Thomas H. Greer

Thomas H. Greer studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and was Pofessor Emeritus of Humanities at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan; he joined the MSU faculty in 1947 a...

What Roosevelt Thought
The Social and Political Ideas of Franklin D. Roosevelt

Thomas H. Greer

By most assessments, Franklin D. Roosevelt is included in the "short-list" of America's great presidents. He had one of the greatest political experiences of our history, and his ideas were developed during a lifetime of challenge and participation in politics and government. He embodied a national trait and was a practical philosopher. His presidency spanned the Great Depression and World War II. While other books about Roosevelt have tended to isolate his ideas, What Roosevelt Thought is the classic study that shows the unfolding of his views in the context of a larger, coherent philosophy. His views on rival social systems, the United Nations, the Supreme Court, and colonialism, as well as his ideas on religion, human rights, the good life, human nature, and other issues, are presented in the perspective of his life and times.  
 
 
From the Public Papers and Addresses and the voluminous printed materials and the vastly more voluminous manuscripts in the Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, New York, Greer has distilled a relatively brief study of Roosevelt's social and political ideas. These he has presented systematically in a topical arrangement covering religion and philosophy, the state, government and the economy, the constitutional system, the presidency, politics, education, the press, and foreign policy. . . . This study is of value to those who wish to examine in brief compass the main ideas of a major political leader of the twentieth century.  
~Frank Freidel,  
author of  
Franklin D. Roosevelt:  
A Rendezvous with Destiny