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In this dramatic and authoritative account, Newsweek columnist and historian Jonathan Alter shows how FDR used his famous ?fear itself? speech and first one hundred days in office to lift the country from despair and paralysis and transform the American presidency.

Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933 amid the greatest national crisis since the Civil War. To restore public confidence amid the Depression, he needed vast reserves of his own self-confidence ? and the public temperament to display it. Alter shows how that legendary character was forged ? by his mother, wife, top advisor, rival, and his fellow ?polios? at Warm Springs ? and how he moved from being a ?featherweight? to the political genius who saved democracy and capitalism at their moment of greatest peril.

In a major historical find, Alter unearths the unused draft of a radio speech in which FDR planned to enlist a private army on his first day in office. He did not. Instead of becoming the dictator so many wanted, FDR experimented in those thrilling first hundred days ? by rescuing banks, putting men to work immediately, and laying the groundwork for his most ambitious achievements, including social security.

Alter explains how FDR revolutionized mass communications with his ?fireside chats,? and how he rewrote the American social contract. The Defining Moment will profoundly shape our understanding of how Franklin Roosevelt restored hope and changed America forever.

Author Bio
Jonathan Alter is a senior editor at Newsweek, where since 1991 he has written an acclaimed column on politics, history, media, and society at large. He is also an analyst and contributing correspondent for NBC News. Alter lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife and three children.

• Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
• Category: Non-Fiction
• Published: May 2, 2006
• Published by: Simon and Schuster
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 9.2" x 6.7"
• ISBN: 0743246004