Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America (Hardcover)

by Adam Cohen (Author)
Key Phrases: farm belt, tuberculosis association, relief administration, New York, White House, New Deal (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
New York Times editorial board member Cohen (coauthor, American Pharaoh) delivers an exemplary and remarkably timely narrative of FDR's famous first Hundred Days as president. Providing a new perspective on an oft-told story, Cohen zeroes in on the five Roosevelt aides-de-camp whom he rightly sees as having been the most influential in developing FDR's wave of extraordinary actions. These were agriculture secretary Henry Wallace, presidential aide Raymond Moley, budget director Lewis Douglas, labor secretary Frances Perkins and Civil Works Administration director Harry Hopkins. This group, Cohen emphasizes, did not work in concert. The liberal Perkins, Wallace and Hopkins often clashed with Douglas, one of the few free-marketers in FDR's court. Moley hovered somewhere in between the two camps. As Cohen shows, the liberals generally prevailed in debates. However, the vital foundation for FDR's New Deal was crafted through a process of rigorous argument within the president's innermost circle rather than ideological consensus. Cohen's exhaustively researched and eloquently argued book provides a vital new level of insight into Roosevelt's sweeping expansion of the federal government's role in our national life. (Jan. 12)
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From Bookmarks Magazine
Critics agree that by focusing on five aides to the president, Nothing to Fear provides a new and interesting perspective on an epochal period in American politics. Cohen gears his writing to the lay reader, sparing the heavy policy analysis and producing a narrative both enjoyable and compelling. While the New York Times Book Review notes that focusing only on FDR's first 100 days might yield a misleading impression of the New Deal and that Cohen's framework—the five biographical sketches of five key FDR aides—represents "only a sampling of the many planets orbiting Roosevelt's sun," reviewers generally agree that Cohen's close view serves his book well. By examining five aides with diverse political views, Cohen insightfully sketches the ideological complexity of FDR's start in office, while also establishing a perspective on the committed leftward course his presidency ultimately took. 
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The (January 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159420196X
• ISBN-13: 978-1594201967
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #32,282 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Narrative History, but not a Template for 2009, February 7, 2009

By	Jonathan Zasloff - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Nothing to Fear is a superb work of narrative. Cohen writes very well, and his portraits of FDR's key advisors during the One Hundred Days are sensitively drawn as well as accurate.

Roosevelt himself seems to take a back seat in the narrative, and to a large extent, this works well, because it helps to explain why the legislation that emerged out of the One Hundred Days seemed so contradictory. The Economic Act, backed by fierce fiscal conservative budget director Lewis Douglas, slashed spending, eliminated thousands of federal workers, and cut off thousands of injured veterans from their disability payments. Yet the National Industrial Recovery Act contained the most massive public works program in US history -- no doubt because those provisions were the brainchild of Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, who had little use for the Hooverism of Douglas.

Nothing to Fear is particuarly useful because it organizes for the reader what was in fact an unorganized storm of legislation. And it does this also by looking through the prism of Roosevelt's advisors. Thus, we can see some of the main outlines by following these personnel: 1) the Banking Act (Raymond Moley); 2) the Economy Act (Douglas); 3) the Agricultural Adjustment Act (Agriculture Secretary Henry A. Wallace); 4) the public works provisions in the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Civilian Conservation Corps (Perkins); and 5) the Federal Emergency Relief Act (Harry Hopkins, who did not show up until the 73rd day). And Cohen's narrative talents are deft enough also to seamlessly weave in other major pieces of legislation such as the Securities Act of 1933 and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

So if you are looking for a riveting narrative of the period, then Nothing To Fear is your book.

Analytically, however, the book falls somewhat short -- thus, 4 stars. Cohen focuses on the advisors, but by the end of the story, it becomes clear that Roosevelt remained firmly in control. Douglas initially won the battle over spending because of Roosevelt's innate fiscal conservatism; Perkins and Hopkins (and to a lesser extent Wallace) eventually won the war because Roosevelt either changed his mind or came to see that the contradiction between fiscal conservatism and vigorous federal action could no longer be papered over. Why? What happened in Roosevelt's mind? While we cannot put the 32nd President on the couch, we can at least review the possible explanations and see which one fits better.

