One of the greatest American presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt built a coalition of labour, ethnic, urban, low-income and African American voters that underwrote the Democratic Party’s national ascendancy from the 1930s to the 1980s. Over his four terms, he promoted the New Deal – the greatest reform programme in US history – to meet the challenges of the Great Depression, led the United States to the brink of victory in the Second World War, and established the modern presidency as the driving force of American politics and government.

Iwan Morgan takes a fresh look at FDR, showing how his leadership enabled the United States of America to become the most successful country of the twentieth century.

Iwan Morgan is emeritus professor of US Studies at University College London. He holds a BA in History from the University of Aberystwyth and a PhD from the London School of Economics. His research has specialized in presidential history, with a particular interest in presidential economics. Among his publications are Eisenhower versus ‘The Spenders’: The Eisenhower Administration, the Democrats and the Budget, 1953-60 (1990) and The Age of Deficits: Presidents and Unbalanced Budgets from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush (2009), winner of the American Politics Group’s Richard E. Neustadt book prize. He has also written a biography of the 40th president – Reagan: American Icon (2016). His most recent publication is: FDR: Transforming the Presidency and Renewing America (Bloomsbury, 2022). He is an Honorary Fellow of the British Association of American Studies an Honorary Fellow of the RAI and has been elected a member of the Academy of Social Sciences.