The Truth About Franklin D. Roosevelt
This American President
This American President
4.5 • 787 Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
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Summary
FDR is often ranked by historians as one of the two or three greatest presidents. In recent years, he sometimes lands at the top spot. In this episode, Professor David T. Beito explores whether that ranking is deserved.
FDR: A NEW POLITICAL LIFE
https://www.amazon.com/FDR-Political-David-T-Beito/dp/1637700695
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Host: Richard Lim
Producer: Michael Neal
Artist: Nip Rogers, www.NipRogers.com
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Transcript
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| 1:02.2 | Thank you. In recent years, In recent years, scholars have ranked Franklin D. Roosevelt as one of the two or three greatest presidents in American history, with some even ranking him number one above |
| 1:07.3 | Washington and Lincoln. With all of this adulation, it's easy to forget that Roosevelt was |
| 1:12.6 | once considered one of the most controversial presidents in American history. One encyclopedia I have |
| 1:18.3 | from the 1960s even called him the most controversial president ever. Roosevelt remade America |
| 1:24.1 | during his 12 years as commander-in-Chief, the longest such tenure in American |
| 1:28.5 | history. And not everyone thinks that he had a positive impact on the country, or that he |
| 1:34.2 | deserves his hollowed place in history. Our guest today, David Beto, just wrote a book titled |
| 1:39.5 | FDR A New Political Life, which explores the controversies behind FDR's career. You might remember him for his book a few years ago on FDR's policy on civil liberties, a book that we interviewed him about just a couple of years ago. So, David, thanks for being on our show. Thank you for inviting me. I enjoyed the first experience, so I came back for more. Great. So what got you |
| 2:02.6 | interested in writing this book? Well, a spur was I was offered in advance on the strength of the |
| 2:09.3 | other book to write a full-scale biography of Roosevelt. And I jumped at the opportunity because I did |
| 2:17.4 | want to cover other aspects of his administration, |
| 2:20.2 | including foreign policy, including economic policy. And so it was an opportunity to kind of expand my |
| 2:28.5 | focus because the first book had just looked at the Bill of Rights. And it focused on the New Deal |
| 2:33.8 | in the Bill of Rights, FDR in on the New Deal in the Bill of Rights, |
| 2:35.1 | FDR in particular, but this one was a more general biography, which covered the full gamut of |
| 2:41.3 | his administration. So from your book and other books I've read about FDR, it's very clear that |
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