Splendid Deception Essay

Vivek Patel
P5
8/15/12
Splendid Deception
By - Hugh G. Gallagher Splendid deception is an inspiring and motivational book about Franklin D. Roosevelt and his struggle through the deadly disease known as polio. This biography focuses on the polio aspect of President Roosevelt’s life and what he did to overcome these hardships and be the amazing leader he was known for and still is known as. This biography also goes through the sacrifices that he had to make because of his disease in order to continue leading the American people through the times of war and hardship. Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of the greatest presidents I history due to the time he was in office and his outstanding performance as president even with his polio. The reason this biography is called Splendid Deception is because throughout his whole presidency Franklin D. Roosevelt was deceiving the public. He acted as if he didn’t have polio by walking at public events, never being seen with a wheelchair, climbing stairs, and driving a car which was customized so he could drive without legs. However he had no bad intentions for deceiving the public. He ws only doing it to show the American people and the rest of the world that he was still a strong and capable leader to lead the country through its hardship. The author of this biography, Hugh G. Gallagher, wrote this book with a certain perspective that only he could accomplish. Hugh G. Gallagher also had polio so he knew exactly how FDR felt and how much he had to struggle so others wouldn’t know. So he knew that even though President Roosevelt was smiling on the outside he was in great agony on the inside. These qualities helped him to be able to go into great detail about the pains and problems with having polio and how bad FDR must have felt while he was deceiving the people of America. I think this quality about Gallagher didn’t make him biased but made everyone else who wrote about FDR biased. Since Gallagher was the first author to truly talk about FDR’s polio he was able to describe exactly what it felt like to do the risky things the he did. After reading this book I felt that it had a serious impact on my beliefs and my effort and motivation. I enjoyed reading this book because of a couple of reasons. The first being I was surprised I would actually like it because I usually fin biography’s really boring and cant pay attention to them. The second reason I like it is because I really got to know things about FDR that I never knew before, for example before this book I thought of him as a good president and now I think of him as a really awesome and hard working president who put the country’s interest over his own personal health. After reading about how hard FDR worked considering his severe illness, it reminded me that if he can lead a struggling nation through 12 years then I can do anything as long as I work hard and determined to accomplish it. I feel like this is a great book for lazy people to read because it will inspire them to get off their butts and do something good and worthwhile in lives. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president of this country for over 12 years and had polio during his whole presidency, but didn’t let his disability stop him from achieving success in his lifetime. He did many things to always keep the people happy even when it meant causing pain to himself. FDR was a great president and will always be known as the president who worked the hardest to keep the country running smoothly.