Fdr's Splendid Deception

Rating:
Summary: Unprecedented Look at Roosevelt
Review: Gallagher explains eloquently the impact that poliomyelitis had on Franklin Roosevelt and the various aspects of his life. The crowning achievement is the wealth of photographs (18 in all) that depict the struggles and tribulations being crippled cost Roosevelt. The photographs might stand alone as a photo essay to explain the various ways Roosevelt moved around and tried as best he could, with the effort of his team, to hide his affliction from the general public. The two known photographs of Roosevelt in his wheelchair appear in this book, which male this book a gem in any Roosevelt researcher's collection.

Aside from the photographs, Gallagher cleverly explains in the text the circumstances of poliomyelitis, the various treatments Roosevelt underwent initially and ultimately the course of therapy at Warm Springs, Georgia. The necessity to hide FDR's debilitating degeneration from the average voting public was so prominent and preeminent in Roosevelt's mind that he went to great lengths to do so, including walking on his own with heavy steel braces or leaning on his two strong sons. This work is a masterful examination of Roosevelt and his administration's, both as Governor of New York and President of the US, efforts to erase forever polio from the public perception of Franklin Roosevelt.