That Man: John Q. Barrett Publishes Justice Jackson's Memoir of FDR
That Man: John Q. Barrett Publishes Justice Jackson's Memoir of FDR
John Q. Barrett, Professor at St. John’s University School of Law in New York City and Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow at the Jackson Center, has located, edited, introduced and published a stunning find: Justice Jackson’s previously unknown, never published memoir of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
John Q. Barrett |
Robert H. Jackson and President Roosevelt shaking hands on the cover of That Man. |
Robert H. Jackson’s That Man: An Insider’s Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, published by Oxford University Press, is available in hardcover and paperback. That Man is a main selection of the Book of the Month Club and the History Book Club and a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2005.
That Man is available at bookstores nationwide and on line, including through Amazon.Com and Barnes&Noble.Com. The book had its world debut in 2003 at Chautauqua Institution, a particularly special place in the lives of both Roosevelt and Jackson.
“I was very fortunate,” Barrett said, “to meet with Jackson’s son William before his death in 1999. Although Bill carefully preserved his father’s That Man manuscript for more than forty years, his global law practice with Milbank, Tweed and very full life kept him from publishing the book. Thanks to the generosity of Bill’s wife Nancy, I inherited the privilege of working with this amazing, original text by a true Roosevelt insider.”
Alternate cover of That Man. |
That Man has been reviewed prominently in The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic and Legal Times, among other publications.
Professor Barrett has spoken about That Man in venues throughout the country and has been interviewed about the book on numerous programs, including NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Click here to listen to the interview.
Praise for That Man:
"[Jackson’s] superbly eloquent chapters provide intimate glimpses of Roosevelt operating on many different levels. Through Jackson's informed lens, we are shown FDR as president, politician, lawyer, commander-in-chief, administrator, populist leader and companion.” -Publisher’s Weekly
That Man is "a great find — the last memoir of Franklin D. Roosevelt by someone who worked with him and knew him well.” -Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
John Kenneth Galbraith recommends the book “for all who would know more of what could be the greatest days of Washington” and calls That Man “an indispensable book."
Laurence Tribe calls Jackson “the most piercingly eloquent writer ever to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court” and says That Man “will intrigue and inform anyone interested in the history of America's involvement in World War II or in the American presidency and the West Wing under FDR in an era a half century old that turns out to bear a surprising resemblance to our own.”
Bob Woodward says That Man “is the kind of history that is first-hand and observed, that comes in real time. It jumps off the page as valid.”
Additional information:
Click here to hear Professor Barrett on “The Leonard Lopate Show,” WNYC, 8/11/2003.
Linda Greenhouse commented on That Man in the New York Times “Week in Review,” 8/31/2003.