Customer Reviews

Presidential Leadership, Illness, and Decision Making

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Professor McDermott did a good job with the chapter on the JFK presidency; with an excellent attention-getting sidebar about Eisenhower's heart attack in the introduction. But the Woodrow Wilson and FDR chapters were a re-hash of old "news." Recent clinical data was ignored; several recent professional books and clinical studies were omitted from the bibliography; even one of the Dr's names who appeared at the FDR deathbed was misspelled. I also found the index lacking a thoroughness that is seen in academic treatments of this subject area. The author does get applause for rightly holding Wilson's and FDR's doctors accountable for their malpractice and disinformation campaigns. Too bad new information that has been available since 2003, which gives a different diagnosis other than polio for FDR, was omitted. I direct readers to Dr. Goldsmith's "A Conspiracy of Silence," (about FDR); and Dr. Weinstein's "Woodrow Wilson: A Medical and Psychological Biography" for a complete picture. As a historian with extensive research background in presidential illness, it was a good read...but don't look for any new surprises, except in the JFK chapter.