the only book review Roosevelt ever wrote was in response to Bowers' request for a review of his 1925 Jefferson and Hamilton. "As a result of Roosevelt's lobbying", he was the keynote speaker at the 1928 Democratic National Convention. His speech was broadcast nationally by radio. Ambassador Bowers played a major role in Roosevelt's 1932 campaign for president; Roosevelt's overwhelming victory "virtually guaranteed Bowers some type of position in the new administration". Bowers requested appointment as ambassador to Spain, and Roosevelt was happy to choose him. While in Spain, where he was enormously popular as U.S. ambassador, and "established a reputation as 'a careful, painstaking executive,'" he continued to play an active role in the Democratic Party, as speechwriter, advisor, and publicist. Bowers saw the Spanish peasants in Jeffersonian terms, and strongly supported the leftist elected government (Second Spanish Republic). When the Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936, at first he recommended support for the nonintervention policies that were agreed to by all the European powers. However, Germany and Italy openly violated that policy, and he switched and called on Washington, unsuccessfully, to help the Republic. Bowers had little influence in Washington. Roosevelt told Bowers in 1939 that he had been right, we should not have remained neutral.) One of his main concerns was the safe evacuation of Americans caught in Spain by the war. In his memoir My Mission to Spain (1954) he was highly critical of fascist agitation and strongly defended the Republic. He is responsible for the oft-repeated observation, which appeared in the subtitle of his book, that the Spanish Civil War was a dress rehearsal for World War II. The 1939 victory of the Spanish fascists, led by Francisco Franco, made his position untenable, and he was recalled. Roosevelt soon chose him as ambassador to Chile, where he remained until 1953. "He was considered among the most popular and successful envoys in Latin America despite not being a professional diplomat and not speaking Spanish." Although disillusioned when Roosevelt's New Deal veered the country away from pristine low-budget Jeffersonian principles, Bowers held his tongue and never criticized his patron. He died of leukemia in 1958 and is buried at Highland Lawn Cemetery in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was survived by his widow, the former Sybil McCaslin, and a daughter, Patricia Bowers. History books Bowers wrote a series of best-selling popular histories, or "fighting popular histories", as one