![]() The first Fireside Chat was about banking, and FDR gave it on March 12th 1933, after the first steps were taken to try to stabilize the American banking system in the first days after his inauguration. Most people probably were, but if you’ll listen to our original show on The Fireside Chats, you’ll hear our explanation of the vast diversity of American opinion about them at the time. ![]() As with everything else we discuss on this show, the complications of the history of the Depression and FDR’s responses to it have been ironed out by subsequent generations, mainly because it’s easy and comforting to see things in a simple light, especially when we tend to like to look at history as bye-gone days when things were “simpler.” Among other things, the American public was not universally calmed by the Fireside chats. I want to stress, however, that the history, production, and reception of FDR’s Fireside Chats has been overly-romanticized and grossly simplified in the popular mind and media. We’ll play a few of the Fireside Chats this year. You said that you wanted to listen to some of FDR’s Fireside Chats, so that you could hear the contrast. Many of you, and a great number of other Americans, have been surprised (to say the least) at the way President Donald Trump’s public statements about the virus crisis have been, frankly, ridiculous and chaotic. ![]() You asked if we could play the full audio from these chats with minimal introductory remarks, so that you could hear what it was like to have a President address the nation competently during a time of national crisis. A few weeks ago, several of you Buzzkillers asked us to create episodes about President Franklin Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats from the 1930s and 1940s.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |