This first of Burns’s definitive and award-winning two-volume biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, mapping the personal and professional development of one of America’s most brilliant politicians Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the longest serving president in US history, reshaping the country during the crises of the Depression and World War II. But before his unprecedented run as president, there were decades of steady consolidation of power. Here, renowned historian James MacGregor Burns traces Roosevelt’s rise and the peculiar blend of strength and cunning that helped make him such a uniquely transformative politician. Weaving together lively narrative and impressive scholarship, The Lion and the Fox is among the first—and most acclaimed—studies of Roosevelt’s time, his talents, and his flaws.