Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis That Made a President by Jonathan Darman
What's it about?
Becoming FDR (2022) tells the remarkable story of the personal health crisis and recovery that transformed Franklin D. Roosevelt from a self-centered, pampered golden boy to the mature, empathetic President who would go on to lead a nation through the darkest days of The Great Depression and the second World War.
Introduction
What’s in it for me? Discover the remarkable story of a leader shaped by adversity, and how his empathy kept a nation from despair.
Ask any American who listened in history class about Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and you’ll likely hear about his popular social programs like The New Deal. You might even hear about his famous radio broadcasts, the fireside chats, that seemed to calm the nerves of a nation in the grips of The Great Depression or World War II.
But the Franklin D. Roosevelt of these iconic moments bore little resemblance to the golden boy born into privilege in upstate New York in 1882. The one whose familial wealth and famous name seemed to guarantee a political career. Nor did this Roosevelt, who led the country through some of its darkest days, have much in common with the one who spent years as an athlete and energetic young political appointee. That Franklin thought only about himself, by his own admission. He even demonstrated this in the very public affair he flaunted while his wife was away with their children for the summer off the coast of Maine.
Perhaps more than any other politician before or since, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s life is divided into a before and an after. Before was his life as a tall, handsome and graceful young politician. His after, on the other hand, was lived as a survivor of a crippling illness, with physical challenges and daily struggles. One who suffered the indignities of public scrutiny over his disabilities, and still exuded very public strength and resolve.
Along the way, he learned the most valuable skills he’d need for his challenging presidency. With the global economic crisis of the 1930s, as with the World War of the 1940s, Franklin’s ability to empathize with and motivate others became defining strengths – one his younger self would hardly recognize.
Key idea 1
A stillpoint
One August morning in 1921, Franklin Delano Roosevelt woke with a raging fever. He was just a day into a long-awaited family vacation. Normally energetic and manically driven, his wife Eleanor became concerned the evening before when he retired to bed early complaining of fatigue and chills. By morning it was clear her concern was justified.
When Franklin tried to stand, his legs wouldn’t bear his weight. Collapsing back into bed, he spent weeks trapped there between raging fevers and hallucination-filled sleep. With only Eleanor and his devoted political strategist, Louis Howe, as caretakers, the family vacation quickly changed into a test of endurance. The once public Roosevelt family closed ranks and saw to Franklin’s care around-the-clock. He couldn’t even use the toilet without assistance.
Their remote location, a longtime summer retreat for Franklin’s family, meant that getting a doctor was a considerable undertaking. The one they did finally manage to summon to the island, from the mainland at Lubec, Maine, was a long-time family acquaintance of the Roosevelts. Unfortunately, he misdiagnosed Franklin’s condition as paralysis from a blood clot with extreme exhaustion from overwork. Had this physician known of the recent outbreaks of polio in communities surrounding New York, he might have considered another diagnosis.
Sadly for Franklin, the correct diagnosis offered far less hope than the local physician’s incorrect one. Muscles and nerves that had been damaged by a clot could be rehabilitated and function. Paralysis from polio infection, also known as infantile paralysis, wasn’t like that at all. When polio causes a severe infection, it can evade the body’s defenses and invade multiple systems – literally destroying muscles, nerves, and even organs. In such cases, functionality is likely never to return.
For a man whose political career had thus far been built on his imposing height, pleasant demeanor, and physical prowess at the Democratic National Conventions, this diagnosis was devastating. Always the golden boy and pampered son, whose grace and athleticism won him admiration if not loyalty, his days as a shallow political aspirant were over. His time of struggle, determination, and optimism to the brink of self-delusion had begun.
Once an appropriate diagnosis was made, through the intervention of outside doctors, one thing was clear. The lack of early intervention and appropriate treatment during his infection with the polio virus had set him back greatly. Now incapable of controlling his movements below the waist, he had no clear path back to health.
Key idea 2
Another Roosevelt
When Eleanor stepped up to full-time caretaker for Franklin, it was after more than a decade of contentious partnership and the birth of five children. On paper, they’d made the perfect couple: Eleanor was tall, strikingly attractive, highly intelligent, and from former President Teddy Roosevelt’s immediate circle – she was his niece.
