Rent Final Victory: FDR's Remarkable World War II Presidential Campaign

Synopsis

By the time the 1944 presidential election campaign geared up in the summer, Franklin D. Roosevelt had already been in office longer than any other president. Although he remained popular, the Republicans were determined to mount an energetic campaign, hitting hard against FDR's New Deal policies and the persistent rumors of corruption in the president's administration. FDR's Republican opponent in 1944 was New York governor Thomas E. Dewey. Preoccupied with managing the war in its most crucial year and battling declining health, FDR had to run a vigorous campaign in order to gain every vote possible.

Preeminent historian and biographer Stanley Weintraub recaptures FDR's crucial last campaign and the year's momentous events, from the streets of small towns, where Roosevelt rode in an open car, to the battlefields of Europe, where generals carried out their commander-in-chief's winning strategy. Weintraub, as he has done in all his biographies, brings to life the man and his times, capturing those small but telling details that inform and delight.

American battlefield successes in Europe and the Pacific during the campaign, as well as Roosevelt's charm and humor, ultimately gave him the victory in the election. He defeated Thomas Dewey in the last election to see a Democrat carry every southern state.

But the hard campaign took its toll on Roosevelt. He died the following April, just twelve weeks after his inaugural address in January 1945 and just eight weeks after he joined Churchill and Stalin at the Yalta conference to draw the postwar map of Europe.

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