Readers of the Next Nationalism might enjoy knowing that Trollope was one of Franklin Roosevelt’s favorite authors. FDR didn’t read contemporary fiction, though he would pick up an occasional detective novel later in his presidency, for the sake of escape. However, he liked to discuss Trollope’s writings, such as "The Duke’s Children," with his learned traveling secretary, Bill Hassett. And most of Trollope’s novels can be found in the 20,000-volume library of Springwood, the Roosevelt family house in Hyde Park. Why was FDR rivetted? Perhaps because of the political machinations chronicled by several of the books, as well as by what one student of Trollope calls “all the permanent, practical questions of the politics of existence.” Moreover, FDR was fascinated by the drama of money—who gets it, how, what taxes are paid by whom, and how fortunes are lost……. Of course, he was intrigued by corruption too.
Readers of the Next Nationalism might enjoy knowing that Trollope was one of Franklin Roosevelt’s favorite authors. FDR didn’t read contemporary fiction, though he would pick up an occasional detective novel later in his presidency, for the sake of escape. However, he liked to discuss Trollope’s writings, such as "The Duke’s Children," with his learned traveling secretary, Bill Hassett. And most of Trollope’s novels can be found in the 20,000-volume library of Springwood, the Roosevelt family house in Hyde Park. Why was FDR rivetted? Perhaps because of the political machinations chronicled by several of the books, as well as by what one student of Trollope calls “all the permanent, practical questions of the politics of existence.” Moreover, FDR was fascinated by the drama of money—who gets it, how, what taxes are paid by whom, and how fortunes are lost……. Of course, he was intrigued by corruption too.