History probably considered the top three greatest american president s along with washington and lincoln. It is an assessment based on the fact he steered the nation through the two greatest crises. One internally, the Great Depression and one externally, world war ii. There has been a long and ongoing debate among historians as to whether history is influenced more by individuals or larger social, cultural and economic forces. I think it is of course both of those. Certainly it seems to me that Franklin D Roosevelt is a prime example of the significant of an individuals impact on history. Broader social and Economic Conditions that allowed fdr to become a great leader, but in his case i believe it was force of personality that was a paramount element as i think we will see as we go along. Rooseveltse presidency beginning with a brief look at the conditions in the country that led to his election in 1932. The economic collapse of 1920 nine had brought the worst conditions the country had experienced since the civil war. Herbert hoover seemed incapable of leading the way out of it despite some moderate attempts to do so. The suffering was widespread with approximately one quarter of the workforce unemployed and others having to take substantial pay cuts. The cold statistics do not completely reveal the suffering. Soup kitchens, bread lines in the cities were opened to help the least fortunate. You have probably seen pictures of those children. There are many stories to illustrate this, but one of the most poignant involved a tooolteacher who suggested one of her Young Students that the child go home because the child appeared to be hungry. The teacher said perhaps you should go home and get something to eat. To which the child replied, i cannot. This is my sisters day to eat. No doubt, hundreds of thousands of stories along that line. In the midst of conditions such as these, the nation was ripe for change. Indeed, radical change might have occurred had not the American People maintained their faith in the democratic capitalistic system. For purposes of comparison, it might be noted it was conditions such as these that brought about the rise of totalitarian dictators in europe. Notably hitlers in germany and miscellany in italy hit where in germany and mussolini in italy. There is a senator who said if this country ever needed a mussolini, it needs one now. Whoe were some persons believed such measures as radical as fascism around the other extreme, communism, might there were others who held out hope that recovery might made through additional channels. The 1932 election brought with it the potential for securing new leadership, a chance to remove hoover in favor of someone who might be better equipped to deal with the ordeal of a depression. The republicans renominated hoover. He had no chance to be reelected. Whether or not they were justified in doing it, the American People basically blamed hoover for the present. Jokes and anecdotes to illustrate his unpopularity. One of the most common of those was the story he was walking down a street in washington with the secretary of the treasury. That was the days when you had payphones if any of you remember payphones. Case, the story is hoover asked an active and him for a nickel to make a call. He replied quote, take this dime. Call all of your friends. In light of the widespread feeling such as that, it was obvious however the democrats nominated was going to be elected. The question was, who was that going to be . One who was considered was alan smith. Alan smith had run previously in 1928. He thought this might be his year. Of theas not the nominee democrats that year as you know because the democrats chose Franklin D Roosevelt. The roosevelt name was of course wellknown to every american of that generation. Franklin was a distant cousin of teddy roosevelt. He became accustomed in the campaign to hearing comments from crowds length i voted for your father or you look just like your old man. Case, this association, not particularly liked by theodore roosevelt, certainly did not hurt roosevelts political career even though he was of course a democrat. Like theodore roosevelt, franklin had been born into a wealthy new york family. He had attended harvard. He had been elected the new york state legislature. He had served as governor of new york. He had even served as assistant secretary of the navy in the wilson the administration. Also like teddy roosevelt, franklin had been nominated for Vice President earlier in 1920. A lot of people did not know that. I did not know that for many years myself. Tr of course had been elected Vice President in 1900 and became president. Lost the vicevelt president to race in 1920. Democratic ticket lost to warren harding. In any case, the two roosevelt had someo roosevelts similarity but were also quite different in their personalities. Tr was a fiery, pugnacious tort. Always ready for a fight, either physical or political. Sophisticated. Re always eager to solve problems medically and amicably. As a young man, fdr seemed to have everything. Wealth, social position and prestige. He was charming, handsome, sophisticated. His most glaring fault people sometimes felt was he was a bit overbearing, pompous, conceited, we might say. Some found him to be plain arrogant. After 1921, that changed dramatically. Roosevelthe year that was stricken with polio, infantile paralysis. Childs disease generally. Roosevelts disease was misdiagnosed for a long time. One reason being the doctors could not imagine a grown man, and apparently healthy, strong, young adult could have polio. But indeed, that is what he had. The terrible fight he went through to recover from that disease gave him a compassion, tolerance and the strength of will he had never exhibited before. Many persons noted this changed. An observer noted, roosevelt had undergone a spiritual transformation. Another one on seeing him after his recovery found them to be quote, a different person from that charming and at times irresponsible young man of the old wells and days. Polioo year fight against had given him new moral and physical strength. Said that biographers quote, the suffering had purged