One was the son of East Boston ward politics, the other a squire of Hyde Park. Joseph Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt both hastened American shipbuilding in the First World War, threw themselves into the business civilization of the twenties, and joined in an uneasy alliance in national and international politics. Yet the two lives were in counterpoint. Kennedy became one of the worlds wealthiest men, but was overwhelmed in politics. Roosevelt, the nations only four-term president, lost large sums in business. Their political partnership declined from intimate friendship into mutual hostility. How did two men operate in these arenas with such vividly contrasting results? What brought Kennedy and Roosevelt together in political alliance; what rent them apart? The author provides the answer by examining these ambitious and fascinating men in terms of leadership. Kennedy and Roosevelt were the central figures of the two greatest American dynasties of this century; their story is, in large measure, the story of their times. Against the backdrop of the Irish inheritance and the legacy of a patrician, the two men are projected through Harvard; the home front of the First War; the heady atmosphere of the New Era-filmmaking and speculation, talking robots and the trade association movement; and the great issues of New Deal and global conflict. The book provides the first full portrait of the human relationship between Kennedy and Roosevelt.