EARLIER POTUS CONFRONTING THE COURTS: 5/8: Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal by David Pietrusza (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Roosevelt-Sweeps-Nation-Landslide-Triumph/dp/1635767776
Award-winning historian David Pietrusza boldly steers clear of the pat narrative regarding Franklin Roosevelt’s unprecedented 1936 re-election landslide, weaving an enormously more intricate, ever more surprising tale of a polarized nation; of America’s most complex, calculating, and politically successful president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, at the very top of his Machiavellian game; and the unlocking of the puzzle of how our society, our politics, and our parties fitfully reinvented themselves.
With in-depth examinations of rabble-rousing Democratic US Senator Huey Long and his assassination before he was able to challenge FDR in ’36; powerful, but widely hated, newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst, who blasted FDR’s “Raw Deal”; wildly popular, radical radio commentator Father Coughlin; the steamrolled passage of Social Security and backlash against it; the era’s racism and anti-Semitism; American Socialism and Communism; and a Supreme Court seemingly bent on dismantling the New Deal altogether, Roosevelt Sweeps Nation is a vivid portrait of a dynamic Depression-Era America.
1936 FALA
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Batchelor. |
| 0:11.2 | Roosevelt Sweeps Nation, the new book from David Petrucia, FDR's 1936 landslide, and the |
| 0:17.5 | triumph of the liberal ideal. From the point of view of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, |
| 0:23.0 | there are figures on his left, there are figures on his right, there are figures who represent |
| 0:28.1 | the Communist Party, there are figures who represent outright celebration of the dictators in Europe |
| 0:34.8 | at this time, Mussolini and Hitler. But there is one figure that represents all of the above or none of the dictators in Europe at this time, Mussolini and Hitler. |
| 0:43.2 | But there is one figure that represents all of the above or none of the above depending on the day of the week. |
| 0:47.8 | William Randolph Hearst, born 1863. |
| 0:57.8 | He is 72 years old, 73 years old at this point, and yet he can pick up the phone and reach anybody in America, |
| 1:04.9 | including the President of the United States. David, it is a complication to summarize Hearst. |
| 1:12.3 | With Roosevelt in particular, he was for him before he was against him, before he was for him, before he was against him. |
| 1:16.2 | Let's keep ourselves right now to 32 to 36. |
| 1:23.2 | What was Hearst's opinion of Roosevelt in the campaign of 32 facing Herbert Hoover? |
| 1:24.9 | Didn't like him. |
| 1:26.1 | Didn't like Hoover. |
| 1:30.1 | Didn't like Al Smith. Didn't like anyone except john nance gardner and the roosevelt has a problem in 1932 and that has a bunch problems but um the two-thirds |
| 1:39.0 | rule so he can get to the convention and have oh the majority of the, but he can't get the nomination until that log jam is broken. |
| 1:48.1 | And he gets two-thirds of the delegates. |
| 1:50.9 | But Hearst, who had supported Garner, is controlling California and Texas delegations. |
| 1:59.7 | And even when FDR switches on the League of Nations to Curry favor with Hearst, |
| 2:06.0 | Hearst still doesn't like him. |
| 2:08.4 | But Joe Kennedy goes to Hearst, some other people go to Hurst and say, |
... |
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