him of for volunteer and arrogance, enlarging his compassion and deepening his understanding. Roosevelt himself acknowledged on at least one occasion the profound influence that illness had had on his personality. Was during the depression when things were so bad. Roosevelt always seemed cheerful, upbeat. We will see a few instances of that. People how could he be so happy and carefree . He, if you had spent two years in bed just trying to wiggle your big to, your big toe, after that, anything would seem easy. In thisvery he made and photograph, you can see this jaunty appearance he usually exhibited. Recovery. Remarkable it did not dampen his spirits but did leave him crippled and unable to walk unassisted for the rest of his life. And yet, his personality was so brilliantis manner so. Some did not realize how handicapped he was. Photographers at that time helped to perpetuate an image of a healthy roosevelt by a voluntary agreement among them not to publish pictures that situations that show him weak or incapacitated that might embarrass him. All of this together with his you to full and powerful speaking voice and his smile proved so convincing that some americans did not realize he was virtually an invalid. The campaign of 1932 was a fork on conclusion. The nation had was a foregone conclusion. The nation had enough of herbert hoover. When people heard the cheerful sound of happy days are here again, they believed it or at least wanted to believe it. I will not sing it for you all. The verses were, and if you are old enough, you can remember. This became a theme song for the democratic party. Happymany years, days are here again. The skies above are clear again. Lets all sing a song of cheer again. Happy days are here again. He accepted the democratic nomination, he made a statement that led to the phrase still use in which he said i pledge to you and i pledge to myself a new deal for the American People. He later said, and this is a needs and thentry country demands bold, persistent experimentation. Now, we think of roosevelt as supremely confident for reasons you will see if you do not already know. Roosevelt it appears was not totally confident he could successfully do his job. Nightory is that on the before he was to be inaugurated, he was going to bed or being helped into bed as he had to be by one of his sons. Life i he said, all my have been afraid of one thing. My classes i in always stopped and asked the students, what do you think that one thing he was he had been afraid of . Fearthey would say is because of the inaugural speech. Something tangible that he was afraid of. They rarely ever got it. It took so long i had to finally tell them. Consider that he was paralyzed. He could not move without his braces and then with great difficulty. What would you be afraid of if you could not move . Some would say fire. That is right. I have only been afraid of one thing, fire. But tonight, i am afraid i just might be able to do this job. His public announcements never betrayed any doubt. On his inauguration day, march 4, 1933, he spoke boldly and reassuringly in what was to become his most famous line in all president ial inaugural speeches when he proclaimed, this great nation will endure as it has endured. Will revive and prosper. First of all, let me assert my firm belief the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Dramatic. Was americans believed in him. They wanted to believe in him. More importantly, to believe in themselves. This renewed confidence was aided by an innovation that with, thecame up fabled fireside chats. Using the radio which by then was standard in american homes. He made direct contact with the American People. Week innd of his first office, march 12, he delivered the first of his socalled chats. It was very lowkey. It was simply and honestly speaking to the American People. He said, i want to speak with the people of the United States. He went on to discuss the problems of the nation and warned in understanding and reassuring tones it is hard to imagine how unusual this was to have a personal contact with the president. Does was the days before tv and dare i say it, tweets. The people listened and immediately the mood of the nation began to change from one of hopelessness and despair to one of faith and optimism. That faith was well rewarded by roosevelts aggressive action against the depression. Not many of the ideas he him moment and were his own but were developed by advisors. There was a group of advisers who held some minor positions in the government. The main thing is they were roosevelts advisors from home he got many of his ideas from home he got many of his ideas. Roosevelt by all accounts was not a brilliant man. Historians have one said was his key characteristic was quote, a firstclass temperament. He could listen to other people, glean ideas from different sources. The one thing the new deal was above all i do not have time today to go into detail about all the specific new deal agencies and programs. That is beyond the purview of this lecture. What you would see if i did that, you would see it was above all pragmatic. It was not a clearly thought out and welldefined program from the outset but it was to try different approaches to solve different problems. If it did not work, try something else. In any case, that was what was behind it. All these things were put into effect. Of them, during the first three months, the great 100 days of the roosevelt presidency. In that time because these programs some of which i will suchon the sand was that one leading historian said beyondone order was dead recall. Allther words, it produced of us produce the america all abuzz have grown up in. Creating the kind of democracy we have to this day. Generally speaking, roosevelt had three objectives. They were relief, recovery and reform. That was essentially the order in which he approached them. Find some help for the unemployed and to help the people who were in desperate need. Try to bring about recovery for the economy and ultimately to reform the american system, which maybe was a bit of a reach as it turned out. In any case, he first turned his attention to reform to relief. All, thelved