No Ordinary Time
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the American home front, from the fall of France to victory.
The Verdict
The American home front and the marriage at its centre, told by one of the country's finest narrative historians. Doris Kearns Goodwin's Pulitzer winner follows Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt through the war years — the transformation of a depression-bound, isolationist nation into the arsenal of democracy, run from a White House crowded with advisers, houseguests, and secrets. It is political history written with a novelist's eye for character, as attentive to a difficult marriage as to mobilisation. Intimate and panoramic at once.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The US home front and wartime leadership
- The Roosevelts as people
- Pulitzer-winning narrative history
- How America mobilised for total war
Look elsewhere if you want
- Battlefield or military narrative
- The war overseas
- A short overview
Why We Rated It 4.6
Historical Context
No Ordinary Time covers the United States from 1940 to 1945 through the partnership of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt — the end of isolationism, industrial mobilisation, civil-rights pressures, and the conduct of the war from Washington. Published in 1994, it won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for History.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Collector's Corner
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0684804484
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Other Books About the Same Events
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is No Ordinary Time about?
- The American home front in the war years, seen through Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the mobilisation of the country.
- Did it win the Pulitzer?
- Yes — the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for History.