Fireside chats

The Events President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s informal radio broadcasts to the nation

Date March 12, 1933-June 12, 1944

Throughout the 1930’s, Roosevelt adroitly used informal radio addresses to educate the American people about his initiatives to ease the pressures of the Great Depression. He spoke confidently about his New Deal reforms, veered into unsuccessful clashes with the Supreme Court and Democratic Party critics, and rallied public support for American entry into what would become World War II.

On March 12, 1933, only eight days after his inauguration as president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt held the first of the thirty “fireside chats” he would broadcast over the radio during his long tenure in office. In his first broadcast, he focused on the national banking crisis, an economic catastrophe that had emptied the vaults of thousands of financial institutions and threatened the savings of millions of Americans. He began this chat with an intimate, “Good evening, friends” that exuded confidence and warmth. He then went on to explain the “banking holiday” that Congress had recently mandated and assured listeners that it was still “safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than under the mattress.”

Roosevelt delivered his radio presentations with heavy doses of optimism and reassurance. He often mentioned his own family and forged personal links with listeners, who hungered for a president who would speak to them plainly about the bleak Great Depression and the need for a fresh approach. Roosevelt began developing his mastery of the increasingly powerful medium of radio after he became governor of New York in 1929. Radio became an educational tool for Roosevelt, who used it especially effectively from the White House to explain his legislative initiatives.

Roosevelt followed up his first chat with a May 7, 1933, broadcast, in which he explained his flurry of legislative proposals for restricting agricultural production, reviving the industrial foundation of the nation, redeveloping the ravaged Tennessee River Valley, and putting unemployed young men to work in government conservation projects. He gave two more fireside chats in 1933, each time returning to radio to garner public support for his New Deal. On each occasion, he spoke clearly, optimistically, and informally, and provided a personal touch by pointing out that his own wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, and his children had a shared stake with all Americans in reform and economic regulation. These chats ranged from fifteen minutes to forty-five minutes in length, each conveying the importance of a concerted effort to combat the Great Depression.

On June 28, 1934, Roosevelt reviewed the efforts of Congress and stated that he believed in “practical explanations and in practical policies.” Three months later, he shifted themes to analyze America’s role in world affairs. In April, 1935, he rallied public support for his Works Progress Administration, confidently proclaiming that “Fear is vanishing.” On September 6, 1936, he lamented the drought conditions prevailing in the Midwest and launched into a defense of what would be his futile effort to reform the Supreme Court six months later.

Issues and Themes

Roosevelt usually focused his fireside chats on domestic issues, such as his legislative agenda. He discussed a wide range of reforms designed to restructure the national economy, give organized labor more clout, and combat unemployment. Occasionally, however, he immersed himself in partisan politics. On June 24, 1938, for example, he gave an address that attempted to “purge” the Democratic Party of lawmakers who were not of his liking. The latter presentation demonstrated the limits of his powers of persuasion, as most of the candidates whom he backed lost in that year’s midterm elections.

By the end of the decade, Roosevelt’s chats turned from the economy and his domestic political foes to the more sinister demons who lurked around the globe. On September 3, 1939, two days after World War II began in Europe, Roosevelt spoke of the aggression of Adolf Hitler and other foreign dictators: “I have said not once, but many times, that I have seen war and that I hate war.”

Impact

As commander in chief of U.S. military forces during World War II, Roosevelt used his powerful radio presence to continue educating the American people about their enemies. Every U.S. president since Roosevelt’s time has utilized modern technology to communicate directly with the nation about pressing legislative policies and international challenges, and they all owe something to Roosevelt’s example.

Bibliography

Broun, Robert J. Manipulating the Ether: The Power of Broadcast Radio in Thirties America. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1998.

Buhite, Russell D., and David W. Levy, eds. FDR’s Fireside Chats. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

Leuchtenburg, William E. In the Shadow of FDR. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Winfield, Betty Houchin. FDR and the News Media. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990.