Episode Details

Roosevelt House presents a discussion of the book 'Unlikely Heroes: Franklin Roosevelt, His Four Lieutenants, and the World They Made' by Derek Leebaert. In this absorbing and illuminating history, Leebaert constructs a fresh understanding of FDR and his presidency by spotlighting the powerful, equally wounded figures whom he chose to confront the Depression and defeat the Axis. Leebaert discusses his new book with author Scott Borchert. Drawing on new materials, Unlikely Heroes delivers a fascinating and eye-opening portrait of the four people who served at the top echelon of President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration—from the frightening early months of spring 1933 until he died in April 1945, on the cusp of wartime victory. These lieutenants—Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickes, Frances Perkins, and Henry Wallace—composed the tough, long-term core of government. They developed the institutions established to address the Depression, implemented the New Deal, and were pivotal to winning World War II.

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