In this issue: Author Steve Drummond explores Truman's path to the White House; Author Thomas Maier on the biggest foreign spy operation; FDR's gatehouse and stories from the Library grounds; Eleanor Roosevelt's eyeglasses; FDR's winter wonderland.
Steve Drummond draws the reader into the fast-paced story of how Harry Truman, still a newcomer to Washington politics, cobbled together a bipartisan team of men and women that took on powerful corporate entities and the Pentagon, placing Truman in the national spotlight and paving his path to the White House.
Conversation and Book Signing
The Invisible Spy: Churchill's Rockefeller Center Spy Ring and America’s First Secret Agent of World War II
with Thomas Maier
March 26, 2025
6pm ET
Henry A. Wallace Center
Free public event. Registration is required for in-person attendance. CLICK HEREto register.
Thomas Maier tells the story of Ernest Cuneo, a former NFL player who became a spy for Winston Churchill, working from Rockefeller Center to gather intelligence on Nazi operatives in the US.
Shortly after the Library opened to the public on July 4, 1941, construction contractor John McShain offered to build the gate house for the sum of $1.00. President Roosevelt gladly accepted. FDR Library Director William Harris takes a look at McShain’s gift to FDR, and the often unnoticed evidence of FDR's years living and working onsite.
(Originally broadcast November 24, 2021; 6:12 minutes)
Franklin Roosevelt loved winter at his Hyde Park estate, where he raced down snowy hills on a bobsled—now displayed at the Henry Wallace Center. Local boys pulled it back uphill when he was not pulling it with his favorite dog, Tip. Before polio struck in 1921, Roosevelt was an active, adventurous young man who embraced the outdoors and the thrill of winter fun.
"Whatever our individual circumstances or opportunities, we are all in it, and our spirit is good... and do not let anyone tell you anything different." FDR, Oct 12, 1942, fireside chat.
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