Roy Jenkins.
ROY JENKINS
FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT (2003)
Franklin Roosevelt (born 1882) was a Democrat politician, Governor of New York State, and 32nd President of the USA. After education at Harvard University he practised law, and was elected to the New York Senate in 1911, becoming Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the First World War. In 1921 Roosevelt suffered from a paralysing illness that disabled his legs. Encouraged by his wife Eleanor, he returned to public office in 1929 as Governor of New York, and was in 1932 elected USA President in a landslide. He embarked on a massive programme of government action to address the Great Depression. This included an ambitious programme of relief and work for the unemployed and to farmers. He was re-elected 1933. After Pearl Harbour he led the USA into the Second World War. He initiated the work on the atomic bomb, and prepared the way for the creation of the United Nations. His physical health declined steadily during the war years, and he died in 1945.
Publishers Weekly described Roy Jenkins’ biography of Franklin Roosevelt thus: "Elegantly describing FDR's course through a score of personal and political ordeals, Jenkins astutely shows us the man in all his many incarnations: the confident son of privilege who morphed into a wry, young politico on the rise; the startled victim, for whom all things had previously come so easily, hitting the brick wall of polio and fighting back, strenuously leading his broken country out of its two great 20th-century crises: the Great Depression and World War II. "
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Roy Jenkins (born 1920) was a prolific and successful author as well as being a highly influential and effective Labour Minister. In 1965 he was appointed Home Secretary by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. During his time as Home Secretary he initiated a sweeping programme of social reforms, This included the liberalisation of both divorce and abortion law, the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, and the virrtual abolition of capital punishment. He also oversaw the aboltion of theatre censorship. The son of Arthur Jenkins, a coal miner and Labour MP, Roy Jenkins attended Oxford University, of which in retirement he beame Chancellor.
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BIOGRAPHIES BY ROY JENKINS
Roosevelt, Franklin. American President. By Roy Jenkins 2005.
Churchill, Winston. Wartime Prime Minister. By Roy Jenkins. 2001.
Gladstone, William. British Prime Minister. By Roy Jenkins. 1995.
Truman, Harry. President of the USA. By Roy Jenkins. 1986.
Baldwin, Stanley. British Prime Minister. By Roy Jenkins. 1984.
Asquith, Herbert. British Prime Minister. By Roy Jenkins. 1964.
Dilke, Charles. A Victorian tragedy. By Roy Jenkins. 1958.
Attlee, Clement. Labour Prime Minister. By Roy Jenkins. 1948.