Franklin, on the other hand, was a distant fifth cousin once removed, who’d frequently capitalized on his presidential name for clout as a kid at boarding school, while Teddy was still in the White House.
But Eleanor and Franklin’s similarly wealthy and prestigious families actually hid two vastly divergent childhoods. Franklin grew up beloved of his mother, a love that was so adoring and over-praising that even his father’s early death couldn’t shake his inner belief that he was special. Eleanor, by contrast, was the child of neglectful, alcoholic parents. Where Franklin was drowning in mother-love, Eleanor grew up starved for affection and attention.
So when Franklin began his near constant political travel, and had a very public affair with her own social secretary, Eleanor was especially affected by his betrayal and abandonment. Often overshadowed by her domineering mother-in-law in her own family’s affairs, she had just begun the process of separation, and building a life apart from her husband.
And so when Franklin was struck down that fateful August it was perhaps the worst possible moment for both of them. Eleanor had her sights set on independence and personal fulfillment outside of marriage, while Franklin’s were already firmly set on first the Governor's office of his home state of New York, and eventually the Whitehouse.
What they both got instead was a life instantly altered. For Franklin, the only thing he could do was slow down, heal, and try to recover. As for Eleanor, she was now on care duty for a house filled with children and an incapacitated husband. For weeks she slept in an armchair at his bedside, and ran interference when questioning reporters or concerned friends got in touch about his status.
But from the brink of collapse, their family managed to pull together. Franklin and Eleanor began a campaign of positivity and optimism when it came to Franklin’s recovery. He was fixated on walking once more, regardless of what the doctors said. After decades of carefully cultivating his public presence, Franklin was now far more interested in learning to walk again, away from the public eye believing his Presidential aspirations rested on appearing fit, strong, and healthy to the public. And so it was Eleanor, the discrete and retiring Roosevelt of the pair, who took bold steps into the public spotlight, keeping their family active in politics.
Key idea 3
At sea
Even when Franklin was well enough to return to New York from Campobello, his recovery had barely begun. Though young, his health was already declining when he was infected. This was late July of 1921. He’d suffered several illnesses in the previous years, including a horrendous bout of Influenza during the 1918 pandemic. Still, he’d driven himself with all the vigor of youth, and it had now caught up with him.
To heal, he dedicated himself to a long stint out of the public spotlight. He acquired a barge, nicknamed LeRooco, that could sail the warm winter waterways around Florida. On it, Franklin could easily swim and sunbathe. These trips far from New York were kept discretely out of the papers.
By this time, Eleanor had already ended their sexual relationship, after their 5th child was born. She’d developed several passionate relationships with other highly educated women, and these connections were as politically savvy as they were liberated from conventional marriage and motherhood.
Sharing Eleanor’s privileged background, this circle was a group of progressives who were politically and socially active. They spent their time volunteering at settlement houses among the tenements of lower Manhattan, and teaching in immigrant schools for the children of impoverished laborers. They joined social committees and sought public solutions to social problems. Along with Eleanor’s own keen political mind, this network gave her the perfect education to step into the public spotlight on pressing political issues.
Timing was also key. The eventual passage of the Eighteenth Amendment – women’s suffrage – meant that Democratic women were coming into power in the early decades of the twentieth century. Eleanor’s eloquence, poise and powers of political analysis positioned her well to shape the public view on women and the Democratic party.
As Franklin disappeared south into sunshine and swimming, Eleanor was asked to head up the National Women’s Committee of the Democratic Party. She was recognized as one of the most powerful women in American Politics by the summer of 1928.
Eleanor had become a canny subverter of women’s journalism to serve her political ends. She understood the importance of answering mundane questions about her wardrobe, hairstyle, home life, or parenting, because it meant that reporters would often go on to include her remarks about the state of women’s political affairs – which were often highly critical.
Her grounding in volunteer work broadened her political awareness far beyond her sheltered class, and her intelligent subversion of the press to connect directly with the public made her a powerful ally and canny political adviser on her husband’s return to politics.
Key idea 4
A new deal
Just as Eleanor was becoming a formidable political player, and Franklin was settling into his southern rehabilitation scheme, the Roosevelts’ lives were upended once again. Political machinations in New York and Washington, DC meant that Franklin, with his history as an anti-establishment Democrat, was the perfect candidate to head up long-time New York Governor Al Smith’s campaign to be nominated for the Democratic presidential ticket in 1924.
