The Defining Moment

Journalist Jonathan Alter tells the story of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first hundred days as president, which began in March 1933 with banks failing across a country sunk in the Great Depression. He traces how childhood, polio, early political life and the people around him, from his domineering mother and independent wife to adviser Louis Howe and rival Al Smith, turned a seemingly lightweight aristocrat into a leader. Alter credits Roosevelt's readiness to experiment and drop what failed, along with the psychological lift of his leadership and his fear itself speech. The book notes that before his election some feared for democracy and capitalism, while others floated fascism, socialism or communism as remedies.

It appears on a list of every book Barack Obama recommended during his presidency.