book reviews [ 163 ] legislative battles which culminated in the passage of impressive recovery, relief, and reform measures. The new president also made important decisions affecting the economic conference in London and the concurrent disarmament negotiations in Geneva. In great detail Freidel explores these and related topics. While more factually complete than previous accounts, much in this book is familiar. Drawing on sources unavailable earlier, for example, he illuminates the unique and unsatisfactory preinaugural relationship between Hoover and Roosevelt when an embittered and antagonistic incumbent president, so distrustful of his recent political opponent that he had a stenographer make a verbatim record of their telephone conversations apparently without Roosevelt's knowledge, sought cooperation in such manner that to comply Roosevelt would have had to repudiate his domestic prescriptions for the faltering American economy. Freidel, however, also breaks new ground, developing the president-elect's active promotion of agricultural legislation (featuring the domestic allotment concept) during the "lame duck" session of 1933; his positive support of limited inflation, a rejection of the view that he only responded to the threat that Congress would legislate mandatory, and uncontrollable, inflation; his delicate handling of diplomatic appointments; the activities and influence of the First Lady; and the early foreign policy trends of the administration, especially FDR's animosity for Hitler. Since 1956 significant monographs and reminiscences of principals (Tug- well, Moley, and Feis) have been published; numerous manuscript collections have been opened; and dissenting interpretations of the New Deal have been advanced. Freidel has used these sources, including John Sal- mond's first-rate study of the Civilian Conservation Corps, Van Perkins's analysis of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration's first year, Documents Diplomatiques Frangais, 1932-1939, the presidential papers of Herbert Hoover, the diary of James P. Warburg, and the records of the British Foreign Office, to achieve commendable historical balance. Yet the liberal tradition remains. Freidel's Roosevelt was a masterful politician who by compromise, pressure (withholding of patronage until the end of the session), and clever maneuvers (appointing Peek to head the AAA) guided desired legislation through a Congress that did not "rubber stamp" his proposals; an economic conservative (borne out anew by his opposition until the last moment to federal deposit insurance) who experimented nevertheless to rejuvenate the economy; an activist who rescued and revitalized the presidency; an optimist whose rhetoric and humanity lifted his countrymen's spirits; an internationalist whose disarmament and arms embargo policies were frustrated by political realities (the most debatable proposition ); a president who tried to travel simultaneously the twin roads of international cooperation and economic nationalism, only to opt for the latter when unfavorable circumstances intruded. "New Left" critics of the New