In the relatively short span of 25 years — from his first national
campaign in 1920 to his death in the first year of his fourth term as
President in 1945 — Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered hundreds of
speeches, many of them masterly orations.
Perhaps the finest
speechmaker in American history, FDR was a consummate expert at reading
his audience. He could be dazzlingly informal, imperiously
statesmanlike, witheringly sarcastic, stern, and serious, and when the
occasion permitted, outright funny. Though his audiences often included
more than 30 million listeners in America and millions more around the
world, he succeeded in doing what so many speakers strive for and so few
accomplish — he left his listeners with the feeling that he was
speaking to them alone.
This representative collection of 27 of FDR's
finest speeches recalls a number of momentous events in his political
career and the life of the nation. Included are his dramatic and
inspirational First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1933) in which he told
the nation that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"; his
first "Fireside Chat" (March 12, 1933) over the radio; his dramatic War
Message to Congress (December 8, 1941) following the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor ("a day that will live in infamy"); his Fourth Inaugural
Address (January 20, 1945); and many more.
Assembled here in one
convenient volume, these speeches provide students of history, politics,
and rhetoric, as well as general readers, with an immensely useful
reference, a wealth of fine oration, and a valuable window on the
Roosevelt years.
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