The Wars of the Roosevelts: The Ruthless Rise of America's Greatest Political Family - Hardcover

Mann, William J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062383337 ISBN 13: 9780062383334

Verlag: Harper, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

The award-winning author presents a provocative, thoroughly modern revisionist biographical history of one of America’s greatest and most influential families—the Roosevelts—exposing heretofore unknown family secrets and detailing complex family rivalries with his signature cinematic flair.

Drawing on previously hidden historical documents and interviews with the long-silent "illegitimate" branch of the family, William J. Mann paints an elegant, meticulously researched, and groundbreaking group portrait of this legendary family. Mann argues that the Roosevelts’ rise to power and prestige was actually driven by a series of intense personal contest that at times devolved into blood sport. His compelling and eye-opening masterwork is the story of a family at war with itself, of social Darwinism at its most ruthless—in which the strong devoured the weak and repudiated the inconvenient.

Mann focuses on Eleanor Roosevelt, who, he argues, experienced this brutality firsthand, witnessing her Uncle Theodore cruelly destroy her father, Elliott—his brother and bitter rival—for political expediency. Mann presents a fascinating alternate picture of Eleanor, contending that this "worshipful niece" in fact bore a grudge against TR for the rest of her life, and dares to tell the truth about her intimate relationships without obfuscations, explanations, or labels.

Mann also brings into focus Eleanor’s cousins, TR’s children, whose stories propelled the family rivalry but have never before been fully chronicled, as well as her illegitimate half-brother, Elliott Roosevelt Mann, who inherited his family’s ambition and skill without their name and privilege. Growing up in poverty just miles from his wealthy relatives, Elliott Mann embodied the American Dream, rising to middle-class prosperity and enjoying one of the very few happy, long-term marriages in the Roosevelt saga. For the first time, The Wars of the Roosevelts also includes the stories of Elliott’s daughter and grandchildren, and never-before-seen photographs from their archives.

Deeply psychological and finely rendered, illustrated with sixteen pages of black-and-white photographs, The Wars of the Roosevelts illuminates not only the enviable strengths but also the profound shame of this remarkable and influential family.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

William J. Mann is the New York Times bestselling author of The Contender: The Story of Marlon Brando; Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn; How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood; Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand; Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines; and Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood, winner of the Edgar Allen Poe Award. He divides his time between Connecticut and Cape Cod.

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Drawing on previously hidden historical documents and interviews with the long-silent “illegitimate” branch of the family, award-winning author William J. Mann paints an elegant, meticulously researched, and groundbreaking group portrait of this legendary family. Mann deftly argues that the Roosevelts’ rise to power and prestige was actually driven by a series of intense personal contests that at times devolved into blood sport. His compelling and eye-opening masterwork is the story of a family at war with itself—and of social Darwinism at its most ruthless, in which the strong devoured the weak and repudiated the inconvenient.

Central to The Wars of the Roosevelts is a fascinating alternate picture of Eleanor Roosevelt, who, Mann argues, experienced this brutality firsthand, witnessing her uncle Theodore cruelly destroy her father, Elliott—Theodore’s brother  and bitter rival—for political expediency. This “worshipful niece,” Mann contends, in fact bore a grudge against TR for the rest of her life. In addition, Eleanor’s intimate relationships with both men and women are handled here with a sensibility grounded in twenty-first-century awareness, without any obfuscations, explanations, or labels. From this deeply affecting family portrait, a new understanding of Eleanor, as well as of her relationship with Franklin, emerges.

Mann also brilliantly brings into focus Eleanor’s cousins, TR’s children—Alice, Ted, and Kermit—whose stories propelled the family rivalry (especially once Franklin became president) but have never before been fully chronicled. We also learn for the first time the story of Eleanor’s illegitimate half-brother, Elliott Roosevelt Mann, who inherited his family’s ambition and skills without their name and privilege, and whom TR did his best to exile. 

Illustrated with never-before-seen photographs from Elliott’s archives, The Wars of the Roosevelts is a deeply psychological and finely rendered history, illuminating not only the enviable strengths but also the profound shame of this remarkable and influential family.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Harper
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0062383337
• ISBN 13: 9780062383334
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 624
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: HarperCollins Publishers, Product Safety Manager; enquiries@harpercollins.ie; ; HarperCollins, Macken House, 39/40 Mayor Street Upper; Dublin 1; D01 C9W8; Irland