first of reform of the banking system. One of the great causes of the depression was the collapse of the banks, taking with them peoples life savings. We are not terrified so much of that today. There was not a safety net then. To there was nobody to turn to. This byt addressed first declaring a bank holiday. Closing all the banks and keeping them closed until the andem could be strengthened put on a sound basis before they could be allowed to open. He gave a fireside chat telling people their money would be safe in banks. Itd not have to fear about losing their savings. One of the key elements of that was the creation of the federal deposit insurance corporation. At the time, insured deposits would be up to 5,000. I do not know what it is now, but it is more than that. People began to regain confidence in the banks. The economicey to system, public confidence. That began to return. Once he had taken that initial step or those steps to improve the banking system, roosevelt turned his attention to matters of unemployment, an enormous problem at the time. Various agencies attempted to deal with this, socalled alphabet agencies were created. One of the most popular of the mall was one of the first. It was the civilian conservation corps. That really was a popular organization. So many unemployed young people and this was designed to take young people, eventually totaled 3 million, and put them in uniform and put them to work doing some kind of work. We for station, swamp drainage. Mainly reforestation, swamp drainage. One times me of i was in some store and the clerk an older gentleman who notrly was not he did sound like a virginian to me. I said, where are you from . I think he said he was from brooklyn. Your wayw did you find to virginia . He said, back in the new deal in the 1930s, i was hired either hired by the ccc and i worked in the camp. I am embarrassed to say i did not know exactly where it was. It is close to fredericksburg. He said while he worked at the camp, he met a local woman and they got married and he moved here. I said, what was the ccc like . He thought it was the greatest experience of his life. It put him to work. He was unemployed. In his case, it resulted in a wife as well. That was a bonus i guess. Ccc was very popular. Then there was something called the civil works administration. It was designed to provide temporary employment to solve an immediate crisis in unemployment. It put people to work during 1933 or 1934. Thousands of people with the such as leaf raking or other tasks that appeared to some opponents as makework. An the charge organization engaging in then what was called boondoggleing. Men would hire one group of to dig a hole in the ground and then move onto something else. Then comes a crew to fill in the hole and fill in the next. That is probably an exaggeration. Not only did it put people to work. It had an additional effect in that it put money back into the economy. That was a secondary but very important aspect of many of these new deal agencies. The biggest and most complex and potentially most farreaching of the new deal efforts was the , the billf the nra that was passed. The National Recovery administration. This t caused roosevelt called this the most important legislation enacted by the american congress. Tot is because it attempted create what was called a planned economy. Too complicated to get into now but it involved a great deal of voluntary selfdenial on the part of both labor and management. Was visionary. Of we the prospect organizing, reordering the economy of reorganizing and reordering the economy. After some initial success, the nra was struck down by the Supreme Court in decision rendered in 1935. This was one of several Supreme Court decisions that struck at various new deal agencies and attempts. We are getting back to that in a few minutes. It also established something called the Public Works Administration. Industrialrovide for recovery as well as unemployment relief. It undertook large projects. Buildings. Some i believe on this campus constructed with funds from that organization and or from another i will get to in a moment. The Public Works Administration undertook Major Construction projects. Buildingsways, public and so long. And other Public Organization was the wpa, the Works Progress administration. It had the same goal in that it attempted to provide jobs. Mainly for whitecollar workers. The pwa was more bluecollar. The wpa was designed to help people like writers, artists, these visions, actors and so on. Critics said these people were engaged in worthless projects and disparaged many of them. Workdid some important particularly in preserving historical artifacts and so on. One of the things they did was record slave narratives. The testimony, the accounts of former slaves still living. By that time, all of them are obviously quite old but those accounts have been very helpful to historians in trying to develop a better view, a clearview of slave a clearer view of slave life. Over eight years, the wpa provided jobs for almost 9 million persons. One of the major new deal agencies. Herehe insert something kind of interesting i think. This immediate and extensive reform drew attention across the world. Leaderandcoming world had this to say. Have severed with president roosevelt because he marches straight to his bureaucracy. R this admirer was none other than adolf hitler, who knew something about marching to objectives. All of these projects i have been talking about involved a fundamental change in governmental in financial structure. Economic policy, i should say. It is because they involve a tremendous amount of federal expenditures. Theprevailing belief was government should always maintain a balanced budget. If that were to be done in these times, taxes would have to be budgets to balance the in light of these expenditures. There was a theory at that time promoted by a british economist by the name of john maynard keynes. We refer to it as keynesian economics. Iam not an economist but think the essence of it is in theory that to combat a depression or to help a struggling economy, the government should not be concerned about balancing the budg