A huge book, with a text that extends over 1,100 pages, I read it slowly and with great intensity (just pages each night) starting in the early fall and ending this morning at 2:50 am. I am very sad to finish it; it was like having this great friend come and visit me every night just before falling asleep. It pains me to think of Black in prison for his white-collar crimes, because he wrote a fabulous book: very detailed and diary-like in its day-to-day coverage of the man's life and yet full of well-thought-out and well-argued logic regarding the big issues of his career and his place in history (where Black's arguments rang best with my mind). You read this book and you almost feel ashamed Time picked Albert Einstein as its man of the century at the end of 1999. Clearly, as a force of history and sheer good in this world, nobody compares to FDR--except the U.S. military in aggregate.

Suffering health-wise through the past few months (indeed, I purposefully started this huge book as a way to deal with the great insomnia caused by my chronic sinus infections), and stricken as I am now with a modest case of sinusitis (from an ear infection I developed after picking up a virus from my youngest), I found myself immensely drawn to Black's detailed descriptions of FDR's many and profound health problems (beyond the obvious polio) that afflicted him his entire adult life. Roosevelt led a stunningly inspirational life from that perspective, and it's one I will never forget or lose track of as I move through life--thanks to this book. Experiencing, as I am, somewhat of a midlife crisis thanks to the months and months of "bad brain," I feel very fortunate to have picked up the book and read it with such connection over these many nights.

It makes me want to stay strong in my life and to attempt to live it to the fullest and best extent possible. I now understand how FDR had that sort of impact on people's lives, those who lived alongside him and through him the tumultuous times of the Great Depression and World War II. I also feel--despite my many years of education and study on the subject--finally a full appreciation of FDR's vision for the world and America's place in it.

I don't regret not reading this book prior to writing my own history of these United States and its role in shaping our current world (Vonne, of course, picked this out for me to read, like most books I end up enjoying this much). I was glad to come to all these same conclusions on my own, meaning with the profound help of many fine historians (especially Elizabeth Borgwardt's "New Deal for the World"). Reading Black's book on the heels of my own effort was thus a fundamentally reinforcing affair, a communion of thought I don't believe I could have made without having previously researched and written Chapter Three of Great Powers,

In that sense, Black's book strikes me as a huge gift, like bumping into Ayn Rand during Emily's cancer struggle all those years ago.

I still have a great bio of U.S. Grant that I'm working, plus a bio of Jimmy Stewart, but I will be scanning my personal library for the next great one to follow. Also, armed as I am with $50 in Amazon gift certificates from my spouse, I am open to suggestions.

What an amazing day for me to have celebrated Christmas with Vonne and our four kids, ending it all with me and my four children all hanging out in our master bedroom, watching an entire season of a particular animated TV series that we love (a minor show that's an acquired taste), and then finishing this glorious book so deep in the morning.

I feel very fortunate to have built this home, this marriage, and this family.