© Columbia University Press
The Fall of the House of Roosevelt: Brokers of Ideas and Power from FDR to LBJ
Paper, 352 pages, 16 photos
ISBN: 978-0-231-13109-4
$25.00
/ £14.50
April, 2004
Cloth, 352 pages, 16 photos
ISBN: 978-0-231-13108-7
$70.50
/ £41.50
"The Fall of the House of Roosevelt is a fascinating personal perspective on the New Deal and its aftermath. Michael Janeway's book is an elegant contribution to political as well as to personal history." — Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
"A smart mix of family and social history by the son of a New Deal brains-truster . . . A fine effort to restore [New Dealers] to the textbooks, and a lively, highly readable work of history." — Kirkus Reviews
"With both eloquence and a sense of regret, Janeway describes an era in which both the populace and the elites generally assumed that government and governmental activism were positive forces of good. . . . this well-written and valuable examination of the evolution of our body politic is very worthwhile." — Booklist
"Son of Eliot Janeway—financial adviser to FDR and other prominent Democrats through the end of the 20th century—Janeway recalls those days in a personal and insightful narrative. He deftly weaves tales of his father's deal making from the New Deal to the Great Society, with personal reflections about his father's private life during those years. . . . this book is recommended for history and political science collections in academic and public libraries." — Library Journal
"Janeway dutifully navigates the ideological differences that developed among the New Dealers and the ways in which the Democratic Party later moved away from their crowd. But this book is far more interesting and original as a biographical study of what human beings will do to acquire great power and try to hold onto it—especially after their time has passed. . . . Janeway's volume is almost a kind of "New Deal Confidential." . . . Janeway's book is a reminder that even monument makers can have feet of clay." — Michael Beschloss, New York Times Book Review
"[The Fall of the House of Roosevelt's] elegiac tone, its penetrating insights and its evocation of a world when politics truly mattered should find a warm welcome among readers eager to define a new American Century." — Ted Widmer, Chicago Tribune
"[A] bittersweet family memoir and a fresh interpretation of the New Deal." — Christopher Caldwell, New York Times
"[A]n engaging book." — William Lasser, The New Leader
"Janeway has given us a wide-ranging, well-considered, deeply researched and engaging study of Democratic Party developments in the FDR years and succeeding regencies. His thoughtful and penetrating review of the operations of party stalwarts furnishes potent cause for concern to anyone interested in the future of the Democratic Party and of the country." — John S. Monagan, Washington Times
"Containing new material and written from a particularly privileged vantage point,The Fall of the House of Roosevelt is a valuable contribution to New Deal history." — Merle Rubin, Los Angeles Times
"At the heart ofFall of the House of Roosevelt is a thoughtful man's attempt to understand his enigmatic father, and the portions of the book focusing on this pursuit are the author's best work." — Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett, Seattle Times/Post Intelligencer
"earlier American liberalism springs back to life in a remarkable new book,The Fall of the House of Roosevelt" — Robert Fulford, National Post Toronto
"Janeway's personal memories of these men and his unique access...allow him to make an important contribution to the study of the exercise of power during the New Deal...Highly recommended. All levels and libraries." — Choice
"With fresh detail and affecting vignettes, rendered in beautiful, evocative prose, Janeway captures the New Dealer's keenness for action." — David Greenberg, American Prospect
"For its insights, balanced tone, and thorough research, this accessible volume will provide stimulating analysis for those readers in the twenty-first century." — Lewis L. Gould, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
"Gracefully written narrative... it makes many wise observations about American politics during and after the age of Roosevelt." — Alonzo L. Hamby, H-New Deal
"This book offers a useful portrait of an era that may seem less complex but really wasn't." — Bruce M. Stave, American Historical Review
"Michael Janeway brilliantly conveys the sense of what it was to be a New Deal insider and operator in a mesmerizing and moving group biography and family memoir. This book will make even the most jaded New Deal experts understand the period in an entirely new way." — Laura Kalman, author of Abe Fortas: A Biography
"A sensitive and engaging portrait that conveys the energy, commitment and ambition that first brought together and then split apart an extraordinary network of people. Janeway's compelling description of his own father's role within the world of New Deal liberals is invaluable in suggesting how these men and women exercised influence in a now largely vanished political world. The Fall of the House of Roosevelt is a book of great importance to scholars as well as to the larger public." — Alan Brinkley, author of The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War
"Michael Janeway's book is a fascinating, intimate portrait of the men who made the New Deal, from William O. Douglas to Lyndon Johnson. It's a family memoir as well as a history, for the author's father was one of them, a brilliant complicated man who knew everyone's secrets but kept his own past secret even from his children. This wonderfully well-written book is moving as well as well as revealing." — Frances FitzGerald, author of Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War
"The Fall of the House of Roosevelt sheds fresh light on two of the most important presidencies of the twentieth century, Franklin Roosevelt’s and Lyndon Johnson’s--Roosevelt’s by reminding us how important the wheeling-dealing element of the New Deal was, and Johnson’s by making it clear that a group of powerful men around him perceived it as a New Deal restoration. This is an affecting, wise and self-aware family memoir that is also a fascinating portrait of an under-chronicled coterie whose members started out as bright young idealists and wound up as something far less attractive." — Nicholas Lemann, author of The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How it Changed America