Nothing to Fear: FDR in Photographs - Softcover

Although we have many fine biographies of Franklin Roosevelt, nothing conveys his ebullience and determination as a photograph can. Here, in some 165 shots of FDR, dating from his youth to just prior to his death and also showing family, political associates, and the public events of his times, one can see the greatness of leadership he provided across both depression and war. The least familiar and so most interesting photographs show FDR as a child and then a young politician and president, but with wheelchair, crutches, or braces visible, as they rarely were to his contemporaries or to the generations who know FDR only in history. Gallagher, whose FDR's Splendid Deception examined how Roosevelt was able to lead through crisis despite his polio, includes a brief, admiring biographical text. His book, although an optional purchase, will nicely complement the FDR biographies already owned by most public and academic libraries. Robert F. Nardini, Chichester, NH
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gallagher writes as an FDR admirer, for his book does not address the many controversies of Roosevelt's career in any sustained way. Rather, Gallagher's text is more like an enlarged caption to the dozens of photographs that are his book's main attraction. These indeed project the jaunty, optimistic, indomitable magnetism of Roosevelt --smile, cigarette holder, and leg braces included--which will not fail to affect the browsers who will be Gallagher's audience. They'll sense the optimism of the Roosevelt persona captured by photos from his boyhood, by the PR photos taken in his early political career in the Wilson administration, by the pictures of his rehabilitation from polio, and by the selection of images from his presidency. Adulatory and uncritical, Gallagher's summary may spark the curious to seek weightier literature about FDR, which is hardly as unadulterated in its praise as this work is. Gilbert Taylor
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