Synopses & Reviews
For readers of
The Greatest Generation, an extraordinary window on the '30s and '40s. By the time FDR took his oath of office on March 4, 1933, Americans had been in the depths of the Great Depression for four years. One week later, the President gave the first of what would be thirty-one Fireside Chats.
MacArthur Award-winning historian Lawrence W. Levine and independent scholar Cornelia Levine have combed through the millions of letters that flooded the White House in response to the Chats. Grateful, infuriated, proud, scolding, the letters, collected here and combined with the Levines' vivid historical commentary, give testimony to an extraordinary time in our nation's past.
Encouraged by the President ("Tell me your troubles"), farmers, salesmen, housewives, new immigrants, and old Republicans all wrote, telling him about their lives and what they thought of his initiatives. Their words paint a remarkable picture of America, from the hardship of the Depression, to the promise of the New Deal, to the turmoil surrounding our nation's entry into World War II.
Review
"One of our era's most original historians." Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
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"The Levines have restored Franklin Roosevelt's Fireside Chats to their rightful place of importance in American history. No one interested in presidential leadership, the importance of radio, or the public's response to national and international events in the 1930s and 1940s can afford to miss this book." Robert Dallek, author of Hail to the Chief
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"FDR in his Fireside Chats spoke, not to multitudes, but to the single 'ordinary' American on the street or on the dirt road, in the city tenement or the family farm. Though his voice was that of the Dutch patroon, he caught the spirit, the hopes, the dreams of the 'ordinary' in a moment of crisis. The response in letters from the 'ordinary' was in overwhelming millions. This work comprising these letters is revelatory, especially to the young, who have been denied their own history." Studs Terkel
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"A master of American history." Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz
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"Perhaps a few of these missives, such as the several bearing asinine poems written to honor the president, should have been left to decay in the files of the FDR Library. Overall, however, the letters comprised variously of love, spite, wit and bigotry combine to offer a new and intriguing lens through which to view FDR and his America." Publishers Weekly
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"These letters 'help re-create a conversation between FDR and the American people.' Indeed, these fascinating and touching letters provide much more insight into the lives of average Americans of that time than simply reading a historical account of the period." Library Journal
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"'Tell me your troubles,' FDR invited after his first chat on March 4, 1933, and so the nation did, flooding Washington with millions of letters....Wading through this sea of correspondence was surely a daunting task, but the Levines have exercised fine judgment in selecting the hundreds of texts that make up these pages, using them, often inventive language and all, to shed light on historical events now buried away in textbooks." Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Lawrence W. Levine, a MacArthur Award-winning historian who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, and George Mason University, is author of The Opening of the American Mind. Cornelia R. Levine is an independent scholar. They live in Berkeley, California, and Washington, D. C.