And what hearts they show. Although there were some who compared him to Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler, most supported his initiatives during the depression, and many even offered him advice on how to proceed. One writer, a Southern sharecropper, his letter betraying his lack of education, nonetheless sagely points out that Roosevelt's court-packing plan would mean more Southern Democrats on the bench, a definite setback for people like himself. Another, a German immigrant, writes in broken English to encourage him to stack the court with "Ariers" and avoid "Jewish or Negerblood." But most of the letters are positive, polite, and encouraging - a testament to the depth of the patrician Roosevelt's communication skills. Instead of writing to complain or to advocate for something, they were writing to encourage and to advise. Many tell him that listening to him speak was like listening to their father, their brother, their friend; and they responded to him as if that's what he was.

The letters also give us a glimpse of what the country was like during its two greatest crises of the twentieth century - the Depression and World War II. We tend to view those days through the distorted lens of old movies - where everyone was patriotic and brave and good, and the country united. The letters tell us otherwise. Through 1939 to 1941, the majority of letter-writers begged him not to enter the European war. The arguments are the same we hear now - colonialism was the root of the problem, England and France deserved to be conquered for their behavior over the past two hundred years. Appeasement was called for, not aggression. The United States isn't any better than Germany when it comes to the history of warfare. We didn't raise our sons to be killed. The last war was a mistake, this one will be, too. Even the State Department played the same role as it's playing now. According to the authors, while preparing a Fireside Chat in December 1940, Roosevelt referred to "secret emissaries" in the United States who were working to persuade the American people that checking European fascism was not in the nation's best interest, "many of them in high places, who, unwittingly in most cases, are aiding and abetting the work of these agents." He gave a draft to the State Department to review, and it came back with a red line drawn through the phrase "many of them in high places." He asked who red-lined the phrase. When he was told that the State Department thought the line should be deleted, he replied, "Oh do they? Very well. We'll change it to read - 'There are also American citizens, many of them in high places - especially in the State Department, who are aiding and abetting...." He stuck with his original draft.