What do you think?
Rate this book
The Essential Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The only book of its kind on the market, a one-volume compilation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's greatest speeches, messages, and fireside talks features an attractive new book jacket depicting the new FDR memorial in Washington, D.C.
334 pages, Hardcover
First published January 25, 1995
1 person is currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Franklin D. Roosevelt
415 books136 followersFranklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was the thirty-second President of the United States. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945, and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms of office. He was a central figure of the 20th century during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the economic and banking systems. Although recovery of the economy was incomplete until almost 1940, many programs initiated continue to have instrumental roles in the nation's commerce, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). One of his most important legacies is the Social Security system.
Roosevelt won four presidential elections in a row, causing a realignment political scientists call the Fifth Party System. His aggressive use of the federal government re-energized the Democratic Party, creating a New Deal Coalition which dominated American politics until the late 1960s. He and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, remain touchstones for modern American liberalism. Conservatives vehemently fought back, but Roosevelt usually prevailed until he tried to pack the Supreme Court in 1937. Thereafter, the new Conservative coalition successfully ended New Deal expansion; during the war it closed most relief programs like the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps, arguing unemployment had disappeared.
After 1938, Roosevelt championed re-armament and led the nation away from isolationism as the world headed into World War II. He provided extensive support to Winston Churchill and the British war effort before the attack on Pearl Harbor pulled the U.S. into the fighting. During the war, Roosevelt, working closely with his aide Harry Hopkins, provided decisive leadership against Nazi Germany and made the United States the principal arms supplier and financier of the Allies who later, alongside the United States, defeated Germany, Italy and Japan. Roosevelt led the United States as it became the Arsenal of Democracy, putting sixteen million American men into uniform.
On the homefront his term saw the vast expansion of industry, the achievement of full employment, restoration of prosperity and new opportunities opened for African-Americans and women. With his term came new taxes that affected all income groups, price controls and rationing, and relocation camps for 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans as well as thousands of Italian and German-Americans. As the Allies neared victory, Roosevelt played a critical role in shaping the post-war world, particularly through the Yalta Conference and the creation of the United Nations. Roosevelt's administration redefined American liberalism and realigned the Democratic Party based on his New Deal coalition of labor unions; farmers; ethnic, religious and racial minorities; intellectuals; the South; big city machines; and the poor and workers on relief.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the economic and banking systems. Although recovery of the economy was incomplete until almost 1940, many programs initiated continue to have instrumental roles in the nation's commerce, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). One of his most important legacies is the Social Security system.
Roosevelt won four presidential elections in a row, causing a realignment political scientists call the Fifth Party System. His aggressive use of the federal government re-energized the Democratic Party, creating a New Deal Coalition which dominated American politics until the late 1960s. He and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, remain touchstones for modern American liberalism. Conservatives vehemently fought back, but Roosevelt usually prevailed until he tried to pack the Supreme Court in 1937. Thereafter, the new Conservative coalition successfully ended New Deal expansion; during the war it closed most relief programs like the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps, arguing unemployment had disappeared.
After 1938, Roosevelt championed re-armament and led the nation away from isolationism as the world headed into World War II. He provided extensive support to Winston Churchill and the British war effort before the attack on Pearl Harbor pulled the U.S. into the fighting. During the war, Roosevelt, working closely with his aide Harry Hopkins, provided decisive leadership against Nazi Germany and made the United States the principal arms supplier and financier of the Allies who later, alongside the United States, defeated Germany, Italy and Japan. Roosevelt led the United States as it became the Arsenal of Democracy, putting sixteen million American men into uniform.
On the homefront his term saw the vast expansion of industry, the achievement of full employment, restoration of prosperity and new opportunities opened for African-Americans and women. With his term came new taxes that affected all income groups, price controls and rationing, and relocation camps for 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans as well as thousands of Italian and German-Americans. As the Allies neared victory, Roosevelt played a critical role in shaping the post-war world, particularly through the Yalta Conference and the creation of the United Nations. Roosevelt's administration redefined American liberalism and realigned the Democratic Party based on his New Deal coalition of labor unions; farmers; ethnic, religious and racial minorities; intellectuals; the South; big city machines; and the poor and workers on relief.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 13, 2013
This book is a collection of speeches by Franklin Roosevelt from when he was Governor of New York until his message to Congress about the Yalta Conference a little over a month before he died. It includes his Fireside Chats, annual messages to Congress, Inaugural Addresses, speeches to political conventions, other speeches and messages he sent to Hitler, Mussolini and Japan before America's entry into World War II. There's an introduction by the editor, but I feel that the selections would've been helped by having some introductions that place the speech in context to events at the time and explain why that particular speech was chosen to be in this book. Some speeches are obvious choices. Others are more obscure if you're not very familiar with the Roosevelt era.
Still this book is worth reading. I came away with a greater understanding and respect for Franklin Roosevelt. At the same time, it's interesting to see the spin Roosevelt put on the Yalta Conference after I just read Manchester's 3rd volume of his Churchill biography, which makes it clear that Churchill understood Stalin better than Roosevelt did. I also found it interesting to read Roosevelt's speech at the dedication of the Boulder Dam, in light of what we've since learned about the devastating effects of dams on fish and other aquatic organisms, disrupting the natural flow of sediment in stream channels and the effects of the development on the environment in the arid Southwest that was allowed by water and electricity from dams. John Wesley Powell had a much clearer understanding of how man should interact with the environment in the arid Southwest when he explored it in the late 1800's.
Still this book is worth reading. I came away with a greater understanding and respect for Franklin Roosevelt. At the same time, it's interesting to see the spin Roosevelt put on the Yalta Conference after I just read Manchester's 3rd volume of his Churchill biography, which makes it clear that Churchill understood Stalin better than Roosevelt did. I also found it interesting to read Roosevelt's speech at the dedication of the Boulder Dam, in light of what we've since learned about the devastating effects of dams on fish and other aquatic organisms, disrupting the natural flow of sediment in stream channels and the effects of the development on the environment in the arid Southwest that was allowed by water and electricity from dams. John Wesley Powell had a much clearer understanding of how man should interact with the environment in the arid Southwest when he explored it in the late 1800's.
Displaying 1 of 1 review