Name: No Ordinary Time
Rating: 4.615384615384615 (13 reviews)
ISBN: 9781476750576

Doris Kearns Goodwin

Presents a social history of the United States in 1940, along with a moment-by-moment account of Roosevelt's leadership and the private lives of the president and First Lady, whose remarkable partnership transformed America. (This book was previously featured in Forecast.)

Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II

No Ordinary Time

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History, No Ordinary Time is a monumental work, a brilliantly conceived chronicle of one of the most vibrant and revolutionary periods in the history of the United States. With an extraordinary collection of details, Goodwin masterfully weaves together a striking number of story lines—Eleanor and Franklin’s marriage and remarkable partnership, Eleanor’s life as First Lady, and FDR’s White House and its impact on America as well as on a world at war. Goodwin effectively melds these details and stories into an unforgettable and intimate portrait of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and of the time during which a new, modern America was born.

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II

Patrick Book

More like Doris Kearns Good-one, amiright? And more like Eleanor Roose-very amazing!

Jeni Enjaian

Once again, Goodwin crafted an absolute masterpiece which justly earned a Pulitzer prize. Only a packed school schedule kept me from devouring this book in a few days. I often looked forward to the half hour or so at the end of each day when I could sit down and savor a few pages of this delightful book. 

With such high praise, one might wonder why I rated the book only four stars instead of five. If I had rated this book in the first week of my reading, I would have rated it five stars. As the book progressed and Goodwin devoted more pages to the romantic speculations for both FDR and Eleanor, the five stars drifted down to four. While each parties romantic inclinations forms a part of the narrative, Goodwin, unfortunately, engaged in more than a bit of speculation, in my opinion, regarding motivations and feelings of the historical actors. The most egregious example of this in my opinion was any discussion of a cause of physical distress for Missy LeHand or FDR as stress regarding one or the other person.

Apart from the above, Goodwin weaves together an enormous amount of historical information, much of which I either did not previously know or knew little about, to create a compelling, captivating historical narrative well worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. I highly recommend this book.

No Ordinary Time Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II

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