From Publishers Weekly
This mistitled volume briefly chronicles the integrated political biographies of a dozen or so New Deal figures—LBJ, Tommy "the Cork" Corcoran, Abe Fortas, James Rowe, William O. Douglas, Lee Pressman, Clark Clifford and others—through the years following FDR's death. The book culminates in the late 1960s and endeavors to show these men's impact on national politics well into the civil rights and Vietnam War era. Janeway, director of the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia and author of Republic of Denial, somewhat limits his text by insisting on viewing many events and people through the prism of his parents, journalist Eliot Janeway and novelist Elizabeth Janeway, who played significant but not epicentral roles in this circle. The author also labors to cram the subtle political and policy complexities of no less than five presidencies, plus the vital details of a number of complicated and fascinating lives, into a mere 350 pages. Janeway nevertheless finds space for gossip, such as Douglas and Corcoran falling out during Douglas's messy divorce—a matter of no historical moment. But other diversions are more profound, e.g., Janeway's earnest consideration regarding his father's long denial of his Jewishness. In the end, we have an uneven book, one not concerned with anything that might be remotely described as the fall of the house of Roosevelt, and one that would have needed another 300 pages to have fully accomplished the mission assigned. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
The "House of Roosevelt" refers to the Roosevelt coalition that dominated national politics (and much of our political discourse) from Roosevelt's election in 1932 to the middle of the 1960s. But Janeway, a professor of journalism and arts at Columbia University, does not merely trace the decline of that once mighty political force. In this thoughtful and stimulating book, he illustrates how that decline corresponded with a seismic shift in our political attitudes and culture. With both eloquence and a sense of regret, Janeway describes an era in which both the populace and the elites generally assumed that government and governmental activism were positive forces for good. It was also an era in which political parties and their structure, both at the national and local level, had immense relevance to the daily lives of people. Now with the Democratic Party in seeming disarray and the word liberal an almost pejorative term, this well-written and valuable examination of the evolution of our body politic is very worthwhile. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"For its insights, balanced tone, and thorough research, this accessible volume will provide stimulating analysis for those readers in the twenty-first century." -- Lewis L. Gould, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society


Review
"Michael Janeway brilliantly conveys the sense of what it was to be a New Deal insider and operator in a mesmerizing and moving group biography and family memoir. This book will make even the most jaded New Deal experts understand the period in an entirely new way." -- Laura Kalman, author of Abe Fortas: A Biography


Review
The Fall of the House of Roosevelt is a fascinating personal perspective on the New Deal and its aftermath. Michael Janeway's book is an elegant contribution to political as well as to personal history.


Book Description
In the1930s, the junior officers of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal -- Thomas G. Corcoran, Benjamin V. Cohen, William O. Douglas, Abe Fortas, and James Rowe -- helped build the modern Democratic Party, a progressive coalition of ideas and power that for decades seemed politically invincible. This is the first book about this group of Rooseveltians and their linkage to Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and the Vietnam War debacle. Drawing on his intimate knowledge of events and previously unavailable private letters and other documents, Michael Janeway crafts a riveting account of the exercise of power during the New Deal and its aftermath.


About the Author
Michael Janeway is director of the National Arts Journalism Program and professor of journalism and arts at Columbia University. He has been executive editor of the Atlantic Monthly, editor of the Boston Globe, special assistant to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, and dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He is the author of Republic of Denial: Press, Politics, and Public Life.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In the 1930s a band of smart and able young men, some still in their twenties, helped Franklin D. Roosevelt transform an American nation in crisis. They were the junior officers of the New Deal. Thomas G. Corcoran, Benjamin V. Cohen, William O. Douglas, Abe Fortas, and James Rowe helped FDR build the modern Democratic Party into a progressive coalition whose command over power and ideas during the next three decades seemed politically invincible.

