Politics of Upheaval

The Politics of Upheaval 1935-1936 volume three of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and biographer Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.s Age of Roosevelt series concentrates on the turbulent concluding years of Franklin D. Roosevelts first term. A measure of economic recovery revived political conflict and emboldened FDRs critics to denounce that man in the White house. To his left were demagogues Huey Long Father Coughlin and Dr. Townsend. To his right were the champions of the old order ex-president Herbert Hoover the American Liberty League and the august Supreme Court. For a time the New Deal seemed to lose its momentum. But in 1935 FDR rallied and produced a legislative record even more impressive than the Hundred Days of 1933 a set of statutes that transformed the social and economic landscape of American life. In 1936 FDR coasted to reelection on a landslide. Schlesinger has his usual touch with colorful personalities and draws a warmly sympathetic portrait of Alf M. Landon the Republican candidate of 1936.