Margaret Thatcher's FDR Goes To War

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“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” I believe Margaret Thatcher is onto something here. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s twelve-year stint as president was plagued with socialist tendencies and departures from the Constitution. In their book, FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America, Burt and Anita Folsom address the issues with the “larger than life” president FDR and the administration he created. The author’s bias is found in phrases like, “Franklin Roosevelt wanted above all to stay in office” and The president had a tendency to think in terms of right and wrong, instead of legal and illegal. Because he thought that his motives were always good for the things he wanted to do, he found difficulty in thinking that there could be legal limitations on them. The President was not a legalistic-minded person. Outsourcing products and services to other establishments may be an intelligent business maneuver. However, the legitimacy of the maneuver is determined by the accuracy of the information received. FDR created what is commonly referred to as a “brains trust”. He sought the opinions of those outside …show more content…

They identified enough information to convince a reasonable person to think twice about how modern textbooks portray FDR. Some textbooks seem to be yet another instance of propaganda. The Folsom’s weave the information obtained with their personal bias; which is expected. However, if their personal bias was not woven into this book it would be more reliable. Overall, I give this book a B+ for useful and extensive content, accurately relating WW2 to FDR, and including proof of research and