![]() Each has at least one phrase that resonates eerily with today's crisis. Some of these recordings are from his famous fireside chats others are taken from speeches. Just imagine listening as a Dust Bowl farmer who could maybe only print his name. Roosevelt calms the fears of the nation and outlines his plan to restore confidence in the banking system. The second thing is the grandiosity of his language, which would be lost on many of today's educated Americans. Roosevelt MaSource National Archives By the time of Roosevelt's inauguration, nearly all of the banks in the nation had temporarily closed in response to mass withdrawals by a panicked public. The first thing you're struck by when listening to these recordings - other than their sometimes-staticky quality - is the timbre of Roosevelt's patrician voice, so unfamiliar to us. In our time of financial crisis, when everyone from the President to the world's richest person is telling us we're near the abyss, it's worth hearing what a previous president said when Americans actually were in the abyss. Imagine how far from Main Street Wall Street must have seemed then. ![]() Millions still depended on farms for subsistence, much less a livelihood. Only one-third of Americans were high school graduates. Unemployment was 25 percent in 1933 and didn't drop to single digits until the U.S. During President Roosevelt’s twelve years in office, the Fireside Chats connected the White House to ordinary American homes as never before. population of 130 million was poor, uneducated and without hope. FDR won popular support for radical programs and executive power grabs by comforting and uplifting his listeners. He used these opportunities to explain his hopes and ideas for the country, while inviting the citizenry to tell me your troubles. Roosevelt seized on the power of a new technology - radio - to explain the complex financial situation to frightened, helpless Americans. Roosevelt made a total of 31 Fireside Chats from the initial days of his first administration to the dark days of World War II. Seventy-five years ago, the nation was gripped by a Great Depression. What might FDR say in a fireside chat during the financial crisis of 2008? FDR delivers one of his famed fireside chats from the White House. Journalist Robert Trout coined the phrase fireside chat to describe Roosevelt’s radio addresses, invoking an image of the president sitting by a fire in a living room, speaking earnestly to.
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