Audiobooks by David Pietrusza

Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal

Award-winning historian David Pietrusza boldly steers clear of the past narrative regarding Franklin Roosevelt’s unprecedented 1936 reelection landslide, weaving an enormously more intricate, ever more surprising tale of a polarized nation; of America’s most complex, calculating, and politically successful president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, at the very top of his Machiavellian game; and the unlocking of the puzzle of how our society, our politics, and our parties fitfully reinvented themselves. With in-depth examinations of rabble-rousing Democratic US Senator Huey Long and his assassination before he was able to challenge FDR; powerful, but hated newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst, who blasted FDR’s “Raw Deal”; wildly popular, radical radio host Father Coughlin; the steamrolled passage of Social Security and backlash against it; the era’s racism and anti-Semitism; American Socialism and Communism; and a Supreme Court seemingly bent on dismantling the New Deal altogether, Roosevelt Sweeps Nation is a vivid portrait of a dynamic Depression-Era America. Crafting his account from an impressive and unprecedented collection of primary and secondary sources, Pietrusza has produced an engrossing, original, and authoritative account of an election, a president, and a nation at the crossroads. The nation’s stakes were high … and the parallels hauntingly akin to today’s dangerously strife-ridden political and culture wars.

David Pietrusza (Author), Jack De Golia (Narrator)

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1960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon--The Epic Campaign That Forged Three Presidencies

'1960 aims to take us deeper into the campaign than Theodore White's famous The Making of the President, 1960. And it does.' ―Chicago Sun-Times Award-winning historian David Pietrusza's hard-edged account of the 1960 Presidential Campaign―the bare-knuckle politics of the primaries, the party conventions' backroom dealings, the unprecedented television debates, along with hot-button issues of race, religion, and foreign policy. And, at the center of it all, three future presidents―LBJ, JFK, and Nixon. 'Terrific!' ―Robert A. Caro, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and the National Book Award It was the election that would ultimately give America 'Camelot' and its tragic aftermath. 1960 is a stunning recreation of the bare-knuckle politics of the primaries, the party conventions' backroom dealings, the unprecedented television debates, along with hot-button issues of race, religion, and foreign policy. And, at the center of it all, three future presidents―Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon. In this essential work of history, David Pietrusza chronicles 1960's struggle for power by bringing to life its towering events and personalities, unlocking its secrets, and turning expert scholarship into rich, human storytelling. 'A stirring, hard-edged political saga… An outstanding reexamination.' ―Booklist '1960 provides new insights into that year's hard-fought, pivotal election, but, more than that, 1960 is great storytelling―a fascinating, can't-put-it-down account of how American politics really works.' ―Former United States Attorney General Richard Thornburgh 'Pietrusza's 1960 is essential for understanding the political forces that in many ways shaped the world we live in today.' ―David Mark, journalist, political analyst, and author of Going Dirty: The Art of Negative Campaigning

David Pietrusza (Author), Jeff Cummings (Narrator)

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1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year That Transformed America

The wild, combative inside story of the most stunning upset in the history of presidential elections: Harry Truman's 1948 victory over Tom Dewey. 'Outstanding. . . . by far the best yet about the fateful [1948] election.' ―Minneapolis Star-Tribune 'Coherent, compelling. . . . A skillful, authoritative investigation.' ―Kirkus Reviews Award-winning historian David Pietrusza unpacks the most ingloriously iconic headline in the history of presidential elections―DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN―to reveal the 1948 campaign's backstage events and recount the down-to-the-wire brawl fought against the background of an erupting Cold War, the Berlin Airlift, the birth of Israel, and a post-war America facing exploding storms over civil rights and domestic communism. 'A terrific book. . . . a must-read.' ―Ron Faucheux, former editor-in-chief, Campaigns & Elections magazine 'David Pietrusza brilliantly portrays President Harry Truman's successful efforts to stave off the challenge of New York Gov. Tom Dewey, who was making a repeat bid as the Republican nominee.' ―David Mark, journalist, political analyst, and author of Going Dirty: The Art of Negative Campaigning 'Sweeping . . . compelling.' ―Library Journal

David Pietrusza (Author), Jeff Cummings (Narrator)

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TR's Last War: Theodore Roosevelt, the Great War, and a Journey of Triumph and Tragedy

A riveting new account of Theodore Roosevelt's impassioned crusade for military preparedness as America fitfully stumbles into World War I, spectacularly punctuated by his unique tongue-lashings of the vacillating Woodrow Wilson, his rousing advocacy of a masculine, pro-Allied "Americanism," a death-defying compulsion for personal front-line combat, a gingerly rapprochement with GOP power brokers-and, yes, perhaps, even another presidential campaign. Roosevelt is a towering Greek god of war. But Greek gods begat Greek tragedies. His own entreaties to don the uniform are rebuffed, and he remains stateside. But his four sons fight "over there" with heartbreaking consequences: two are wounded; his youngest and most loved child dies in aerial combat. Yet, though grieving and weary, TR may yet surmount everything with one monumentally odds-defying last triumph. Poised at the very brink of a final return to the White House, death stills his indomitable spirit. In his lively, witty, blow-by-blow style, David Pietrusza captures, through the lens of the Bull Moose, the 1916 presidential campaign, America's entry into the Great War in 1917, Woodrow Wilson's presidency, and the last years of one of American history's greatest men.

David Pietrusza (Author), Norman Dietz (Narrator)

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Rothstein

David Pietrusza (Author), Grover Gardner (Narrator)

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Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series

The model for Meyer Wolfsheim from The Great Gatsby and Guys and Dolls' Nathan Detroit, Arnold Rothstein was an underworld genius, racketeer, rumrunner, political fixer, and criminal mastermind who, as F. Scott Fitzgerald observed, played 'with the faith of fifteen million people with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe.' David Piertrusza unearths the canny way Rothstein fixed the 1919 World Series and unravels the mystery of Arnold Rothstein’s murder in November 1928 in a Times Square hotel room. Transporting listeners onto Jazz Age Broadway with its thugs, bookies, denizens of the race tracks, showgirls, political movers and shakers, and stars of the Golden Age of sports, this is a biography of the godfather of organized crime in America, who reigned supreme when the fast buck ruled and violence stalked the streets of Gotham.

David Pietrusza (Author), Grover Gardner (Narrator)

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