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

by Adam Cohen

Overview

"A fascinating account of an extraordinary moment in the life of the United States." —The New York Times

With the world currently in the grips of a financial crisis unlike anything since the Great Depression, Nothing to Fear could not be timelier. This acclaimed work of history brings to life Franklin Roosevelt's first hundred days in office, when he and his inner circle launched the New Deal, forever reinventing the role of the federal government. As Cohen reveals, five fiercely intelligent, often clashing personalities presided over this transformation and pushed the president to embrace a bold solution. Nothing to Fear is the definitive portrait of the men and women who engineered the nation's recovery from the worst economic crisis in American history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143116653
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/26/2010
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Adam Cohen is assistant editorial page editor of The New York Times, where he has been a member of the editorial board since 2002. He was previously a senior writer at Time and is the author of The Perfect Store: Inside eBay and a coauthor of American Pharaoh, a biography of Mayor Richard J. Daley. Before entering journalism, Cohen was an education-reform lawyer, and he has a law degree from Harvard.

Table of Contents

Introduction 11

Chapter 1 "Action, and Action Now" 33

Chapter 2 "Moley! Moley! Moley! Lord God Almighty!" 97

Chapter 3 "The Hardest-Boiled Man in Washington" 171

Chapter 4 "Good Farming; Clear Thinking Right Living" 218

Chapter 5 "Good Lord! This Is a Revolution!" 263

Chapter 6 "'Social Justice' ... Has Been the Maxim of Her Life" 309

Chapter 7 "Just So We Get a Public Works Program" 381

Chapter 8 "He Must Be Part of This Historic Show" 480

Chapter 9 "People Don't Eat in the Long Run - They Eat Every Day" 511

Epilogue: "A Lot Happened Out of That Determination of a Few People, Didn't It?" 547

Acknowledgments 613

Notes 619

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Cohen humanizes the policy process and adds considerable drama to the established storyline." —-Chicago Tribune

Editorial Reviews

Cohen's well-told story belies the cliche about legislation and sausage-making: his narrative is absorbing and enjoyable to read. Admirably game to tackle the heavy-going details of policy making, Nothing to Fear is nonetheless decidedly nonacademic…One might say it's the kind of history you would expect from a newspaper editorialist.
—The New York Times Book Review

David Greenberg

Mr. Cohen…brings this brief but extraordinary period in American history to vivid life. An excellent writer and storyteller, he does so by concentrating not on its central figure, Roosevelt, but on a handful of his aides …Nothing to Fear is a fascinating account of an extraordinary moment in the life of the United States, indeed a page-turner.
—The New York Times

John Steele Gordon

…a valuable addition, a deeply sympathetic and thoroughly convincing portrait of FDR and five of his senior advisers that unearths how the aides' interactions with Roosevelt helped to spawn the New Deal.
—The Washington Post

Matthew Dallek

Journalist Cohen (The Perfect Store: Inside eBay, 2002, etc.) delves into the New Deal archives to fashion an elucidating, pertinent and timely work on the makings of government. The slew of progressive legislation passed during Franklin Roosevelt's first 100 days in office in 1933 broke with the old order of laissez faire economics and redefined the nature of government's responsibilities vis-a-vis its citizens. These policies had critics, to be sure, but they worked, Cohen notes, alleviating people's misery during the Great Depression by offering relief, jobs and, most important, hope. While FDR largely garnered the credit for the country's recovery-and aroused alarm with his autocratic proclamations and tactics-his handpicked minions worked tirelessly behind the scenes to forge the New Deal's landmark programs, often by trial and error. Cohen closely examines the five members of Roosevelt's inner circle who left the most lasting mark on the legislation forged during those 100 days, looking in turn at where they came from, how they gained the president's trust and how they used their experience to make history. Since the banking crisis was FDR's first concern, he chose trusted aide and speechwriter Raymond Moley to work alongside the Treasury Department on the Emergency Banking Act, which tackled the essential tension between spending more to fight the Depression and spending less to balance the budget. Budget Director Lewis Douglas, a conservative, pushed through Congress the Economy Act, a major budget-reduction measure, but he resigned in 1934 when Roosevelt took the country off the gold standard. Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace saved the farm belt with the AgriculturalAdjustment Act; Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, the first female Cabinet member, persuaded FDR to support her ambitious progressive agenda, including workers' rights protections; Harry Hopkins became the leading public-works administrator. Ambitious yet well focused-a marvelously readable study of an epic moment in American history.

Kirkus Reviews

Cohen’s well-told story belies the cliché about legislation and sausage-making: his narrative is absorbing and enjoyable to read.”

New York Times Book Review

Adam Cohen’s cogent chronicle of the pell-mell opening months of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration couldn’t be timelier…In a lucid, intelligent narrative as fast-paced as the hectic Hundred Days, Cohen skillfully charts the course of events with just enough detail, building by accretion a portrait of the stop-and-start process by which sweeping change is made.”

|Los Angeles Times

Timely and engaging…Cohen masterfully renders the backgrounds and personalities of Roosevelt’s inner circle…Cohen humanizes the policy process and adds considerable drama to the established storyline.”

Chicago Tribune

"Cohen humanizes the policy process and adds considerable drama to the established storyline." —Chicago Tribune

From the Publisher