A prolific historian eschews subtlety assessing Lindbergh and mollycoddles the hypercautious Roosevelt.
Franklin Roosevelt’s battle with the famous aviator and anti-interventionist Charles Lindbergh is often presented as a morality play showing Roosevelt to be the long-sighted hero in the war on fascism. Since then, Democrats have lobbed charges of fascism against Republicans, the latest being Donald Trump.
So, one wonders at the timing of two books this year. On September 24, came the latest of thirty books by history professor H.W. Brands, America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War, which followed the June 4, release of Awakening the Spirit of America: FDR’s War of Words with Charles Lindbergh — and the Battle to Save Democracy by former director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Paul M. Sparrow.
