173: From Hyde Park to the White House: The Early Life and Election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

History That Doesn't Suck

ProfGregJackson

Education, History, Society & Culture

4.5 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” This is the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s journey to the White House. Even as a young boy, Franklin admires his fifth cousin Theodore Roosevelt and wants to follow in his footsteps. He seems to have a knack for it too. He attends the same schools. He serves in many of the same political positions. Even his failures only seemed to build his prestige. Ever congenial and likable, Franklin appears to have the world on a string. Then the challenges arrive. Franklin’s affair rocks his and Eleanor’s marriage. Polio robs him of his physical strength, vigor, and ability to walk. As an independently wealthy Roosevelt, he has every excuse to fade into the background. But that isn’t who Franklin is. As Governor of New York, he’s as aggressive in fighting off the Great Depression as he is in fighting off the challenges of polio. Is he onto something? Is his “New Deal” what the nation needs? That’s a question for the American people to decide in 1932 as he runs for the White House. Our gratitude to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum for its rich collection of speeches and other writings. Learn more at FDRlibrary.org. ____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations join discussions in our Facebook community get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette come see a live show get HTDS merch or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks. HTDS is part of Audacy media network. Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:51.3	It's a late Wednesday afternoon, August 10th, 1921, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt is at, well, his favorite place on earth, Campobello Island. It's a small Canadian island, no more than a quarter mile from the coastal American town of Lubeck, Maine,
0:58.0	and Franklin has been vacationing here virtually his entire life.
1:02.0	Now 39 years old, the former New York State Senator, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy,
1:08.0	and recent U.S. vice presidential candidate turned VP of Fidelity
1:12.3	and Deposit Company is happy to get some needed R&R with his family. Not that Franklin, who only
1:19.0	joined his family on the island yesterday, is doing much resting. So far, the days included sailing,
1:25.4	putting out a wildfire, and a two-mile run from the house to
1:29.0	Lake Glen Severn, which is where he and his five kids are swimming and otherwise goofing around
1:33.8	right this minute. So a day of strenuous activity. His fifth cousin and hero, the recently past
1:40.8	former president Theodore Roosevelt, would be proud. Prouder still that, after this swim,
1:46.6	Franklin will jump into the nearby open waters of the Bay of Fundy,
1:50.7	then run the two miles back home.
1:53.3	Yeah, if TR were still with us,
1:56.2	I think he would describe FDR's day as bully.
2:01.5	Finishing his run home from the bay, Franklin enters his family's stunning, two-and-a-half-story,
2:06.8	32-room and cedar shingled cottage, as they call it. It seems there's a sizable stack of mail.
2:14.3	Still in his swimsuit, Franklin scoops it all up, collapses in a chair, and tries
	...

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