Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his family may be most remembered for their time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but it was the Hudson Valley they called home. In Manhattan, the president's mother built a townhome on East Sixty-Fifth Street, and Eleanor was born on East Thirty-Seventh. On the banks of the Hudson River, Hyde Park was Franklin's birthplace and where he entertained some of the most important leaders of the twentieth century. Up the Albany Post Road, several homes of family and friends played important moments in history. Laura Delano's Tudor-style house was where FDR met with Churchill, and the beautiful Wilderstein was home to Daisy Suckley, a devoted confidante. In Albany as governor, FDR installed a therapy pool in a converted outdoor greenhouse to assist his physical challenges in the Executive Mansion. Historian Shannon Butler traces the historic homes that shaped the Roosevelt family in the Hudson Valley.

Many have attempted to define and describe Franklin D. Roosevelt. Any understanding of the enigma that was F.D.R. must examine the roots that were so firmly established in the Delano and Roosevelt families, and in the rural nature of the mid-Hudson Valley and Dutchess County of the 19th century. The complexity of the man and the myth must be seen in relationship to the time, the place and the people who provided his roots – roots that could withstand the political storms of the 20th century. F.D.R.’s relationship to the world of the Hudson Valley and Dutchess County has often been ignored in favor of the more inclusive global frame of reference. This book examines the relationship of F.D.R. to the residents of the Hudson Valley to explain the significance of that relationship to the private and public life of F.D.R. In this study the term “neighbor” refers to the aristocracy who lived in the estates on the East Bank of the Hudson, the citizens of Hyde Park, and the citizens of Dutchess County. From his first campaign in 1910 to his tragic death in 1945 he carried a perception of his “neighbors” that had a profound effect on his “politics.”

This gorgeous oversized tome features thirty-six sublime country homes, many overlooking the Hudson River. This scenic stretch of estates along the Hudson offers some of the finest examples of American architecture and landscape design. The edition's thirty-five featured homes were designed in a range of styles by notable architects Stanford White, A. J. Davis, Calvert Vaux, Warren and Wetmore, and more. All pair exquisite interiors with expansive lush lawns and riverfront views. Formerly country homes for eighteenth-century landed gentry and nineteenth-century industrialists--Astors, Chanlers, Chapmans, Delanos, Roosevelts--they include Dutch colonial cottages and grand Gothic Revival, Federal, Georgian, and Beaux-Arts residences. Constructed on land owned by the influential Livingston family, who settled in the area in the late seventeenth century, many have been restored to their former splendor by the original owners' descendants as well as recent leaders of New York City industry and the arts, including Richard Jenrette and Brice Marden.

Features 55 historic sites throughout the Hudson Valley region of New York State that, while not mainstream tourist attractions, boast significant ties to local and national history.

A look at how the New Deal fundamentally changed American life, and why it remains relevant today" The New Deal was America's response to the gravest economic and social crisis of the twentieth century. It now serves as a source of inspiration for how we should respond to the gravest crisis of the twenty-first. There's no more fluent and informative a guide to that history than Eric Rauchway, and no one better to describe the capacity of government to transform America for the better."--Barry Eichengreen, University of California, Berkeley The greatest peaceable expression of common purpose in U.S. history, the New Deal altered Americans' relationship with politics, economics, and one another in ways that continue to resonate today. No matter where you look in America, there is likely a building or bridge built through New Deal initiatives. If you have taken out a small business loan from the federal government or drawn unemployment, you can thank the New Deal. While certainly flawed in many aspects--the New Deal was implemented by a Democratic Party still beholden to the segregationist South for its majorities in Congress and the Electoral College--the New Deal was instated at a time of mass unemployment and the rise of fascistic government models and functioned as a bulwark of American democracy in hard times. This book looks at how this legacy, both for good and ill, informs the current debates around governmental responses to crises.

The April 1945 journey of FDR's funeral train became a thousand-mile odyssey, fraught with heartbreak and scandal. As it passed through the night, few of the grieving onlookers gave thought to what might be happening behind the Pullman shades, where women whispered and men tossed back highballs. Inside was a Soviet spy, a newly widowed Eleanor Roosevelt, who had just discovered that her husband's mistress was in the room with him when he died, all the Supreme Court justices, and incoming president Harry S. Truman who was scrambling to learn secrets FDR had never shared with him. Weaving together information from long-forgotten diaries and declassified Secret Service documents, journalist and historian Robert Klara enters the private world on board that famous train. He chronicles the three days during which the country grieved and despaired as never before, and a new president hammered out the policies that would galvanize a country in mourning and win the Second World War.