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The John Batchelor Show

OCTOBER 31, 1936, LITERARY DIGEST, 2 MILLION POSTCARDS: ALF LANDON 57%, 370 ELECTORAL VOTES: 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

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

OCTOBER 31, 1936, LITERARY DIGEST, 2 MILLION POSTCARDS: ALF LANDON 57%, 370 ELECTORAL VOTES: 5/8: Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal by David Pietrusza (Author)

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.
1944 GI BILL OF RIGHTS

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is on the

0:05.0

This is CBS Eye on the World.

0:08.0

Here's John Bachelor.

0:11.0

Roosevelt Sweeps Nation, the new book from David Petruia, FTR's 1936 landslide and the

0:17.4

triumph of the liberal ideal.

0:19.7

From the point of

0:23.0

the view of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. There are figures on his left, there are figures on his right.

0:26.7

There are figures who represent the Communist Party. There are figures who represent

0:30.9

outright celebration of the dictators in Europe at this time,

0:36.0

Mussolini and Hitler.

0:37.8

But there is one figure that represents all of the above or none of the above

0:41.9

depending on the day of the week.

0:44.0

William Randolph Hurst, born 1863.

0:49.0

He is 72 years old, 73 years old at this point, and yet he can pick up the phone and

0:56.4

reach anybody in America, including the president of the United States.

1:01.5

David, it is a complication to summarize Hearst.

1:05.9

With Roosevelt in particular, he was for him before he was against him, before he was

1:10.6

for him before he was against him. Let's keep ourselves right now to 32 to 36.

1:17.2

What was Hearst's opinion of Roosevelt in the campaign of 32 facing Herbert Hoover.

1:24.2

Didn't like him.

1:25.0

Didn't like Hoover.

1:26.3

Didn't like Al Smith.

...

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