The Hopkins Touch

Abstract This book offers a portrait of the most powerful man in Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. It shows how Harry Hopkins, an Iowa-born social worker who had been an integral part of the New Deal's implementation, became the linchpin in FDR's—and America's—relationships with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, and spoke with an authority second only to the president's. Hopkins could take the political risks his boss could not, and proved crucial to maintaining personal relations among the Big Three. Beloved by some—such as Churchill, who believed that Hopkins “always went to the root of the matter”—and trusted by most—including the paranoid Stalin—there were nevertheless those who resented the influence of “the White House Rasputin”.