How could someone who began his life as the sort of kid his own cousins made fun of end up one of the most iconic and beloved leaders of the free world? How could a politician known for flip-flopping and careless dabbling end up setting the modern standard for both leadership in a crisis, as well as hitting the ground running? These are some of the questions historian and cable commentator Jonathan Alter sets out to answer in his history of Roosevelt's first hundred days, The Defining Moment

Alter seems to believe that FDR's disability ended up as an asset, because his experience with the treatment of his own polio(the doctors made some bad initial treatment decisions) taught him the folly of always listening to experts and of sticking hard to conventional wisdom. Roosevelt's approach to the Great Depression was a high-stakes improvisation, in part fueled and informed by his earlier experiences developing what I suppose we might call a "wellness community" at Warm Springs, Georgia.