Sidney Fine (1920–2009)

The second volume of Sidney Fine's monumental biography of Frank Murphy is a book of two parts. The first part begins with his appointment as governor of the Philippines soon after Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration as president in 1933. Murphy took the position in a time of transition, as the United States moved towards granting the island nation their independence. Already harboring ambitions for the presidency, Murphy sought to make his tenure one of considerable achievement, yet while Fine describes (often at considerable length) the range of administrative reforms Murphy undertook, his efforts at a "Philippine New Deal" foundered before the sheer amount of poverty in the islands, the paucity of resources available to him, and the determination of the island's elites to maintain their position in Philippine society.

Nevertheless, Murphy's accomplishments were such that Roosevelt asked him to run for the Democratic nomination for the governorship of Michigan in 1936, arguing that Murphy's presence on the ballot was necessary if the president hoped to win the state in the November election. Murphy's time as governor forms the second part of the book, one that recounts the politics of the state in full. Formerly a Republican bastion, Michigan was in the early stages of a transformation that would create a much more competitive political environment. Murphy returned to face a Democratic state party long dominated by conservatives, who often found themselves at odds with Murphy's goals. Fine makes the case that Murphy's governorship was one of the few that attempted to implement New Deal-inspired reforms at the state level, meticulously describing the wide range of efforts his administration undertook to modernize the state government and provide honest, efficient services to the people. Such reforms, however, angered many of the conservatives within the state's Democratic party organization, who were disappointed in being denied the spoils of office; the resulting split within the party, along with a series of sit-down strikes that eroded Murphy's popularity, led to his defeat for reelection in 1938.

Thoroughly researched and cogently argued, Fine's book is a masterpiece of the historian's craft. The detail in which he analyzes his subject's career and the events surrounding it makes this book an indispensable source not just on Murphy's life but the times as well. Yet the narrative suffers from too much of a good thing, as the reader can get bogged down in the minutiae of administrative reform and strike negotiations. This may dampen the readability of the book a little, but it does not detract from Fine's considerable achievement with this biography, which with its preceding and successor volumes, Frank Murphy: The Detroit Years and Frank Murphy: The Washington Years, is the definitive work on this amazing public servant.… (altro)