‘Frank & Al—FDR, Al Smith, and the Unlikely Alliance That Created the Modern Democratic Party’ By Terry Golway St. Martin’s Press 336 pages, $29.99

Anyone who loves New York history will devour and thoroughly enjoy “Frank & Al”, the story of the turbulent relationship between Gov. Alfred E. Smith and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. No two men could have been more unalike. Yet like tributaries of a great river they joined to form the modern Democratic Party. Al Smith’s paternal grandparents were Italian and German. His maternal grandparents were Irish. Smith was born on the Lower East Side, South Street, in the Fourth Ward. He would write: “I thank God I am part of this glorious metropolitan life, a part of its arts and industry, its culture and recreations—and I would not trade my lot with a citizen anywhere”.