With one presidential assassination and three other attempts in the last three decades, much of the public may have come to believe that the perils of the presidency arise principally from violence. If so, this volume by Kenneth R. Crispell, MD, university professor of medicine and law emeritus at the University of Virginia, and Carlos F. Gomez, a fellow in the Pew program of the University of Chicago, should dispel this illusion. In a work that will interest many physicians, they deal with dangers to the presidency arising from disabling and undisclosed illness in the 20th-century White House. In fact, they show that illnesses deliberately concealed from the public may have had decisive effects on elections and certainly left some presidents incapable of performing their duties properly.
The book is largely devoted to a careful study of the health conditions of three 20th-century presidents—Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John