FDR and Fear Itself: The First Inaugural AddressThe only thing we have to fear is fear itself. These are some of the most famous, most quoted, and best remembered words in American political history. They seem to be a natural idiomatic expression of American democratic will, yet these words from Franklin Roosevelt's first inaugural address had an actual author who struggled with how best to express that thought_and it was not the new president. In this innovative book on the crafting of FDR's crucial speech, Davis W. Houck leads the reader from its negative, mechanical, and Hooverian first draft through its final revision, its delivery, and the responses of those who were inspired by it during those troubled times. Houck's analysis, dramatic and at points riveting, focuses on three themes: how the speech came to be written, an explication of the text itself, and its reception. Drawing on the writings and memories of several people who were present in the crowd at the inauguration, Houck shows how powerfully the new president's speech affected those who were there or who heard it on the radio. Some were so moved by Roosevelt's delivery that they would have been willing to make him a dictator, and many believed such inspired wor |
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