The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944-1945 [Hardcover]

Robert Ferrell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 1998

In this authoritative account, Robert H. Ferrell shows how the treatment of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's illness in 1944- 1945 was managed by none other than the president himself. Although this powerful American president knew that he suffered from cardiovascular disease, he went to great lengths to hide that fact—both from his physician and from the public. Why Roosevelt disguised the nature of his illness may be impossible to discern fully. He was a secretive man who liked to assign only parts of tasks to his assistants so that he, the president, would be the only one who knew the whole story. The presidency was his life, and he did not wish to give it up.

The president's duplicity, though not easily measurable, had a critical effect on his performance. Placed on a four-hour-a-day schedule by his physicians, Roosevelt could apply very little time to his presidential duties. He took long vacations in South Carolina, Warm Springs, the Catoctin Mountains, and Hyde Park, as well as lengthy journeys to Hawaii, Canada, and Yalta. Important decisions were delayed or poorly made. America's policy toward Germany was temporarily abandoned in favor of the so-called Morgenthau Plan, which proposed the "pastoralization" of Germany, turning the industrial heart of Europe into farmland. Roosevelt nearly ruined the choice of Senator Harry S. Truman as his running mate in 1944 by wavering in the days prior to the party's national convention. He negotiated an agreement with Winston Churchill on sharing postwar development of nuclear weapons but failed to let the State Department know. And, in perhaps the most profoundly unwise decision, Roosevelt accepted a fourth term when he could not possibly survive it.

In his final year, a year in which he faced crucial responsibility regarding World War II and American foreign policy, Franklin D. Roosevelt failed to serve the nation as a healthy president would have. Reading like a mystery story, The Dying President clears up many of the myths and misunderstandings that have surrounded Roosevelt's last year, finally revealing the truth about this missing chapter in FDR's life.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Presidential historian Ferrell (emeritus, Indiana Univ.; Choosing Truman, LJ 3/15/94) has written a concise account of the last year of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's life. Many historians have speculated about the cause of Roosevelt's death, and rumors have persisted for years that he died of a brain tumor or cancer. Using the latest evidence, Ferrell concludes that Roosevelt died of a cardiovascular disease. He not only explores the theories surrounding FDR's death but posits that FDR knew how serious his health problems were, and he also considers whether the president's illness affected the decisions he made. In this excellent treatment of Roosevelt's last year, Ferrell is able to convey complex situations in easily understood terms. Unlike his book on Harding (The Strange Death of President Harding, Univ. of Missouri, 1997), which left a number of questions unanswered, this work should end some of the controversy surrounding Roosevelt's death.?Richard P. Hedlund, Ashland Community Coll., Ashland, KY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Unquestionably, FDR was not healthy enough to survive a fourth term, yet his death was a tremendous national shock, showing the affection with which he was regarded--and how effectively his debilitation was concealed. Ferrell's mining of the president's medical condition has unearthed interesting nuggets about the cover-up, such as the fact that FDR's medical chart is missing. However, a diary kept by Roosevelt's cousin, Margaret Suckley, has recently surfaced and it, along with the memoirs of his cardiologist, forms the basis for this day-by-day account of his decline. A thorough and diligent historian, Ferrell presents the provable facts and then collects in a final chapter his speculations about FDR's motives for hiding his condition. Ferrell's views seem reasonable--FDR was self-contained, felt that he was indispensable, and was, perhaps, unwilling to face medical reality--and he explains how these factors came to bear on the larger questions, such as the critical decisions taken, or not taken, because of FDR's inability to work during the climax of World War II. The last word on the subject--unless FDR's chart ever surfaces. Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: University of Missouri; 1St Edition edition (April 3, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826211712
• ISBN-13: 978-0826211712
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,657,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant analysis that sheds new light on FDR's legacy., December 11, 1998

By 

Steven L. Rearden (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944-1945 (Hardcover)

Though a definitive account of FDR's health problems may never be possible, Ferrell's book is probably as close as we are likely to come. As Ferrell recounts, FDR by 1944 was so ill that he could put in no more than four hours of work a day, and usually only one or two. Unable to concentrate for long periods, FDR gave intermient attention to postwar foreign policy and addressed problems piecemeal. Put simply, FDR was incapable of overseeing the development of coherent and consistent policies. If Ferrell is right, and I find his evidence compelling, the notion advanced by some historians that Truman reversed FDR's policy of postwar cooperation with the Soviet Union, thereby precipitating the cold war, needs rethinking. Ferrell has done a laudable job, not only of shedding new light on FDR's medical problems, but of bring out their broader implications.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile reading for our times, August 11, 2001

By 

David M. Sapadin (Naperville, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944-1945 (Hardcover)

Some have written that Ferrell's work is sloppy and depressing. I disagree. Ferrell does an excellent job of showing 21st Century readers just how different this country was 50 years ago. That the entire country could look at Roosevelt during his last run for office - and know that he was a dying man - and not know it at the same time, is amazing. This is the same country that couldn't deal directly with a President in a wheel chair. The country knew it, but didn't know it, all at the same time. How different was the relationship between the press and the White House!

The purpose of this book is not simply to drive home the point that Roosevelt was a dying man when he ran for a fourth term. The point of this book is about collective denial. The fact that most of the country suffered from it, used it, and both benefitted from it in some ways, and paid for it in others. Collective denial isn't much different from individual denial. It is a powerful mechanism that existed not only in the relationship between FDR and the country, but between FDR and himself. It also is the mechanism that allowed the United States to fight WWII to "make the world safe for democracy," while at the same time the country was somehow unaware of its own racist, anti-democratic values. Ferrell's book should be read within the context of the times, so that it may shed light on ours.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Anorexically thin..., May 13, 2005

By 

Cynthia K. Robertson (beverly, new jersey USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944-1945 (Hardcover)

The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt 1944-1945 by Robert H. Ferrell isn't much of a book, and it doesn't cover much information not previously published.

Most FDR fans know the basic facts about his life and death. In 1944, his daughter, Anna Roosevelt Boettiger, insisted that her father have a complete physical because of what could be seen as a visible and marked physical decline. Prior to that, the president's standing physician, Dr. Ross McIntire, was a Navy doctor whose specialty was Ear, Nose and Throat. A battery of doctors from Bethesda Naval Hospital discovered that FDR suffered from severe hypertension and congestive heart failure. In 1944, there was little the medical profession could do for these two maladies. Unbelievably, the president was kept in the dark about his health, and he never asked questions about his health, constant medical testing, or his treatments. These medical experts (who took over his treatment) were also not consulted about FDR's decision to run for a fourth term.

There is not much new in The Dying President, except what comes from the diaries of FDR's distant cousin and confident, Margaret Daisy Suckley. But even these revelations don't add much to the story, other than the fact that FDR did know that Dr. Howard Bruenn was a cardiologist. Ferrell does offer the theories that FDR could have suffered from stomach cancer or melanoma. But he provides no additional research to prove or disprove these already published speculations.

When discussing a book written by Dr. Ross McIntire about FDR, Ferrell describes it as "absurdly thin." The same can be said about The Dying President. The body of this book is only 152 pages, and 36 of these pages are photographs. Ferrell also claims that FDR was such an ill man, that his omissions and mistakes changed the course of history. History reveals otherwise. Even his own cabinet member, Frances Perkins, was quoted as saying "He has a great and terrible job to do, and he's got to do it, even if it kills him."

I recommend you save your money and read The Hidden Campaign by Hugh Evans or FDR's Last Year by Jim Bishop for a better accounting of Roosevelt's last years.