Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a man born into wealth, with a strong family name and ambition to go as high as he would want to. The problem that FDR had was the same problem 99% of our current politicians have, he could not relate to the average person. We have millionaires in Congress now who own several homes, yachts and have never gone to the grocery store or filled their car with gas.
When FDR was young and moved in political circles he knew he wanted to help people but he really had no idea what that really meant. So, he won some elections and lost some but never really lived up to his goal.
Then he was struck with polio. At that time we did not have vaccines to protect us from polio and if someone contracted it more than likely they would end up paralyzed. So it was with Franklin. After he got the disease he was on either his back or barely walking with braces. In those first few years he really believed that he would get better, that he would be able to walk again. Everything else up to that point had always turned out fine so he had no reason to believe that this would be any different. But it was different and that difference changed who he was and how he viewed other people who had hardships. He was finally able to do something that politicians then and now we’re unable to do and that is to relate to the common man. Their hardships, their frustrations and their feeling of not being valued.
Today we hear millionaires tell us that we should pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, to get off our butts and make something of ourselves and that if we are poor it is our own fault. In the late 20’s and through the 30’s Americans could not pull themselves up by their bootstraps because most of them could not afford boots. Millions of Americans did not have jobs, food lines were forming and the government was afraid of being called Socialist so they refused to help in anyway. Banks were closing, the stock market had drastically dropped and people had no where to turn. No health insurance, no insurance on their bank deposits, nothing that anyone could fall back on.
This was a job for someone that could understand the plight of the people. That person was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He knew what it felt like to be powerless, to not be able to change his situation no matter how hard he tried.
FDR was two different people. One before polio and one after contracting the disease. The one after was someone humbled and very aware of pain and suffering.
“Becoming FDR” by Jonathan Darman shows us these two men. The author breaks it down by years leading up to the point when he gets the disease and then who he becomes after. The book also provides the reader with context surrounding those years so we have a better understanding of both FDR and those around him. There are a lot of good books on FDR and most if not all will cover this part of his history but this book exclusively deals with him and the transformation he makes due to contracting polio.
If you are interested in FDR, the 20’s through the 30’s, how politics operated during that time or how one man can turn his misfortune into saving a nation then this is a great book to pick up.

Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis That Made a President by Jonathan Darman is an excellent history of how the infamous US President Franklin D. Roosevelt experienced, was shaped and changed, and how it was he responded to the pivotal time period in his life when he suffered from polio. This was excellent.

I have always been fascinated and a huge fan of FDR, and I knew about his health problems and the history associated with polio, but I have not had the privilege of being able to read an historical account that focused on this massive illness and his long road to recovery from the acute and sub-acute standpoint.

To see how this man experienced, suffered, was permanently changed physically, emotionally, and spiritually by this debilitating illness…and how he chose to respond thus afterwards, is nothing short of awe-inspiring and inspirational. How we respond to the trials and tribulations of life speaks mountains on who a person truly is and can be. He could have given up and given in…but a metamorphosis occurs and here we get to see the shining moments, strength, grit, and fortitude that made up what FDR displayed and became…and it makes me admire him even more so than before. Is he perfect? Oh most certainly not, but what he chose to do after this moment in time instead of defeat in and of itself is nothing less than impressive.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Random House Publishing for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 9/6/22.