The Fireside Chats

By Franklin Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945) was the 32nd President of the United States. He led his country and the world during a time of massive economic crisis and war. As the only American president elected to more than two terms (1933-1945), he was able to build up the support necessary to move the country forward, his temperament of both optimism and activism helped to revive the national spirit. Throughout his entire presidency, FDR gave a series of fireside chats, which were thirty evening radio addresses.

Roosevelt would urge listeners support his New Deal measures and to have faith in the banking system. These addresses were incredibly successful, not just as ways of getting legislation passed, but were massively popular in themselves, beating out other famous shows during radio's "Golden Age." FDR reassured the American people that the nation was going to recover and shared his hopes and plans for the country. The chats ranged from fifteen to forty-five minutes and interestingly, eighty percent of the words used were based on the 1000 most commonly used words in the English dictionary.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing
• Release date: Dec 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781304723260

Reviews for The Fireside Chats

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm not reviewing this on the quality of its writing, or the depths of its politics. These were eight of the radio talks given by the President of the United States at a time when people listened and looked to him for leadership. The first was in 1933, at a time when the banking infrastructure was collapsing and the country was in a panic. As I read it, my first thought was that he sounded condescending, but as I read further, I realized that it wasn't condescension, it was that soothing calm voice one uses when speaking to a badly wounded animal.I may or may not agree with all of his policies, but I am interested to know what they were, how they were presented, how they evolved and were implemented, and whether or not they worked. My knowledge of these things is very superficial and I feel that these eight Fireside Chats are the tip of the iceberg.