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Franklin Roosevelt
was the president

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who had to face the Great
Depression and World War II.

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The only thing we have
to fear is fear itself.

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He was ambitious and active.

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Incredibly privileged,
but he suffered.

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You've contracted
infantile paralysis.

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And he's had setbacks.

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But through pain
can come wisdom.

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The country is on
the edge of a cliff,

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but we're not going
to let it fall.

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What do you plan to
do with this policy?

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He has a vision to change
the very soul of America.

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I pledge myself to a New
Deal for the American people.

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American democracy
was literally

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resting on his shoulders.

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This was zero hour.

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[speaking german]

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Get everybody in here.

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He knew that he needed
to project real strength.

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He is the dealer in hope
for the entire free world.

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An invasion of France
is courting disaster.

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He took risks.

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Again and again, you see
these moments of great daring.

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Success may not come
with rushing speed,

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but we shall return
again and again.

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Roosevelt led the
grand alliance to victory

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over fascism.

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This was a tumultuous,
complicated period of time.

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It's a mistake to think that he
somehow got everything right,

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but there was something
about that voice,

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there was something
about that smile.

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That empathy, that
humility, that resilience,

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all those qualities that
FDR just had triumphantly

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built into his character.

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Take a deep breath, Franklin.

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It's perfectly natural
to feel anxious.

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Oh, I'm not anxious
about getting married.

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I'm very lucky.

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So what has you so nervous?

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[wedding march playing]

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He does.

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Take care of her.

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I will, Mr. President.

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Call me Uncle Ted.

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It's March 17th, 1905.

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The Roosevelts are probably
the most prestigious

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of the New York elite families.

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Teddy Roosevelt is president
of the United States.

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His niece, Eleanor, is
marrying Franklin Roosevelt.

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Eleanor and Franklin are
fifth cousins once removed,

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and they are so in
love at this point.

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She's 20 years old.

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He's 23 years old.

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And he tells his mother that
he's the happiest man alive.

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Eleanor wasn't simply part of
the debutante world that he was

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used to.

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She was working in a
settlement house in New York,

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finding a sense of
great fulfillment

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by helping other people.

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She had ambitions to do
something with her life,

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and he too had them,
but there's no question

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that knowing Teddy
Roosevelt was her uncle

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was part of his
attraction to Eleanor.

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The rock star in the United
States was Theodore Roosevelt.

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Every minute of
his adult life, FDR

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was always modeling himself
after Theodore Roosevelt.

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We see FDR as this
iconic, universally

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beloved, majestic
figure, but he was a man

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before he was a monument,
and Franklin Roosevelt

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did have something to prove.

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He wanted to achieve, but
it wasn't foreordained.

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Franklin Roosevelt is
born on January 30th, 1882

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during the Gilded Age.

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It is a time of massive
economic expansion marked

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by incredible
technological innovation.

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The great expansion
of the railroad,

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the telegraph, the
introduction of electricity.

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It was an age of progress,
progress, progress.

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And Franklin Roosevelt's
family is wealthy, privileged,

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and he has two parents,
James and Sara Roosevelt,

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who absolutely adore him
and surround him with love

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and affection and attention.

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To call Sara Delano Roosevelt
a doting mother is an insult

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to doting mothers everywhere.

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She was an extremely
stubborn and willful mother,

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who gave orders all the
time, loved him dearly,

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which he knew, but
at the same time,

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unless he developed
a will of iron,

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he was going to grow
up being her vassal.

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He grew up on this magnificent
property in Hyde Park, New York

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right on the Hudson
River, where he

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could walk through the woods.

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He was a naturalist.

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He loved birds.

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He was very, very
curious as a young boy.

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Franklin later said
that, "All that is in me

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goes back to the Hudson."

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And he meant the
unbounded love that he

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got from both of his parents.

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It's where his confidence
came from, his trust in people

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came from, his
optimism came from.

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But when he was eight, his
father had a heart attack.

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After the heart attack,
it was very important

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that he not trouble his father.

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He would put it facade on so
that his father wouldn't know

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that anything was wrong, and I
think this is something that he

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carried on later into his life.

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There's no question that
that projection of confidence

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and optimism and things
are going to be all right

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later became an enormous part
of his leadership strengths.

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But for a man who
became the greatest vote

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getter in the history of
the American presidency,

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he was not a universal favorite.

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Some people thought
he was too fancy.

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Some people thought of
him as a lightweight.

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When he goes off to
Harvard, he's pretty bright,

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but it's not like he's
particularly studious.

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He was a flirt.

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He was a good golfer.

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He was a Harvard pretty boy.

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After Harvard, he goes
to Columbia Law School.

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He ends up practicing
law for a while,

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but he's not all that
interested in it.

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He's sort of bored, not
sure what his next step is

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going to be, fantasizing about
following in his cousin Teddy's

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footsteps.

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In 1910, there's a
group of law clerks

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that are sitting around his
firm when he's 28 years old

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and they're all speculating what
they might want to be in life.