While it meant coming back to politics, and a political convention, in a wheelchair, Franklin accepted the role. He was fully aware that he was being hired as a figurehead, while Al Smith’s political cronies did all the real work of campaigning. But Franklin sensed an opportunity.
Prohibition was still a major fault line through every national campaign. When the Democratic convention began in June that year in Madison Square Garden, clashes between Al Smith’s anti-prohibition forces and the prohibition-supporting candidate William McAdoo were raging openly on the convention floor. McAdoo was somewhat popular in New York for favoring prohibition, but deeply resented for his refusal to denounce the Ku Klux Klan, who thronged the convention.
Though Franklin’s disability was still foremost in the public eye, this struggle would bring him back to the very heart of US politics at a moment when it could be leveraged for his own ambitions. Still unable to mount the convention’s speaker’s stand without assistance, he had to be lifted onto the platform by strong men while still seated in his wheelchair. In the raging hall, things quickly became still and silent as delegates turned to witness the spectacle of Franklin being lifted to the stage.
By 1924, radio had become standard in every American home, and this convention was being broadcast. Audiences at home heard the sound of a riotous crowd becoming absolutely silent. That silence was then broken by the announcement of Franklin Roosevelt’s name as the next speaker, and then a thunderous and lengthy ovation. To radio audiences at home, it sounded like Franklin Roosevelt, with whom few were familiar on a national level, was the most inspiring and popular figure in town.
What they couldn’t know is that the silence bore witness to his seated ascent. It continued as he executed the careful choreography of lifting himself up with the support of his son and slowly making his way to the podium using canes. Once there, he carefully gripped iron bars installed to steady him on the custom-built podium. And before greeting the audience with a broad smile, he had casually set aside the canes to stand upright.
Just taking the stage was the very picture of determination and grit. But Franklin was sure to follow that with inspiring words. He was the star of the convention.
Key idea 5
Becoming
With a goal of following his famous namesake Teddy’s path to the Presidency, the events of the 1924 Convention represented a launching point for Franklin into national politics. But it was coming years ahead of his plan. And while the sun and swimming had helped him shed weight, revive his tired body, and build endurance and psychological strength, he was still nowhere near being able to walk.
As fate would have it though, this was exactly when he was starting to cement a solid foundation for a new kind of leadership, combining a search for better treatments for his disability with a prescient use of the new medium of radio. This would shape both his forthcoming election as Governor of New York, and the President he would eventually become: a President compassionate for his fellow sufferers, and deeply empathetic for anyone struggling against the odds.
He was often seen by reporters at political rallies whispering words of encouragement to disabled attendees. When, in the middle of the 1920s, he discovered a spa in Warm Springs, Georgia, and swam and sunbathed as a treatment for his paralysis, his response was so enthusiastic that it became his mission to create better treatments for everyone who needed them.
Even in the late 1920s, after polio had ravaged communities for decades, there were still few treatments for survivors to gain back functionality. Understanding that everyone felt more alive and engaged when they had a purpose, Franklin’s pioneering approach to rehabilitation began to shape medical opinion.
Franklin was so convinced that the treatments that helped him could provide hope for all long-term sufferers that he even purchased the ramshackle spa in Warm Springs when it went up for sale and began renovating it into a modern medical facility. His vision of places where patients could socialize, maneuver public spaces, and rehabilitate socially was revolutionary at the time.
Becoming popular in Georgia also gave him powerful allies in the Democratic South, and thrust him into a position of trust across broad geographic regions. It also gave him the kind of national recognition as an empathetic entrepreneur that would make his eventual run for president a broad success.
Final summary
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born to a privileged life of wealth and ease. But a health crisis at just 39 years of age brought his smooth sailing to a crashing halt, and kicked off a transformation that would define his character and ultimately his career. His struggle helped him foster empathy for others, as well as respect for wife Eleanor, who also flourished as a political and social entrepreneur. Franklin and Eleanor formed a close, if non-romantic, partnership that grew to include other life-long, supportive partners. The empathy, grit, and determination Franklin had to develop to conquer his illness became the guiding strengths that would help him guide a nation through dark times during his presidency.
