This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly.

Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today.

This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive, and will prosper. So 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.

U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his 1933 inaugural address.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Thank you. Welcome to the history of the 20th century. The 20th century. Episode 281.

Fear itself.

We concluded last episode with the election of Franklin Roosevelt to the presidency in 1932.

I mentioned then that it would take 116 days from the election of Roosevelt to his inauguration.

That's a long time for a nation facing an emergency, and the winter of 1932 to 33 was a very difficult time for the United States.

Why was March 4th set as the date for the new president to be sworn in?

Why do Americans take so long to seat a new Congress and a new administration

when most other countries manage to do it in a couple of weeks, if that long? You might just as

well ask, why are U.S. elections held on Tuesdays in November, which is like practically the

worst possible time, when sensible people would schedule them for,

hey, how about a weekend in June?

The answer to most questions is history, and that includes these questions.

When I was young, they taught me that because the USA was just so darn big,

in the olden days, it took a long time for newly

elected presidents, senators, and members of Congress to traverse the vast distances that

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