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Book Review - In Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time, by Ira Katznelson. Was the mid-century dominance of southern Democrats essential to the defeat of Hitler and the triumph of American democracy?

One of the great "What if?" questions of the 20th century is how America would have been different if Henry Wallace rather than Harry Truman had succeeded Franklin Roosevelt in the White House. Filmmaker Oliver Stone has revived this debate in his current ten-part Showtime series, "The Untold History of the United States," and his new book (written with historian Peter Kuznick) of the same name.