FDR's Body Politics: The Rhetoric of Disability (Presidential Rhetoric Series): 8 - Hardcover

Houck, Davis W.; Kiewe, Amos

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 158544233X ISBN 13: 9781585442331

Publisher: Texas A & M University Press, 2003

Synopsis

Franklin Roosevelt instinctively understood that a politician of his era who was unable to control his own body would be perceived as unable to control the body politic. He therefore took great care to hide his polio-induced lameness both visually and verbally. In FDR's Body Politics. Davis W. Houck and Amos Kiewe draw on never-before-used primary sources to analyze the silences surrounding Roosevelt's disability, the words he chose to portray himself and his policies as powerful and health-giving, and the methods he used to maximize the appearance of physical strength. They examine his broad strategies, as well as the speeches Roosevelt delivered during his political comeback after polio struck, to understand how he overcame the whispering campaign against him in 1928 and 1932. Ultimately, this is a story of triumph and courage that reveals a master politician's understanding of the body politic in the most fundamental of ways.

About this title

About the Author

Davis W. Houck is an assistant professor of communication at Florida State University in Tallahassee. His works include Rhetoric as Currency: Hoover, Roosevelt, and the Great Depression and FDR and Fear Itself: The First Inaugural Address, also published by Texas A&M University Press. AMOS Kiewe, director of the speech communications department and associate dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University in New York, has written and edited several books, including The Modern Presidency and Crisis Rhetoric and A Shining City on a Hill; Ronald Reagan's Economic Rhetoric, 1951-1989.

Edition details

• Publisher: Texas A & M University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 158544233X
• ISBN 13: 9781585442331
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160