Becoming FDR (2022) tells the remarkable story of the personal health crisis and recovery that transformed Franklin D. Roosevelt from a self-centered, pampered golden boy to the mature, empathetic President who would go on to lead a nation through the darkest days of The Great Depression and the second World War.
Introduction
What’s in it for me? Discover the remarkable story of a leader shaped by adversity, and how his empathy kept a nation from despair.
Ask any American who listened in history class about Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and you’ll likely hear about his popular social programs like The New Deal. You might even hear about his famous radio broadcasts, the fireside chats, that seemed to calm the nerves of a nation in the grips of The Great Depression or World War II.
But the Franklin D. Roosevelt of these iconic moments bore little resemblance to the golden boy born into privilege in upstate New York in 1882. The one whose familial wealth and famous name seemed to guarantee a political career. Nor did this Roosevelt, who led the country through some of its darkest days, have much in common with the one who spent years as an athlete and energetic young political appointee. That Franklin thought only about himself, by his own admission. He even demonstrated this in the very public affair he flaunted while his wife was away with their children for the summer off the coast of Maine.
Perhaps more than any other politician before or since, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s life is divided into a before and an after. Before was his life as a tall, handsome and graceful young politician. His after, on the other hand, was lived as a survivor of a crippling illness, with physical challenges and daily struggles. One who suffered the indignities of public scrutiny over his disabilities, and still exuded very public strength and resolve.
Along the way, he learned the most valuable skills he’d need for his challenging presidency. With the global economic crisis of the 1930s, as with the World War of the 1940s, Franklin’s ability to empathize with and motivate others became defining strengths – one his younger self would hardly recognize.
Key idea 1
A stillpoint
One August morning in 1921, Franklin Delano Roosevelt woke with a raging fever. He was just a day into a long-awaited family vacation. Normally energetic and manically driven, his wife Eleanor became concerned the evening before when he retired to bed early complaining of fatigue and chills. By morning it was clear her concern was justified.
When Franklin tried to stand, his legs wouldn’t bear his weight. Collapsing back into bed, he spent weeks trapped there between raging fevers and hallucination-filled sleep. With only Eleanor and his devoted political strategist, Louis Howe, as caretakers, the family vacation quickly changed into a test of endurance. The once public Roosevelt family closed ranks and saw to Franklin’s care around-the-clock. He couldn’t even use the toilet without assistance.
Their remote location, a longtime summer retreat for Franklin’s family, meant that getting a doctor was a considerable undertaking. The one they did finally manage to summon to the island, from the mainland at Lubec, Maine, was a long-time family acquaintance of the Roosevelts. Unfortunately, he misdiagnosed Franklin’s condition as paralysis from a blood clot with extreme exhaustion from overwork. Had this physician known of the recent outbreaks of polio in communities surrounding New York, he might have considered another diagnosis.
Sadly for Franklin, the correct diagnosis offered far less hope than the local physician’s incorrect one. Muscles and nerves that had been damaged by a clot could be rehabilitated and function. Paralysis from polio infection, also known as infantile paralysis, wasn’t like that at all. When polio causes a severe infection, it can evade the body’s defenses and invade multiple systems – literally destroying muscles, nerves, and even organs. In such cases, functionality is likely never to return.
For a man whose political career had thus far been built on his imposing height, pleasant demeanor, and physical prowess at the Democratic National Conventions, this diagnosis was devastating. Always the golden boy and pampered son, whose grace and athleticism won him admiration if not loyalty, his days as a shallow political aspirant were over. His time of struggle, determination, and optimism to the brink of self-delusion had begun.
Once an appropriate diagnosis was made, through the intervention of outside doctors, one thing was clear. The lack of early intervention and appropriate treatment during his infection with the polio virus had set him back greatly. Now incapable of controlling his movements below the waist, he had no clear path back to health.
Key idea 2
Another Roosevelt
When Eleanor stepped up to full-time caretaker for Franklin, it was after more than a decade of contentious partnership and the birth of five children. On paper, they’d made the perfect couple: Eleanor was tall, strikingly attractive, highly intelligent, and from former President Teddy Roosevelt’s immediate circle – she was his niece.
