Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
Franklin D. Roosevelt
When Germany unleashed its blitzkreig in 1939, the U.S. Army was only the 17th largest in the world. FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress.
Editor’s Note: Americans can accomplish amazing things when roused to action by strong leadership. Read more >>
Like Donald Trump, FDR waged his own war on "fake news"— and specifically on Chicago Tribune publisher Robert R. McCormick.
Editor's Note: Stephen Bates teaches First Amendment law, writing, and other subjects at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Read more >>
Daisy Bonner, who cooked for Franklin Roosevelt for twenty years in the Georgia White House, recalled his favorite dish.
Roosevelt felt the country needed “direct, vigorous action” to pull it out of the Depression.
The stock market crash of 1929 burst the bubble of uncontrolled speculation and business expansion of the Roaring Twenties. Read more >>
Because of wartime gas rationing, Congress and the Administration debated cancelling the famous gridiron match-up between Army and Navy in 1942. President Roosevelt found a novel solution.
In the weeks after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese conquered most of the areas of Southeast Asia that produced rubber and cut off supply to the U.S. Read more >>
She functioned as Franklin Roosvelt's de facto chief-of-staff, yet Missy LeHand's role has been misrepresented and overlooked by historians.
Franklin D. Read more >>
After 65 years, the archives of FDR’s personal secretary are now open to the public
On June 30, 2010, 14 boxes containing a treasure trove of more than 5,000 personal letters, notes, and photographs from the Roosevelt administration and his family arrived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York. Read more >>
He had a long, intimate friendship that stayed unknown for almost half a century after his death
Thus did Franklin Roosevelt characterize the man who was to be his running mate in 1944 and—as everyone at the astonishing Democratic Convention knew—almost certainly the next President of the United States. Here is FDR at his most devious, Harry Truman at the pivot of his career, and the old party-boss system at its zenith.
This country is … ready to pull the trigger if the Japs do anything. I mean we won’t stand any nonsense, public opinion won’t… if they do some fool thing.” Read more >>
Had Franklin D. Roosevelt not been so conservative, we might have had national health insurance forty years ago
Judged by its direct and profound influence upon individual and collective lives, no social legislation in all American history is more important than the Social Security Act of August, 1935. Read more >>
One of FDR's closest aides remembers "the Boss" and a lifetime in politics.
President Roosevelt had failed to “pack” a hostile Supreme Court, and now the first New Dealer he named to that high bench stood accused of being a lifetime member of the infamous Ku Klux Klan
It was the first time in history that British sovereigns had come to see what they lost in 1776. George and Franklin, Elizabeth and Eleanor, hit it off like old friends; even Texas congressmen melted under the royal charm. Brewing was a crucial World War II alliance
A long line of nervous congressmen stood in the Capitol rotunda awaiting the arrival of someone of obviously high importance. Vice President John Nance Garner buzzed among the legislators trying to ease the tension with his famous stories. Read more >>