Did you call your book that you wrote 35 years ago, uncommon man . Richard its taken actually from the title of a relatively famous hoover speech about the uncommon man. Remember Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, i believe, maybe 1943, about the century of the common man. And wallace, from a left of center perspective, was projecting the goals and ambitions of the generation that was fighting world war ii. It wasnt enough simply to the nazis, but to create at home a true democracy, a place where the common man would finally come into his own. And hoover approached this from a different place on the political spectrum. He was in effect making the case for what we might call a meritocracy. I should not paraphrase it, but when you get sick, you want an uncommonly skillful doctor. When we go to war, we want an uncommonly able general. You get the picture. The advances in society were brought about not by common, but by
Bloombergs last cspans last survey of president ial leadership. Brian doris kearns goodwin, author of no ordinary time, if you could ask either Franklin Delano roosevelt or Eleanor Roosevelt a couple of questions, after all the work you did on this book, what would they be . Ms. Goodwin i think with eleanor id like to understand why she was unable, at a certain moment in the middle of the war, when he asked her to be his wife again and stop traveling and stay home and take care of him, to say yes to him. I mean, i know that he loved her, i know she still loved him, and id want to say, why didnt you do it . Hes going to die soon. I wish you had done it. And i think for him id want to understand why he couldnt share himself more fully with anyone. He was the most ebullient, the most charming, most sparkling personality on the surface. Everybody thought how warm he was. But underneath, there was such reserve in him, and id want to try and understand why that was so, and why he couldnt giv
Richard its taken actually from the title of a relatively famous hoover speech about the uncommon man. If you remember, Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, i believe, maybe 1943, about the century of the common man. And wallace, from a left of center perspective, was projecting, in effect, the goals and ambitions of the generation that was fighting world war ii. It wasnt enough simply to defeat the nazis, but to create at home a true democracy, a place where the common man would finally come into his own. And hoover approached this from a different place on the political spectrum. He was in effect making the case for what we might call a meritocracy. Some of these things, i should not paraphrase it, but when you get sick, you want an uncommonly skillful doctor. When we go to war, we want an uncommonly able general. You get the picture. The advances in society were brought about not by common, but by uncommon individua
Her, i know she still loved him, and id want to say, why didnt you do it . Hes going to die soon. I wish you had done it. And i think for him id want to understand why he couldnt share himself more fully with anyone. He was the most ebullient, the most charming, most sparkling personality on the surface. Everybody thought how warm he was. But underneath, there was such reserve in him, and id want to try and understand why that was so, and why he wouldnt give himself more to the people who loved him. Brian what makes this book different than all the rest . Ms. Goodwin well, i think what i wanted to do in this book was to understand not only franklin and eleanors relationship which has been looked at in many, many other cases but to understand the whole extended family that surrounded them in the white house. And i came to an understanding that these two characters really both needed other people to meet the untended needs that were left over as a result of their troubled marriage. So, w