UNLIKELY HEROES | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
May 18, 2023 6:00 pm
Location
Brookland
625 Monroe St NE, Washington, District of Columbia, 20017
May 18, 2023 6:00 pm
Brookland
Author Derek Leebaert provides an entirely new understanding of Franklin Roosevelt and his presidency in UNLIKELY HEROES. Only four people served at the top echelon of FDR’s administration from the frightening early months of spring 1933 until he died in April 1945, and they composed the tough, constructive, long-term core of government. These lieutenants built the great institutions raised against the Depression, implemented the New Deal, and were pivotal to winning World War II. By no coincidence, each was as wounded in their different ways as the polio-stricken titan. Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickes, Frances Perkins, and Henry Wallace were also strange outsiders. Up until 1933, none would have been considered for high office. Still, each became a world figure, and it would have been exceedingly difficult for Roosevelt to transform the nation without them.
By examining the lives of these four, a very different picture of how Americans saved their democracy and rescued civilization overseas emerges. Many of the dangers they overcame are troublingly like those we face today.
Derek Leebaert is joining us on the Busboys stage with Scott Wallace and Dorian Warren to share his experiences in researching and writing the most detailed and intimate look at FDR’s presidency this century. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Leebaert will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of UNLIKELY HEROES will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is IN PERSON and will NOT be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books
Derek Leebaert won the biennial 2020 Truman Book Award for Grand Improvisation: America Confronts the British Superpower, 1945–1957. His previous books include Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy from Korea to Afghanistan and To Dare and to Conquer: Special Operations and the Destiny of Nations, both Washington Post Best Books of the Year. He was a founding editor of the Harvard/MIT journal International Security and is a cofounder of the National Museum of the United States Army. He holds a DPhil from Oxford and lives in Washington, D.C.
Scott Wallace is the Co-Chair of Wallace Global Fund. An attorney since 1978, Scott has specialized in criminal law, constitutional law, legislation, and public policy. He has served as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, Legislative Director for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and Director of Defender Legal Services at the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. He has acted as an advisor on criminal law reform to several East African governments and is a founding partner of the Democracy Alliance. He was the 2018 Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in Pennsylvania’s first congressional district.
Dorian Warren is the president of Community Change, co-chair of the Economic Security Project and co-host of System Check. A progressive scholar, organizer, and media personality, Dorian has worked to advance racial, economic, and social justice for over two decades. He previously held the position of vice president at Community Change. He taught for over a decade at the University of Chicago and Columbia University, where he was co-director of the Columbia University Program on Labor Law and Policy. He also worked at MSNBC, where he was a contributor and host, as well as the executive producer of “Nerding Out” on MSNBC’s digital platform. He serves on the boards of Working Partnerships USA, the Leadership Conference Education Fund Board, the National Employment Law Project, and The Nation magazine, among others.
