A Vote Against Entering WWII (1941)

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2021

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s December 12th. This day in 1941, the US Congress provides an overwhelming vote in support of Roosevelt’s declaration of war. But Jeanette Rankin of Montana was the lone dissenter.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss Rankin’s vote, her role as the first woman to hold elected federal office, and her long history of pacifism.

This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Our website is thisdaypod.com Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro, Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:10.0	This day, December 12, 1941, President Roosevelt is gathering support for the United States
0:16.7	to enter World War II.
0:18.8	Over a short stretch of time around this date, he had asked Congress for formal recognition of
0:23.6	declaration of war against Germany and Italy he had just a few days earlier
0:28.1	asked for formal recognition that we were at war with Japan of course in the
0:32.2	aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which was
0:34.4	December 7th.
0:35.8	So the United States is rushing to war.
0:39.0	Congress is rallying, offering a number of overwhelming votes of support for these war resolutions.
0:45.5	I use the word overwhelming and not unanimous for a reason because there was one lone
0:50.8	member of Congress, a woman who voted against sending the United States into
0:55.6	the Second World War, Jeanette Rankin of Montana, who was the first woman to hold
1:00.4	federal office in this country in fact and was the one in the 388 to one vote
1:06.0	over the war authorization. So let's talk about Rankin's dissent, her remarkable career
1:12.0	of dissent and lots more.
1:13.6	Here to do that, as always are Nicole Hammer of Columbia,
1:16.4	and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
1:18.4	Hey there.
1:18.9	Hello, Jody.
1:19.8	Hey there.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.