Moreover, Cohen does the New Deal a disservice by looking at it from so high a perspective. He argues that The Hundred Days changed the nature of the federal government because it recognized that economic prosperity was a federal responsibility. Perhaps. But the NATURE of federal involvement was a critical difference. The NIRA's National Recovery Administration, and the AAA's Agricultural Adjustment Administration took centralized planning to a level not seen before -- or since. Instead, the New Deal gradually transformed itself into a more social welfare direction, with the Social Security Act, the Wagner Act, the WPA etc. That is a very different direction from centralized planning. Cohen recognizes this, but it doesn't quite fit into his narrative, so he sort of buries it at the end.

That said, Nothing to Fear is well worth reading. It is hardly a model for 2009, because conditions are different, and just as importantly, the Republican Party, unlike in 1933, has decided to obstruct as much as it can. Today's GOP has already essentially attempted to filibuster the stimulus package -- a path that would have been unheard of in 1933. But it does show how policy evolves by fits and starts, and what emerged by 1936 was not predicted by the pundits in 1933. And that is a lesson worth recalling today.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A timely book, March 19, 2009

By	Jon Hunt "musician, teacher" (Old Greenwich, Ct. USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As the Obama administration picks its way through the wreckage of the last eight years, it is often said that these are the worst times since the Great Depression. While the corollary is appealing the overriding difference is that President Obama has Franklin Roosevelt and the new Deal as a guide...Roosevelt and his advisors had no such shepherd...they had to make it all up on the fly.

The cover of Adam Cohen's remarkable new book, "Nothing to Fear" shows a poignantly optimistic Franklin Delano Roosevelt perched upon the back of a car seat. While his first hundred days usually depict the president at the center of activity, "Nothing to Fear" operates in reverse. The major players are featured with Roosevelt at the controls. Cohen cites each character with solid background and goes on not only to explain how each one contributed to the first hundred days but the interaction among them. It makes for great reading.

At the core are men like Raymond Moley, an early close advisor to FDR, Lewis Douglas, a wealthy Arizonan who was the most conservative influence and was the person most at odds with the others, Henry Wallace, the rumpled, liberal Agriculture Secretary, and Harry Hopkins, whose farsightedness in the area of where money should be spent led him to become one of the most powerful men in Washington. But the most fascinating of all is Labor Secretary Frances Perkins. The book shines when Cohen describes her stiff New England background which she gave up to be in the service of the thousands of needy people she came to know. Perkins was only one of two cabinet members to stay with FDR through his entire twelve years in the White House (Interior Secretary Harold Ickes was the other) and her loyalty to the president was unswerving.

Cohen is good at describing the tensions that existed as bills were hammered out in nighttime sessions and often had to be reworked multiple times only to be met by skeptics in Congress who threatened to derail many parts of the New Deal. It's good to remember that within a year, major criticisms of many of FDR's programs came under a harsh light and within that time period both Moley and Douglas had departed. Cohen reminds us that there were good and bad lasting effects of this fireworks of legislation....much of the farm relief turned into subsidies that over time proved bad, but out of it came Social Security and, as is practical today, the FDIC.

There was a sense in 1933 that President Roosevelt ought to have been given a good deal of the benefit of the doubt to get the country moving again. Indeed, he garnered a good amount of Republican support, initially, for his policies. Congress appears to be run by "smaller" people today, and Republicans seem only functional in blocking President Obama's desire to set a new course. They would be better positioned by reading "Nothing to Fear", and to be reminded that when the United States was in a major crisis, partisanship was put aside. I highly recommend Adam Cohen's book as a timely offering and a good historical account of FDR's first hundred days.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Look Beyond Roosevelt, June 25, 2009

By	Mike W. (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

Adam Cohen's "Nothing to Fear" is a great read on the the New Deal. When I picked up this book, I expected to read a lot about Roosevelt himself.

What makes this book great is its focus on the characters that really deserve the credit (or blame, in the eyes of conservatives). He brings about the fascinating stories of Francis Perkins, Henry A Wallace, Harry Hopkins, and the lone conservative, Lewis Douglas. Cohen especially focuses on Perkins' role, as the woman whose policies and goals were also seen through during the New Deal. These people were the ones devising policy, as Roosevelt himself was against massive public works projects originally.

A great read, and a clear outline of the New Deal. It also makes the argument that although shifting away from Douglas/Hoover conservatism, it was not the socialism it could have been.