Franklin Roosevelt

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/16/2021
  

  F.D.R. Didn’t Just Fix the Economy

  Times columnist Jamelle Bouie draws on the work of historian Eric Rauchway to argue that Franklin Roosevelt envisioned the New Deal as a renewal of core democratic principles that the government should serve the needs of the people and be accountable to them. 

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• 4/18/2021
  

  Review: "The Third Man: Churchill, Roosevelt, Mackenzie King, and the Untold Friendships that Won WWII"

  by Walter G. Moss

  Canadian Prime Minister William Mackenzie King kept a voluminous diary that is an incredible source of insight into his role as a witness (and often an influencer) to the wartime and post-World War II leadership of Roosevelt and Churchill. A new book distills the 30,000 pages of the diary. 

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• SOURCE: Oxford (OH) Observer
  4/9/2021
  

  Miami Professor Writes Book for Young Readers about Roosevelt’s Fight with Polio

  Journalism professor and FDR biographer James Tobin describes the work of making the story of Roosevelt's battle with polio and its effect on his political life accessible to young readers.

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• SOURCE: New Statesman
  4/6/2021
  

  Can Joe Biden Replicate FDR’s Success in Rebuilding the Democrats’ Coalition?

  Eric Rauchway's latest book on the FDR era shows that the New Deal was a complex undertaking, administered often through local channels, which meant it sometimes enabled democracy and sometimes suppressed it. The Biden administration can win allegiance from voters by expanding the safety net and strategic spending, but it won't be simple. 

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• 3/14/2021
  

  FDR and the Need for Truth

  by Stephen Dando-Collins

  Franklin Roosevelt took a novel approach to handling bad domestic and military news in 1943, amid stiff political opposition: showing the public the hard truth about the Pacific War. 

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• SOURCE: TIME
  3/2/2021
  

  Senator Tammy Duckworth Wants FDR Memorial to Be Accessible for People with All Disabilities

  While disability activists won a battle to have FDR portrayed in a wheelchair in his memorial, there have been ongoing problems with the site's design and layout including braille markers that are decorative rather than legible. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/10/2021
  

  The New Deal’s Capitalist Lessons for Joe Biden

  by Louis Hyman

  An economic historian argues that the greatest impact of the New Deal came from programs that guided the investment of private capital to social ends, rather than direct expenditure on public works. 

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• SOURCE: Medium
  2/8/2021
  

  The Difference Between a Great President and a Terrible One is Empathy

  by Lindsay Chervinsky

  "As President Trump begins his post-presidential life, Americans will start to reckon with his legacy. They need look no farther than his callous indifference to human life — his response to the crisis marks the ultimate failure of presidential leadership."

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• 1/12/2021
  

  Lessons for Today from FDR and the Progressives?

  by Walter G. Moss

  Drawing lessons for Joe Biden's fraught entry to the presidency from FDR requires considering some unexpected virtues like empathy and humor. 

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• SOURCE: NPR
  12/15/2020
  

  As Biden Prepares To Take Office, FDR's Presidential Transition Offers Lessons

  Historian Robert Dallek interprets Franklin Roosevelt's core challenge at inauguration as producing a program of reform to stabilize the economy without indulging the currents of authoritarianism sweeping Europe. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  11/18/2020
  

  An FDR-Size Executive Order for Biden

  by Thomas Geoghegan

  Joseph Biden should issue an executive order requiring federal contracts go to firms with collective bargaining agreements in place, boosting wages, strengthening organized labor, and stimulating economic recovery. 

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• SOURCE: TIME
  11/12/2020
  

  America's Crises Would Be Daunting for Any President-Elect. But History Can Teach Biden to Navigate Them

  by Jon Meacham

  A popular historian who has been advising Joe Biden with historical perspective argues the president-elect is disposed to empathy and pragmatism and will work to ease the nation's divisions. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/10/2020
  

  How Biden Can Govern in Spite of Everything

  by Kevin Baker

  Joe Biden's chances for success rest with demonstrating his empathy for Americans' problems. "Franklin Roosevelt was 'the only man we ever had in the White House who would understand that my boss is a son-of-a-bitch,' as a North Carolina textile mill worker once said of F.D.R."

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• 11/1/2020
  

  Reconsidering "Court Packing" as Restoring Governing Norms

  by Greg Bailey

  The Republicans' choice to push through Amy Coney Barrett's nomination with the backing of a minority of the country means a new Congress must consider corrective action in the name of justice and democracy.

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• 10/25/2020
  

  FDR Was Right to Propose Enlarging the Court

  by James D. Robenalt

  Franklin Roosevelt's error in 1937 was not to propose expanding the court, it was to fail to explain and defend his popular political reasons for doing so.

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  10/14/2020
  

  The Case Against Packing the Court

  by Jeff Shesol

  The main risk for Biden isn't that court packing would escalate partisan war over the courts. It's that it might destroy his own Democratic coalition. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/24/2020
  

  FDR Tried to Pack the Supreme Court During the Depression. It Was a Disaster for Him.

  Franklin Roosevelt's efforts to expand the Supreme Court to overcome conservative hostility to the New Deal didn't go well for him, though patience paid off as his judicial antagonists retired or died during his presidency.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/24/2020
  

  No President Or Nominee Ever Spoke At A Convention. Then FDR Broke The Rules

  In 1932, FDR flew to Chicago Stadium and became the first presidential nominee to give an acceptance speech at a political convention.

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• SOURCE: The American Prospect
  7/31/2020
  

  When Henry Wallace Warned of ‘American Fascism’

  John Nichols's new book argues that Franklin Roosevelt's decision to cut loose Vice President Henry Wallace crippled egalitarian politics in the Democratic Party with lasting consequences.   

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/30/2020
  

  The Future of American Liberalism

  Columnist David Brooks looks to historians of the New Deal era to suggest Joe Biden can succeed like FDR by offering an active but pragmatic plan to pull America out of the hole created by the coronavirus pandemic.