly old Winston" attitude when interacting with Stalin, and while there were political reasons behind what he was doing in trying to charm Stalin into cooperating with US goals (yeah, good luck with that), it was still hard to read about.
All that makes the book sound so shallow, and it isn't. After all, we're talking about two strong, intelligent men who had the fate of the world very much in their hands and who led their countries through unimaginably crushing problems. They weren't kids fighting over who was the coolest and most popular in school, or about who liked who more. Still, there are elements of that dynamic in their relationship. Meacham does a good job of making both of them human, and with that comes an honest look at their all-too-human failings.
In the end they had more ups than downs as friends, however, and all the time they spent together at work and at play, at the White House, at Hyde Park, at Camp David (then named Shangri-La), and elsewhere truly did change the course of history. Some of their times together -- singing hymns at a religious service on board the HMS Prince of Wales, comforting and assisting each other after dreadful losses in battle, spending holidays together at the White House, watching the sun set over the Atlas Mountains -- were moments of true bonding and friendship, deeply felt by both men. (Churchill painted the mountain sunset -- his only painting of the war years -- and gave it to Roosevelt.)
Early in the book Meacham quotes one of Churchill's children (Mary, I believe) as saying that whenever she thought about her father and Roosevelt she remembered the French proverb: "In love, there's always one who kisses and one who turns the cheek." Churchill was always kissing and FDR was always turning the cheek to be kissed. Churchill was aware of it himself: "No lover had ever studied the whims of his mistress as I did those of President Roosevelt." In any relationship it seems there's always one who loves more, but that doesn't mean that love isn't reciprocated, albeit less intensely.
Franklin and Winston was a really interesting book and a quick, entertaining read. It made me want to find out more about Churchill, since I hardly knew anything about him prior to this.
Borrowed this audiobook from the library's Libby app.
I read this book some years ago but liked it better this time around in audio form.
The FDR-Churchill relationship shows what true diplomacy can be. About being an ally. About fighting against fascism.
I read this book some years ago but liked it better this time around in audio form.
The FDR-Churchill relationship shows what true diplomacy can be. About being an ally. About fighting against fascism.
Took a bit to get rolling, and sometimes I had to remind myself who we were with at the moment, since Meacham moves between the two men somewhat abruptly at times. Overall, pretty good book, with some new insights, but nothing groundbreaking.
Really enjoyed seeing behind the scenes of tremendous world events through the lens of a personal relationship.
Book 10 of 40 for the 2015 Reading Challenge
To say that FDR and Winston Churchill saved the 20th Century is not an overstatement. Had it not been for these two men England would have fallen to the Nazi’s and the course of the world would have been forever changed.
Jon Meacham who is a personal favorite of mine from his other books Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power and American Gospel not to mention his appearances on Morning Joe on MSNBC does an outstanding job in this work of examining the working relationship between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill and how they shaped the war and found a way to defeat the Nazi’s.
As always FDR and his handling of all his relationships are complex and his ability to remain a chameleon to those closest to him impacts his relationship with Churchill. Churchill was at times left in the cold when FDR focused on Stalin at the conferences and this played on his own insecurities.
Churchill himself suffered from his own insecurities and at times his own ego believing that since he was the oldest of the three allied leader he should be the Senior decision maker. He also believed strongly that the British Empire was still the strongest power of the allies.
But at the end of the day it is this relationship between two outstanding leaders that help saved the world for democracy and created the amazing bond that our two countries now share and continue to enjoy.
To say that FDR and Winston Churchill saved the 20th Century is not an overstatement. Had it not been for these two men England would have fallen to the Nazi’s and the course of the world would have been forever changed.
Jon Meacham who is a personal favorite of mine from his other books Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power and American Gospel not to mention his appearances on Morning Joe on MSNBC does an outstanding job in this work of examining the working relationship between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill and how they shaped the war and found a way to defeat the Nazi’s.
As always FDR and his handling of all his relationships are complex and his ability to remain a chameleon to those closest to him impacts his relationship with Churchill. Churchill was at times left in the cold when FDR focused on Stalin at the conferences and this played on his own insecurities.
Churchill himself suffered from his own insecurities and at times his own ego believing that since he was the oldest of the three allied leader he should be the Senior decision maker. He also believed strongly that the British Empire was still the strongest power of the allies.
But at the end of the day it is this relationship between two outstanding leaders that help saved the world for democracy and created the amazing bond that our two countries now share and continue to enjoy.