The Improbable Wendell Willkie, David Levering Lewis
The Improbable Wendell Willkie, David Levering Lewis
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The Improbable Wendell Willkie
The Businessman Who Saved the Republican Party and His Country, and Conceived a New World Order

Author: David Levering Lewis

Narrator: Mike Chamberlain

Unabridged: 12 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/27/2018

Synopsis

In the wake of one of the most tumultuous conventions in Republican history, the party of Lincoln nominated in 1940 a prominent businessman and Wall Street attorney for president. Though Wendell Willkie would lose to FDR, David Levering Lewis reveals in this news-making reclamation that the story of this Hoosier-born corporate chairman's life is the story of an America that could have been. Popular for his down-home Midwestern charm and unaffected candor, Willkie possessed a supple intellect and a concealed disdain for political opportunism that, had he not died prematurely, would have revolutionized American politics with its advocacy of bipartisanship and social responsibility. Not only was he the first presidential candidate to speak before the NAACP, advocating a civil rights movement in the 1940s, but Willkie also bucked American isolationism and became the first to champion the nation’s involvement in international politics. Vibrantly recounted, The Improbable Wendell Willkie affirms the legacy of an American icon.

About David Levering Lewis

David Levering Lewis is University Professor at New York University and a former president of the Society of American Historians. His work reflects the mutual dependence of African and African American history, as well as the utility of biography in the exploration of American race, class, and politics. He is the recipient of fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Winner of the Bancroft Prize, the Parkman Prize, and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, his two volumes on the life of W. E. B. Du Bois won the Pulitzer Prize, the only time in the history of the award that both volumes of a biography have won. He received his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, his M.A. from Columbia University, and his B.A. from Fisk University.

Reviews

Goodreads review by robin on August 28, 2024

A New Biography Of Wendell Willkie When I was young, I read Irving Stone's biography of unsuccessful presidential candidates,"They Also Ran". Stone's book made me an admirer of Wendell Willkie, and I have remained fascinated by Willkie for much of my life. Willkie (1892 -- 1944) had a brief, meteoric......more

Goodreads review by Jean on December 12, 2018

Wendell Willkie ran against FDR in the 1940 election and, of course, lost. Professor Lewis provides a new biography of Willkie. I think that what is going on in the country today pointed out some key items about Willkie that might have gone unnoticed in the prior biographies. Willkie is noted for pu......more

Goodreads review by David on October 02, 2018

Wendell Willkie is an interesting figure, worth revisiting. I started this book with high hopes, but while there’s much of value, it’s ultimately a disappointment. Other than his fight against the TVA, there’s not much on Willkie the executive. While his anti-isolationism is given prominence, the su......more

Goodreads review by John on November 03, 2018

Before picking up this book, I recognized the name Wendell Wilkie and knew he was once the Republican candidate for president, but couldn't have told you much more about him. David Levering Lewis's biography convinced me that he was one of the most fascinating and unusual political figures of his ti......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on November 15, 2019

Energetic attempt at rehabilitating Wendell Willkie, the Indiana businessman-turned-Republican presidential candidate in 1940. Lewis (previously author of a two-volume work on W.E.B. DuBois) makes no effort to hide his admiration for Willkie, who's portrayed as the standard bearer of a long-dead bre......more

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