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Book Cover
Book
Author Houck, Davis W.

Title FDR and fear itself : the first inaugural address / Davis W. Houck
Edition First edition
Published College Station : Texas A&M University Press, [2002]
©2002

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  352.2386 Hou/Faf  AVAILABLE
Description xii, 166 pages ; 23 cm
Series Library of presidential rhetoric
Library of presidential rhetoric.
Contents March 4, 1933 -- September 22, 1932 -- November 8, 1932 -- November 22, 1932 -- February 12-13, 1933 -- February 15-17, 1933 -- February 27-28, 1933 -- February 28-March 3, 1933 -- March 4, 1933 : final scene -- Postscript
Summary ""The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." These are some of the most famous, the most quoted, and the best remembered words in American political history. They seem to be a natural 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 book on the crafting of this 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 words could have come only from a divine source."
"Houck then flashes back to the final year of the 1932 presidential campaign to show how Raymond Moley, the principal architect of the address, came to be trusted by Roosevelt to craft this important speech. Houck traces the relationships of Moley with Roosevelt and Roosevelt's influential confidante, Louis Howe, who was responsible for important changes in the speech's later drafts, including the famous aphorism."--BOOK JACKET
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-159) and index
Subject Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945 -- Oratory.
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945 -- Friends and associates.
Speeches, addresses, etc., American.
SUBJECT United States -- Politics and government -- 1933-1945. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140464
LC no. 2001008550
ISBN 158544197X alkaline paper
1585441988 paperback alkaline paper