Franklin, on the other hand, was a distant fifth cousin once removed, who’d frequently capitalized on his presidential name for clout as a kid at boarding school, while Teddy was still in the White House.
But Eleanor and Franklin’s similarly wealthy and prestigious families actually hid two vastly divergent childhoods. Franklin grew up beloved of his mother, a love that was so adoring and over-praising that even his father’s early death couldn’t shake his inner belief that he was special. Eleanor, by contrast, was the child of neglectful, alcoholic parents. Where Franklin was drowning in mother-love, Eleanor grew up starved for affection and attention.
So when Franklin began his near constant political travel, and had a very public affair with her own social secretary, Eleanor was especially affected by his betrayal and abandonment. Often overshadowed by her domineering mother-in-law in her own family’s affairs, she had just begun the process of separation, and building a life apart from her husband.
And so when Franklin was struck down that fateful August it was perhaps the worst possible moment for both of them. Eleanor had her sights set on independence and personal fulfillment outside of marriage, while Franklin’s were already firmly set on first the Governor's office of his home state of New York, and eventually the Whitehouse.
What they both got instead was a life instantly altered. For Franklin, the only thing he could do was slow down, heal, and try to recover. As for Eleanor, she was now on care duty for a house filled with children and an incapacitated husband. For weeks she slept in an armchair at his bedside, and ran interference when questioning reporters or concerned friends got in touch about his status.
But from the brink of collapse, their family managed to pull together. Franklin and Eleanor began a campaign of positivity and optimism when it came to Franklin’s recovery. He was fixated on walking once more, regardless of what the doctors said. After decades of carefully cultivating his public presence, Franklin was now far more interested in learning to walk again, away from the public eye believing his Presidential aspirations rested on appearing fit, strong, and healthy to the public. And so it was Eleanor, the discrete and retiring Roosevelt of the pair, who took bold steps into the public spotlight, keeping their family active in politics.
Key idea 3
At sea
Even when Franklin was well enough to return to New York from Campobello, his recovery had barely begun. Though young, his health was already declining when he was infected. This was late July of 1921. He’d suffered several illnesses in the previous years, including a horrendous bout of Influenza during the 1918 pandemic. Still, he’d driven himself with all the vigor of youth, and it had now caught up with him.
To heal, he dedicated himself to a long stint out of the public spotlight. He acquired a barge, nicknamed LeRooco, that could sail the warm winter waterways around Florida. On it, Franklin could easily swim and sunbathe. These trips far from New York were kept discretely out of the papers.
By this time, Eleanor had already ended their sexual relationship, after their 5th child was born. She’d developed several passionate relationships with other highly educated women, and these connections were as politically savvy as they were liberated from conventional marriage and motherhood.
Sharing Eleanor’s privileged background, this circle was a group of progressives who were politically and socially active. They spent their time volunteering at settlement houses among the tenements of lower Manhattan, and teaching in immigrant schools for the children of impoverished laborers. They joined social committees and sought public solutions to social problems. Along with Eleanor’s own keen political mind, this network gave her the perfect education to step into the public spotlight on pressing political issues.
Timing was also key. The eventual passage of the Eighteenth Amendment – women’s suffrage – meant that Democratic women were coming into power in the early decades of the twentieth century. Eleanor’s eloquence, poise and powers of political analysis positioned her well to shape the public view on women and the Democratic party.
As Franklin disappeared south into sunshine and swimming, Eleanor was asked to head up the National Women’s Committee of the Democratic Party. She was recognized as one of the most powerful women in American Politics by the summer of 1928.
Eleanor had become a canny subverter of women’s journalism to serve her political ends. She understood the importance of answering mundane questions about her wardrobe, hairstyle, home life, or parenting, because it meant that reporters would often go on to include her remarks about the state of women’s political affairs – which were often highly critical.
Her grounding in volunteer work broadened her political awareness far beyond her sheltered class, and her intelligent subversion of the press to connect directly with the public made her a powerful ally and canny political adviser on her husband’s return to politics.
Key idea 4
A new deal
Just as Eleanor was becoming a formidable political player, and Franklin was settling into his southern rehabilitation scheme, the Roosevelts’ lives were upended once again. Political machinations in New York and Washington, DC meant that Franklin, with his history as an anti-establishment Democrat, was the perfect candidate to head up long-time New York Governor Al Smith’s campaign to be nominated for the Democratic presidential ticket in 1924.
