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.Roosevelt's first term. A measure of economic recovery revived political conflict and emboldened FDR's 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.