Past Event: FDR, Al Smith, and the Golden Age of NY Politics

Ahead of the 2018 gubernatorial election, historians Terry Golway and Peter Quinn take a look back at two iconic New York governors, Al Smith and Franklin Roosevelt. 

Franklin Roosevelt and Al Smith were two of New York's greatest governors whose careers intertwined throughout the 1920s and they created a new coalition that would dominate U.S. politics for decades. In 1932, however, the two ran against each other for the Democratic presidential nomination, setting off one of the great feuds of American history. Historians Terry Golway and Peter Quinn sit down for a conversation about this largely untold story in celebration of the launch of Golway’s new book, Frank and Al: FDR, Al Smith and the Unlikely Alliance that Created the Modern Democratic Party.

About the Speakers: 
Terry Golway is a senior editor at Politico responsible for New York state political coverage out of Albany. He has been a journalist for more than 40 years and is the author of more than a dozen books, including most recently Frank & Al: FDR, Al Smith, and the Unlikely Alliance that Created the Modern Democratic Party (St. Martin's, September 2018). He was a member of The New York Times' editorial board and was city editor of the New York Observer. He holds a PhD in U.S. history from Rutgers University.

Peter Quinn is a writer and historian. He previously worked as a speechwriter for New York Governors Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo. In 1985, Quinn became editorial director for Time, Inc. His first novel, Banished Children of Eve (1994) won an American Book Award. He is also the author of Hour of the Cat (2005), a novel about the eugenics movement, and Looking For Jimmy (2007), a non-fiction study of Irish-American identity.