While it meant coming back to politics, and a political convention, in a wheelchair, Franklin accepted the role. He was fully aware that he was being hired as a figurehead, while Al Smith’s political cronies did all the real work of campaigning. But Franklin sensed an opportunity.
Prohibition was still a major fault line through every national campaign. When the Democratic convention began in June that year in Madison Square Garden, clashes between Al Smith’s anti-prohibition forces and the prohibition-supporting candidate William McAdoo were raging openly on the convention floor. McAdoo was somewhat popular in New York for favoring prohibition, but deeply resented for his refusal to denounce the Ku Klux Klan, who thronged the convention.
Though Franklin’s disability was still foremost in the public eye, this struggle would bring him back to the very heart of US politics at a moment when it could be leveraged for his own ambitions. Still unable to mount the convention’s speaker’s stand without assistance, he had to be lifted onto the platform by strong men while still seated in his wheelchair. In the raging hall, things quickly became still and silent as delegates turned to witness the spectacle of Franklin being lifted to the stage.
By 1924, radio had become standard in every American home, and this convention was being broadcast. Audiences at home heard the sound of a riotous crowd becoming absolutely silent. That silence was then broken by the announcement of Franklin Roosevelt’s name as the next speaker, and then a thunderous and lengthy ovation. To radio audiences at home, it sounded like Franklin Roosevelt, with whom few were familiar on a national level, was the most inspiring and popular figure in town.
What they couldn’t know is that the silence bore witness to his seated ascent. It continued as he executed the careful choreography of lifting himself up with the support of his son and slowly making his way to the podium using canes. Once there, he carefully gripped iron bars installed to steady him on the custom-built podium. And before greeting the audience with a broad smile, he had casually set aside the canes to stand upright.
Just taking the stage was the very picture of determination and grit. But Franklin was sure to follow that with inspiring words. He was the star of the convention.
Key idea 5
Becoming
With a goal of following his famous namesake Teddy’s path to the Presidency, the events of the 1924 Convention represented a launching point for Franklin into national politics. But it was coming years ahead of his plan. And while the sun and swimming had helped him shed weight, revive his tired body, and build endurance and psychological strength, he was still nowhere near being able to walk.
As fate would have it though, this was exactly when he was starting to cement a solid foundation for a new kind of leadership, combining a search for better treatments for his disability with a prescient use of the new medium of radio. This would shape both his forthcoming election as Governor of New York, and the President he would eventually become: a President compassionate for his fellow sufferers, and deeply empathetic for anyone struggling against the odds.
He was often seen by reporters at political rallies whispering words of encouragement to disabled attendees. When, in the middle of the 1920s, he discovered a spa in Warm Springs, Georgia, and swam and sunbathed as a treatment for his paralysis, his response was so enthusiastic that it became his mission to create better treatments for everyone who needed them.
Even in the late 1920s, after polio had ravaged communities for decades, there were still few treatments for survivors to gain back functionality. Understanding that everyone felt more alive and engaged when they had a purpose, Franklin’s pioneering approach to rehabilitation began to shape medical opinion.
Franklin was so convinced that the treatments that helped him could provide hope for all long-term sufferers that he even purchased the ramshackle spa in Warm Springs when it went up for sale and began renovating it into a modern medical facility. His vision of places where patients could socialize, maneuver public spaces, and rehabilitate socially was revolutionary at the time.
Becoming popular in Georgia also gave him powerful allies in the Democratic South, and thrust him into a position of trust across broad geographic regions. It also gave him the kind of national recognition as an empathetic entrepreneur that would make his eventual run for president a broad success.
Final summary
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born to a privileged life of wealth and ease. But a health crisis at just 39 years of age brought his smooth sailing to a crashing halt, and kicked off a transformation that would define his character and ultimately his career. His struggle helped him foster empathy for others, as well as respect for wife Eleanor, who also flourished as a political and social entrepreneur. Franklin and Eleanor formed a close, if non-romantic, partnership that grew to include other life-long, supportive partners. The empathy, grit, and determination Franklin had to develop to conquer his illness became the guiding strengths that would help him guide a nation through dark times during his presidency.
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