Fireside chats

Fireside Chats

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Fireside chats

The fireside chats were a series of thirty evening radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic radiation with frequency below those of visible light.Electromagnetic radiation radio propagation by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space....
speeches given by United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , often referred to by his initials FDR, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States....
between 1933 and 1944.

rding to Roosevelt’s principal speechwriter Judge Samuel Rosenman, he first used "fireside chats" in 1929 during his first term as Governor of New York

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
.

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Origin of radio address

According to Roosevelt’s principal speechwriter Judge Samuel Rosenman, he first used "fireside chats" in 1929 during his first term as Governor of New York

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
. Roosevelt faced a conservative Republican legislature so during each legislative session he would occasionally address the citizens of New York directly in the camelback room. He appealed to them for help getting his agenda passed. Letters would pour in following each of these "chats," which helped pressure legislators to pass measures Roosevelt had proposed. He began making the informal addresses as President on March 12, 1933, during the Great Depression

Great Depression

File:International depression.pngThe Great Depression was a worldwide economic Recession starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries....
.

Rhetorical Manner

Sometimes beginning his talks with "Good evening, friends", Roosevelt urged listeners to have faith in the banks

Bank run

A bank run occurs when a large number of bank customers withdraw their Deposit account because they believe the bank is, or might become, insolvency....
and to support his New Deal

New Deal

The New Deal was the name that United States President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to a sequence of central economic planning and economic stimulus programs he initiated between 1933 and 1938 with the goal of giving aid to the unemployed, reform of business and financial practices, and recovery of the Economy of the Unite...
measures. The "fireside chats" were considered enormously successful and attracted more listeners than the most popular radio shows during the "Golden Age of Radio

Old-time radio

Old-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the dominant home entertainment medium in the late 1950s and early 1960s....
." Roosevelt continued his broadcasts into the 1940s, as Americans turned their attention to World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
.

Chronological list of Presidential fireside chats

On the Bank Crisis - Sunday, March 12, 1933
Outlining the New Deal Program - Sunday, May 7, 1933
On the Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program - Monday, July 24, 1933
On the Currency Situation - Sunday, October 22, 1933
Review of the Achievements of the Seventy-third Congress - Thursday, June 28, 1934
On Moving Forward to Greater Freedom and Greater Security - Sunday, September 30, 1934
On the Works Relief Program - Sunday, April 28, 1935
On Drought Conditions - Sunday, September 6, 1936
On the Reorganization of the Judiciary
Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937

File:FDR in 1933.jpgThe Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937, frequently called the Court-packing plan, was a legislative initiative to add more justices to the Supreme Court proposed by President of the United States Franklin D....
- Tuesday, March 9, 1937
On Legislation to be Recommended to the Extraordinary Session of the Congress - Tuesday, October 12, 1937
On the Unemployment Census - Sunday, November 14, 1937
On Economic Conditions - Thursday, April 14, 1938
On Party Primaries - Friday, June 24, 1938
On the European War - Sunday, September 3, 1939
On National Defense - Sunday, May 26, 1940
On National Security
Arsenal of Democracy

"The Arsenal of Democracy" is one of the 30 fireside chats broadcast on the radio by President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was read on December 29, 1940, during World War II, at a time when Nazi Germany had German?occupied Europe and Battle of Britain....
- Sunday, December 29, 1940
Announcing Unlimited National Emergency - Tuesday, May 27, 1941 (the longest fireside chat)
On Maintaining Freedom of the Seas - Thursday, September 11, 1941
On the Declaration of War with Japan
Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Empire of Japan Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, later resulting in the United States becoming militarily involved in World War II....
- Tuesday, December 9, 1941
On Progress of the War - Monday, February 23, 1942
On Our National Economic Policy - Tuesday, April 28, 1942
On Inflation and Progress of the War - Monday, September 7, 1942
Report on the Home Front - Monday, October 12, 1942
On the Coal Crisis - Sunday, May 2, 1943
On Progress of War and Plans for Peace - Wednesday, July 28, 1943
Opening Third War Loan Drive - Wednesday, September 8, 1943
On Tehran
Tehran Conference

The Tehran Conference was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill between November 28 and December 1, 1943 in Tehran, Iran....
and Cairo
Cairo Conference

The Cairo Conference of November 22 - 26 November 1943, held in Cairo, Egypt, addressed the Allies of World War II position against Japan during World War II and made decisions about postwar Asia....
Conferences - Friday, December 24, 1943
State of the Union Message to Congress - Tuesday, January 11, 1944
On the Fall of Rome - Monday, June 5, 1944
Opening Fifth War Loan Drive - Monday, June 12, 1944

Weekly address

Every US President since Roosevelt has delivered a regular address

United States presidential address

File:ObamaWeeklyAddress20080124.jpgFile:FDRfiresidechat2.jpgThe presidential address is the weekly discussion of current events by the President of the United States....
. Presidents Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California . Born in Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s, where he was an actor, president of the Screen Actors Guild , and a spokesman for General Electric ....
through the second George Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
delivered weekly Saturday radio broadcasts, while President Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the List of Presidents of the United States and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office....
currently provides his address in radio and video forms, both of which are available online.

External links

from the Museum of Broadcast Communications
Museum of Broadcast Communications

The Museum of Broadcast Communications is located in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform, and entertain through our archives, public programs, screenings, exhibits, publications and online access to our resources." It is home t...
from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute

The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute , located in Hyde Park, New York, is as the non-profit funding arm of the nation's first presidential library, the Franklin D....
at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public university research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson. Conceived by 1800 and established in 1819, it is the only university in the United States to be designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, an honor it shares with nearby Monticello....
, with transcripts and MP3 recordings of most of the Fireside Chats
at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public university research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson. Conceived by 1800 and established in 1819, it is the only university in the United States to be designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, an honor it shares with nearby Monticello....
: audio with editorial and cartoon reactions.
at Michigan State University
Michigan State University

Michigan State University is a public university research university in East Lansing, Michigan, Michigan United States. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act....
, with many Roosevelt speeches in mp3 format