This book consists of an introduction, twelve essays, and appreciation that grew out of a colloquium at the Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg, in the Netherlands, to honour the retirement of Professor David Adams. Organised by the David Bruce Centre at the University of Keele of which he was the first Director, it brings together a range of expertise in a fitting tribute to one of the foremost advocates ' of FDR studies in this country. As Robert A Garson rightly notes his work 'is distinguished by his ability to take fresh looks and ask the most simple, but most puzzling, questions.' (p.207)

The essays themselves, precisely because they are indicative of some of the recent concerns of Roosevelt researchers, are really for teachers rather than their students. All have value but those that particularly caught my interest include Anthony J. Badger who asks 'Whatever Happened to Roosevelt's New Generation of Southerners?', finding the answer partly in the race issue and also liberals' own fatalism. Patricia Clavin examines 'FDR, the Depression and Europe, 1932-1936' noting that the study of diplomatic relations needs to be integrated with economic relations and draws attention to some uncomfortable parallels with the present. Gareth Davies looks at 'The Unsuspected Radicalism of the Social Security Act' arguing that in the light of the pressures from the right and constitutional uncertainty concerning its legitimacy, it was actually a radical development Michaela Honicke in ' "Prevent World War III": An Historiographical Appraisal of Morgenthau's Programme for Germany' asserts that his proposals 'were not an aberration, were not out of line with other contemporary ideas on how to solve the German problem, and were not motivated by revenge.'(p. 168) Stuart S. Kidd explores the administrative tendencies of one New Deal cultural programme in 'Bureaucratic Dynamics and Control of the New Deal's Publicity: Struggles between Core and Periphery in the FSA's Information Division'. S. Jay Kleinberg studying 'Widows' Welfare in the Great Depression' argues that gender and racial bias in fact made for 'an old deal, now sanctioned by federal law.'(p.85) William E. Leuchtenburg in 'The Clintons and the Roosevelts' provides further evidence, if any were needed, that the 42nd President is one of the most shifty individuals ever to occupy the White House; but however much he traduces FDR's legacy it still lives. And Margaret Walsh 'In Whose Interest? Public Policy and Transport during Depression and War' notes the variety of regulatory practice.