Many thanks to NetGalley and the Kensington Books for the digital ARC of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I’m not going to rehash the synopsis above, but ostensibly, this book talks about the people who most influenced Franklin Delano Roosevelt throughout his life and how that shaped his presidency. This book works best during the first third, when a closer look is taken at Roosevelt’s young life. He was home-schooled until he was 14 and then sent to Groton. He did not fit in but formed a lifelong friendship with the head of the school, Endicott Peabody.

I really appreciated the fact that an historian concentrated on FDR’s relationship with Theodore Roosevelt, especially during his younger years. Most books just casually mention that they were fifth (or was it sixth) cousins and TR gave his brother’s daughter, Eleanor away to Franklin when they married. What is revealed is that FDR spent time with Teddy throughout his life and greatly admired his distant cousin. Most modern biographies have a tendency to imply Franklin did not get too interested in TR until he became president and decided he wanted to follow his relative’s career path. This book reveals the summer visits the young Franklin took to Oyster Bay to visit Theodore and how his admiration grew throughout his formative years.

There were other influences in FDR’s life, like Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill, and Al Smith. What doesn’t get as much time as it should warrant is the impact of the women in Roosevelt’s life: his wife, Eleanor, his mother, Sara, Frances Perkins, Daisy Suckley, Missy LeHand, etc. I’d like to see a book focusing on the women someday, much like the book just written about the women in Theodore Roosevelt’s life.

After FDR was elected President, the book details various battles and victories and defeats through his time in office. Here I felt the book lost the narrative a little bit. Sure, the information was interesting and some matters like trying to pack the Supreme Court were in more detail than other historical works, but little time was spent going back and analyzing how or why FDR made the choices he made based upon the life lessons learned from his mentors. There are a few times when the author analyzes several aspects of Franklin’s personality, such as avoiding conflict whenever possible and seemingly agreeing with whomever he was talking to, and then making a different decision.

There’s also this periodic comparing and contrasting of Roosevelt’s time in office with Abraham Lincoln’s. Not since 5th grade, when our class was divided into two camps to debate who was the better president, have I seen such frequent mentions of Lincoln and Roosevelt in the same breath. I’m not sure if it’s because the author wrote a similar work regarding Lincoln’s mentors, but sometimes I thought it was a bit of a stretch.

Overall, though, I still found this a very good book for lovers of presidential history or the Roosevelts in general. It does a good job of providing a new angle on understanding Roosevelt’s decisions as an elected official. I’m happy to add it to my ever-growing library.

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Michael J. Gerhardt's FDR's Mentors: Navigating the Path to Greatness is an interesting read. It was intriguing to see different historical figures in this era of FDR. Four and a half stars.

Very well written account of FDR that surpasses other accounts on the 32nd President of the United States. Michael J. Gerhardt did an amazing job telling a story many have already heard in a fresh way through a never before told point of view of the mentors who played a role in FDR's life and choices. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the backstory of history.