In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Acknowledgments It is a pleasure to acknowledge the many debts that I have accumulated in researching and writing this book. The seed of this book was planted more than ten years ago by John Rowett, who introduced me to the New Deal when he and Bob Dallek taught it as a special subject when I was an undergraduate at Oxford. It was John who mentioned, midtutorial, that someone should write a book about Jim Farley. It was a good idea, and I hope I have done it justice. As a graduate student I was incredibly lucky to be in Oxford at a time when two distinguished historians of American liberalism, Steve Gillon and Alan Brinkley, happened to be passing through. With great care and skill, they guided me through the early stages of my graduate work on Farley. I could not have wished for better mentors. Steve and Alan both read portions of the manuscript in various forms and their comments and criticisms have improved this book enormously. Alan and his family deserve special mention for the kindness they showed me when the attacks of September 11, 2001, left me stranded in New York City during a research trip. I will always be grateful to them. When this book was in its embryonic form, a great number of people aided me by discussing how I might frame a study of Farley. In Oxford, Byron Shafer helped me to see the big picture and always sent me away from his of‹ce with plenty to think about; Nigel Bowles, who read a portion of this work in draft form, proved a rigorous and effective critic; and Peter Thompson and Robert Middlekauf provided encouragement and support, as did Jane Sillery, Ewen Green, and Desmond King. Like so many other British Americanists, I am also indebted to Tony Badger, not least for his thoughtful comments on my doctoral thesis. Mr. Democrat would never have seen the light of day were it not for the ‹nancial support of various institutions and foundations. I was fortunate to receive research grants from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the British Academy, the Mellon Fund, and St. Anne’s College, Oxford. Further, St. Anne’s, Merton, and Magdalen colleges employed me in various teaching, administrative, and pastoral roles and thereby enabled me to complete my doctorate without going bankrupt. For making researching this book such a pleasure, my thanks go to the staff of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park. Their expertise and professionalism were exemplary. Mark Renovitch was particularly helpful in dealing speedily with the prints for the illustrations. The staff at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, where I ransacked the Farley Papers, and at the Oral History Research Of‹ce of the Butler Library, Columbia University, were similarly ef‹cient. Jim Reische, my editor at the University of Michigan Press, has, for reasons I cannot entirely fathom, shown great con‹dence in me and my work. I would like to thank him, his assistant Amy Anderson, and the other people at the Press who have worked on this book, for getting Mr. Democrat into print. My friends, especially Kirstie Blair, Tom Fawcett, Martin Heale, Matt Houlbrook, Brian O’Gorman, and Claire Squires, helped sustain and entertain me through my Farley years. I do appreciate how lucky I am that my fascination with ‘Big Jim’ has not prevented me (so far) from maintaining friendships with people who, to their shame, have never heard of the two-thirds rule, and whose grasp of the Democratic Party apparatus in the New Deal years is rudimentary at best. Thanks to you all. I count my parents-in-law, Walter and Janet Reid, as both friends and family. They played a major part in ensuring that writing this book was fun. Special thanks go to Walter for demonstrating that it was possible to write two books, and start a third, in the time I took to write one. This book is dedicated to my parents, Dick and Jeanette Scroop. Their commitment to education and their independence of mind have been an inspiration to me. Without those qualities this book would never have been written. To Julia Reid, to whom this book is also dedicated, I can only say that I am sorry that you have had to share me with Jim Farley for so long. Needless to say, this goes to you with all my love. x Acknowledgments ...

Share