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Franklin comes up with,
I'd like to I think become

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a member of the
state legislature,

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and then maybe I'd like
to be Assistant Secretary

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of the Navy, and
then maybe governor,

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and then maybe if I'm
lucky, I could be president.

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Exactly the path that
Teddy Roosevelt had taken.

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Franklin believed
he'd been born to serve.

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Someone who believed that
who much is given, much

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is expected.

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And I think that's a key
part of Roosevelt's ambition.

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And for Franklin Roosevelt,
the Roosevelt name was useful,

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because at that point in 1910,
it's the most potent name

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in American politics.

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Because of his name, the
Democratic Party in New York

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comes to him and says, we
want you to run for the state

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legislature.

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It wasn't because the
Democratic bosses saw in him

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the makings of a leader.

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They saw in him somebody
whose mother was wealthy

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and who could
support the campaign

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and maybe fund the
Democratic Party.

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His mother is
horrified at the idea

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that he's going to
become a politician.

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Sara thinks that Franklin should
just be a landed gentleman

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in Hudson Valley.

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In 1910, he runs for
state senate in New York.

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And it's at the time
not the sort of thing

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where people are, you
know, knocking on doors,

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but he gets himself this
big Maxwell touring car

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and starts campaigning.

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He was the first person to
use this newfangled gadget,

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the car, during the campaign.

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He loved to break precedent.

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Franklin Roosevelt ran on
a campaign of cleaning up

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the government, having
an honest government.

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But what he's really
out there doing,

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he's just convincing people
that he cares about them.

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Hello there.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt
running for state senate.

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Eleanor said when he
first started speaking,

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he spoke so slowly
that there were

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big pauses between
everything he said,

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and she was afraid he would
never go on with the speech.

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Hello.
How are you?

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- This is my niece.
- Your niece?

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Hello.

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But then after a while,
when he got comfortable

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and he kept talking
and talking, she

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was afraid he'd
never stop speaking.

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Hello, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN: He
not only found his voice

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in that campaign, but
he found his vocation.

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He knew there was something
inside of him that

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wanted to make other
people's lives better.

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Roosevelt managed
to win as a Democrat

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although this was a very
conservative Republican area.

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Roosevelt was not expecting
to serve in the New York State

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Senate for the next 40 years.

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What he was doing was following
in the footsteps of Uncle

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Teddy.

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Roosevelt realized that to be
successful in American policy,

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you have to show that
you can do something

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for the national party.

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So in 1912, when Woodrow Wilson
has running for president,

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in those pre-radio,
pre-television days, when

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candidates required
proxies, Franklin Roosevelt

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is promoting Woodrow Wilson.

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And he's campaigning against
his cousin Teddy, the man

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that he idolizes.

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He realized this was a great
opportunity for the Democrats

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to win the election, but more
importantly, that this would

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give him an inside track into
getting it into Washington

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and getting out of
the state legislature.

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In 1912, there were
three candidates.

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William Howard Taft, who
was the incumbent president,

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former president Theodore
Roosevelt, and governor

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of New Jersey Woodrow Wilson.

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The Democrats win the
election, Woodrow Wilson

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becomes president, and
now Franklin D. Roosevelt,

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having supported Wilson,
gets a slot in the Wilson

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administration.

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FDR supports Woodrow Wilson
without infuriating Uncle Teddy

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and pleases Wilson
to such an extent

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that Wilson is willing
to give him his wish

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to become Assistant
Secretary of the Navy.

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That's political talent
at a very young age.

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As the Assistant Secretary
of the Navy, the same position

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his cousin Teddy
Roosevelt had, Franklin

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is elevated to the national
stage at a crucial point

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in history.

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In August 1914, World
War I breaks out in Europe.

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And it's hard to imagine in
1914 that the US would ever

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get involved.

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As Assistant
Secretary of the Navy,

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Franklin is
perpetually impatient.

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He's convinced during the
early years of World War I

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that America in general, and the
Navy department in particular,

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are just not doing enough
to get ready for war.

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Franklin is constantly
pushing to expand the Navy,

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sometimes going around his
superiors' instructions

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to do so.

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In 1915, the Germans
sink the Lusitania,

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one of the most famous and
luxurious passenger liners

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of the time, and there's
nearly 2,000 people onboard,

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and nearly 1,200
of those perish,

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including 123 Americans.

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This almost causes
war, but there's,

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you know, a real pushback
inside the United States

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about going to war.

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Then in 1917, the Germans send
a telegram to the government

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of Mexico, saying, if you
declare war in the United

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States, we will give you support
to take back the lands you lost

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in the Mexican-American War.

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Woodrow Wilson finally was
out of options for neutrality,

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and the United States joined
World War I in April of 1917.

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But there's a lot of pressure
on FDR to go to war the same

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way Teddy Roosevelt had done
during the Spanish-American

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War.