This is the first book about this group of Rooseveltians and their linkage to Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and the Vietnam War debacle. Michael Janeway grew up inside this world. His father, Eliot Janeway, business editor of Time and a star writer for Fortune and Life magazines, was part of this circle, strategizing and practicing politics as well as reporting on these men. Drawing on his intimate knowledge of events and previously unavailable private letters and other documents, Janeway crafts a riveting account of the exercise of power during the New Deal and its aftermath. He shows how these men were at the nexus of reform impulses at the electoral level with reform thinking in the social sciences and the law and explains how this potent fusion helped build the contemporary American state. Since that time, efforts to reinvent government by "brains trust" have largely failed in the U.S. In the last quarter of the twentieth century American politics ceased to function as a blend of broad coalition building and reform agenda setting, rooted in a consensus of belief in the efficacy of modern government. Can a progressive coalition of ideas and power come together again? The Fall of the House of Roosevelt makes such a prospect both alluring and daunting.

SYNOPSIS

Janeway (journalism and arts, Columbia U.) combines political history with family memoir in reporting on the political careers of junior New Dealers from the Roosevelt administration to Johnson's Great Society. Along with his father, Eliot Janeway, a former Time editor, he discusses the political fortunes of such figures as Thomas Corcoran, Benjamin Cohen, Abe Fortas, William Douglas. For Janeway, it was men such as these that lay at the heart of the reform efforts of the Democratic Party and he fondly looks back at the time before the "transition from the political state to the media state." Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

Janeway's volume is almost a kind of ''New Deal Confidential.'' It shows the Corcorans, Abe Fortases, Lyndon Johnsons and William O. Douglases networking as ferociously as the K Street denizens of today's Washington. We hear how New Dealers talked among themselves … Under Franklin Roosevelt, these New Dealers built a lasting monument, showing how government could be made to improve people's lives. But Michael Janeway's book is a reminder that even monument makers can have feet of clay. — Michael Beschloss

Publishers Weekly

This mistitled volume briefly chronicles the integrated political biographies of a dozen or so New Deal figures-LBJ, Tommy "the Cork" Corcoran, Abe Fortas, James Rowe, William O. Douglas, Lee Pressman, Clark Clifford and others-through the years following FDR's death. The book culminates in the late 1960s and endeavors to show these men's impact on national politics well into the civil rights and Vietnam War era. Janeway, director of the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia and author of Republic of Denial, somewhat limits his text by insisting on viewing many events and people through the prism of his parents, journalist Eliot Janeway and novelist Elizabeth Janeway, who played significant but not epicentral roles in this circle. The author also labors to cram the subtle political and policy complexities of no less than five presidencies, plus the vital details of a number of complicated and fascinating lives, into a mere 350 pages. Janeway nevertheless finds space for gossip, such as Douglas and Corcoran falling out during Douglas's messy divorce-a matter of no historical moment. But other diversions are more profound, e.g., Janeway's earnest consideration regarding his father's long denial of his Jewishness. In the end, we have an uneven book, one not concerned with anything that might be remotely described as the fall of the house of Roosevelt, and one that would have needed another 300 pages to have fully accomplished the mission assigned. (Apr.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Before tracking polls and handlers controlled the political process, politicians depended on specialists and advisers to guide their policies and actions. Son of Eliot Janeway-financial adviser to FDR and other prominent Democrats through the end of the 20th century-Janeway (journalism & arts, Columbia Univ.; Republic of Denial: Press, Politics and Public Life) recalls those days in a personal and insightful narrative. He deftly weaves tales of his father's deal making from the New Deal to the Great Society, with personal reflections about his father's private life during those years. As the stories unfold, Janeway shows that "a combination of events in the 1960s terminated the political environment" that depended on advisers like his father, resulting in a system today that focuses on media image and sound-bite information. Well documented with the extensive use of primary-source material in presidential libraries and collections of personal papers, this book is recommended for history and political science collections in academic and public libraries.-Jill Ortner, SUNY at Buffalo Libs. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews