4 of 5 stars
In The Plots Against the President: FDR, A Nation in Crisis, and the Rise of the American Right Sally Denton does a good job of bringing to light seldom covered events that impacted FDR’s early presidency. Much has rightly been made of FDR’s struggles with isolationists and the “America First” movement whose most prominent member of which was famed pilot Lindbergh. Yet there has been little written about rumors of an attempted coup by Wall Street bankers angered by FDR’s New Deal policies as well as an assassination attempt by embittered anarchist Guiseppe Zangara. Denton shows that what occurred throughout his presidency, being attacked from both the far left and far right, began very early on, even before his inauguration. The Plots Against the President provides a useful background to these and other events that would later shape the often harsh policies of the FDR administration towards radicals, subversives and seditionists. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of FDR and his early years as president.