1932: The Rise of Hitler and FDR―Two Tales of Politics,

1932: The Rise of Hitler and FDR―Two Tales of Politics, Betrayal, and Unlikely Destiny

Two Depression-battered nations confronted destiny in 1932, going to the polls in their own way to anoint new leaders, to rescue their people from starvation and hopelessness. America would elect a Congress and a presidentâ€”ebullient aristocrat Franklin Roosevelt or tarnished â€œWonder Boyâ€ Herbert Hoover. Decadent, divided Weimar Germany faced two rounds of bloody Reichstag elections and two presidential contestsâ€”doddering reactionary Paul von Hindenburg against rising radical hate-monger Adolf Hitler.

The outcome seemed foreordainedâ€”unstoppable forces advancing upon crumbled, disoriented societies. A merciless Great Depression brought greaterâ€”perhaps hopeful, perhaps deadlyâ€”transformation: FDRâ€™s New Deal and Hitlerâ€™s Third Reich.

But neither outcome was inevitable.

Readers enter the fray through David Pietruszaâ€™s page-turning account: Rooseveltâ€™s fellow Democrats may yet halt him at a deadlocked convention. 1928â€™s Democratic nominee, Al Smith, harbors a grudge against his one-time protege. Press baron William Randolph Hearst lays his own plans to block Rooseveltâ€™s ascent to the White House. FDRâ€™s politically-inspired juggling of a New York City scandal threatens his juggernaut. In Germany, the Nazis surge at the polls but twice fall short of Reichstag majorities. Hitler, tasting power after a lifetime of failure and obscurity, falls to Hindenburg for the presidencyâ€”also twice within the year. Cabals and counter-cabals plot. Secrets of love and suicide haunt Hitler.

Yet guile and ambition may yet still prevail.

1932â€™s breathtaking narrative covers two epic stories that possess haunting parallels to todayâ€™s crisis-filled vortex. It is an all-too-human tale of scapegoats and panaceas, class warfare and racial politics, of a seemingly bottomless depression, of massive unemployment and hardship, of unprecedented public works/infrastructure programs, of business stimulus programs and damaging allegations of political cronyism, of waves of bank failures and of mortgages foreclosed, of Washington bonus marches and Berlin street fights, of once-solid financial empires collapsing seemingly overnight, of rapidly shifting social mores, and of mountains of irresponsible international debt threatening to crash not just mere nations but the entire global economy.

It is the tale of spell-binding leaders versus bland businessmen and out-of-touch upper-class elites and of two nations inching to safety but lurching toward disaster. It is 1932â€™s nightmareâ€”with lessons for today.
Country USA
Brand Lyons Press
Manufacturer Lyons Press
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 42809819
ReleaseDate 2016-09-01
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781493009442

Country	USA
Brand	Lyons Press
Manufacturer	Lyons Press
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	42809819
ReleaseDate	2016-09-01
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781493009442

1932: The Rise of Hitler and FDR―Two Tales of Politics, Betrayal, and Unlikely Destiny

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