10 favorite things from my latest book
I just finished reading Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR's 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal by David Pietrusza. To be honest, this was a bit of a slog for me because of the expansive cast of pretty unlikable characters and also augh politics are horrible. Don’t let that scare you away though. It’s eye-opening and contains perhaps my favorite bit of presidential trivia ever.
In no particular order, here some of my favorite things from this book:
Franklin D. Roosevelt had “a flypaper mind.”
I’m jealous at his ability to retain information.
The 18th Amendment (Prohibition) was repealed as part of the New Deal.
Whaaaa??
Walter Winchell happened to appear in both this book and Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls, a novel I was reading at the same time.
You know I am powerless to avoid a good Venn diagram when it presents itself!
FDR was 2/3 mush and 1/3 Eleanor…
… as noted by Alice Roosevelt Longworth privately.
President Ulysses S. Grant’s granddaughter was a Russian princess.
If I spent a month and a half on this book and that’s the ONLY thing I learned, it would 100% have been worth it.
How have I read through so many presidential books and never encountered this before?! Preposterous. In any case, Princess Julia Dent Grant Cantacuzène had a large estate in Ukraine and eventually divorced in Sarasota, Florida. But long before that — she was BORN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. This entire collection of facts is bonkers.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth (Teddy’s daughter) had a baby with The Lion of Idaho…
…presidential candidate William Borah. And then thought about naming the baby Deborah (get it? De-BORAH!). She was still married to Nicholas Longworth at the time.
Vainglorious means cocky and extra full of oneself.
I experienced the Baader-Mienhof Phenomenon!
I seriously love when that happens — I learn something new and then it pops up everywhere. I don’t remember ever learning about Dr. John R. Brinkley, a quack who sewed goat testicular glands up into his impotent patients’ scrotums to “cure” impotence. As one does. I first encountered him in an episode of Stuff You Should Know. Then shortly after in a poem by John Lithgow. And now here he is again, running for president! Because why not!
Amelia Earheart had an affair with author Gore Vidal’s dad.
Gore Vidal once called Ronald Reagan “Hollywood’s Most Grinding Bore”. Despite not having a “flypaper mind” like FDR, I remembered that quote verbatim from my very first presidential sketchbook. I am entirely proud of myself and feeling downright vainglorious. If you’d like to congratulate this major achievement, please comment below.
William Randolph Hearst employed both Mussolini and Hitler as newspaper columnists.
See what I mean?! This book is filled with hateful characters!
PRO TIP!
Learn from Mussolini! Pick two: boring, expensive, or troublesome. If you’re all three, it could jeopardize your career! As a newspaper columnist. As a fascist dictator, it’s probably fine. So I guess this advice really only works depending on your career ambitions.
I hope it goes without saying: don’t be a fascist dictator.
My bibliography has been updated. My latest library book sale haul means that I have a great deal more of the Roosevelts in my future.
But not quite yet.
I need a break from them for a bit.
