Counsel and Advise: A Political Biography of Samuel I. Rosenman

by Samuel B. Hand

Overview

"Rosenman is one of the most significant figures in recent American political history because his active career ran from 1922 to 1973. He had legislative and judicial careers of importance, in addition to his remarkable White House years. He worked with or for Robert Moses, Alfred E. Smith, Felix Frankfurter and Harry S. Truman as well as F.D.R., but Rosenman became important in large part because he knew how to make the most of his roles... He maintained his close position with F.D.R. longer than anyone else — 1928-1945... Sam Hand tells all of this and much more — in clear, interesting prose. The book is thorough and surprisingly objective given the close and helpful concern for the project by the Rosenmans... the book is full of sound and personal insights and judgments... This book is an important contribution to our understanding of the Truman presidency, for Rosenman was Truman's man as well as Roosevelt's man. In the end, however, he was really Rosenman's man... Professor Hand's book is good history based on good oral history as well as enormous conventional research. It is also good reading." — Alfred B. Rollins, Jr., The Oral History Review

"Samuel I. Rosenman was one of the best-known speech writers in recent American political history. Less publicized was his role as Franklin D. Roosevelt's organizational 'expert' during World War II and as Harry S. Truman's liberal conscience in the early months of his administration... Samuel B. Hand's biography had a gestation period of twenty-two years. Based primarily on original sources, interviews, and the personal assistance of Rosenman and his wife, the study is straightforward, workmanlike, and well documented. It should serve as the definitive account of this key presidential aide." — Alfred D. Sander, The Journal of American History

Product Details

BN ID:	2940186199137
Publisher:	Plunkett Lake Press
Publication date:	08/25/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Born in New York City and raised in Bayside and Woodstock, New York, Samuel B. Hand (1931-2012) received his BA from New York University in 1952, served in the US Army in Korea, and then entered the doctoral program in history at Syracuse University, receiving his PhD in 1960. Hand then taught briefly at Slippery Rock State College in Pennsylvania. From 1961 to 1994 he taught at the University of Vermont, where he achieved legendary status as a scholar and teacher, Chair of the History department and professor emeritus.

Hand originally focused on US political history, publishing the biography of FDR’s adviser and speechwriter Samuel I. Rosenman Counsel and Advise: A Political Biography of Samuel I. Rosenman (1979) and articles on Rosenman and other New Deal figures. His interests shifted to Vermont history, a field in which he became the acknowledged expert, authoring, coauthoring, and editing numerous articles and essays and five books, including The Star that Set: The Vermont Republican Party, 1865–1974 (2003), and with Stephen C. Terry and Anthony Marro Philip Hoff: How Red Turned Blue in the Green Mountains (2011).

Hand helped found the Center for Research on Vermont, serving as its first director. Beloved by his numerous graduate students, Hand was honored by the University of Vermont with the Graduate Faculty Teaching Award in 1994, and the University Scholar Award in 1989. He was vice president and then president of the Vermont Historical Society (1983-1989); the New England Association of Oral History (1983-1985); and the national Oral History Society (1984-1987). He also received the Oral History Society’s Harvey A. Kantor Memorial Award for Significant Work in Oral History in 1986.