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Franklin wanted desperately
to be a soldier himself

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and went to Wilson and asked
the president, can I go?

250
00:13:18,172 --> 00:13:20,549
And he said, no, you're more
important than staying here.

251
00:13:20,633 --> 00:13:23,969
So even so, he wanted at least
to be able to go over and visit

252
00:13:24,053 --> 00:13:24,887
the troops.

253
00:13:27,723 --> 00:13:29,517
When Franklin and Eleanor
Roosevelt move to Washington

254
00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:34,271
D.C., Eleanor was a
little overwhelmed.

255
00:13:34,355 --> 00:13:37,900
Eleanor had to take care of
five very dynamic children,

256
00:13:37,983 --> 00:13:42,321
so she decided to hire a social
secretary, a young woman named

257
00:13:42,404 --> 00:13:43,697
Lucy Mercer.

258
00:13:43,823 --> 00:13:47,117
She's very organized, she's very
pretty, the children loved her,

259
00:13:47,201 --> 00:13:49,578
but Eleanor's own
insecurities came out,

260
00:13:49,703 --> 00:13:52,915
and Eleanor eventually
ended up firing Lucy.

261
00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:55,960
And then Lucy went to
work in the Navy department.

262
00:13:56,043 --> 00:13:57,086
Oh, wait, your tie.

263
00:13:57,211 --> 00:14:00,923
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN:
Working under Roosevelt.

264
00:14:01,006 --> 00:14:04,301
Let me, Eleanor.

265
00:14:04,385 --> 00:14:06,887
What would Franklin
do without you?

266
00:14:06,971 --> 00:14:08,848
Be wandering the
streets, I think.

267
00:14:13,853 --> 00:14:17,565
So in 1918, FDR
arrives in France

268
00:14:17,648 --> 00:14:20,317
and tours a number
of these battlefields

269
00:14:20,401 --> 00:14:25,656
and was immersed in
the horrors of the war.

270
00:14:25,739 --> 00:14:26,866
NEWSREADER: And saw
with his own eyes

271
00:14:26,949 --> 00:14:28,826
and heard with his own
ears the savage onslaughts

272
00:14:28,909 --> 00:14:32,454
of the Germans
against the allies.

273
00:14:32,580 --> 00:14:34,373
There are a lot of weapons
systems that are introduced

274
00:14:34,498 --> 00:14:36,208
in World War I for
the first time.

275
00:14:36,333 --> 00:14:43,299
Airplanes, tanks, machine guns,
and the other artillery pieces,

276
00:14:43,382 --> 00:14:45,843
which are so powerful
and so destructive

277
00:14:45,926 --> 00:14:50,139
that they can literally
vaporize people.

278
00:14:50,222 --> 00:14:53,350
It's an unprecedented level of
killing and an unprecedentedly

279
00:14:53,434 --> 00:14:56,520
gruesome level of killing.

280
00:14:56,604 --> 00:14:59,231
He describes being
on the battlefield

281
00:14:59,315 --> 00:15:02,693
and hearing the whistle
of German shells

282
00:15:02,776 --> 00:15:06,697
flying overhead and
exploding nearby.

283
00:15:06,780 --> 00:15:10,659
VOICEOVER: We passed on to the
south slopes of Fort Duama.

284
00:15:10,784 --> 00:15:12,578
A quarter of a mile beyond.

285
00:15:12,703 --> 00:15:16,081
And sure enough, the long,
winding whistle of a shell

286
00:15:16,206 --> 00:15:20,669
was followed by the dull
boom of the explosion.

287
00:15:25,507 --> 00:15:28,677
This was a deeply
moving experience for him.

288
00:15:28,802 --> 00:15:30,846
Franklin Roosevelt truly
believed that America

289
00:15:30,971 --> 00:15:33,140
had a moral
responsibility as well

290
00:15:33,265 --> 00:15:38,312
as a political responsibility to
be a player on the world stage.

291
00:15:43,943 --> 00:15:47,112
In 1918, as FDR is returning
to the United States,

292
00:15:47,196 --> 00:15:49,615
he has a slight fever,
he gets on a boat

293
00:15:49,740 --> 00:15:52,368
and comes down with a very,
very serious cases of pneumonia

294
00:15:52,451 --> 00:15:56,330
caused by the Spanish flu.

295
00:15:56,413 --> 00:16:02,086
More American soldiers died of
the Spanish flu than in combat.

296
00:16:02,169 --> 00:16:03,796
It must have been
terrifying for Eleanor

297
00:16:03,879 --> 00:16:07,007
to have this young husband
who was so very sick.

298
00:16:14,807 --> 00:16:15,891
And she took care of him.

299
00:16:16,016 --> 00:16:17,351
She was there day and night.

300
00:16:30,698 --> 00:16:33,450
When Eleanor was
unpacking the suitcase,

301
00:16:33,534 --> 00:16:37,121
she came upon love letters
that Lucy had written to him.

302
00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:46,630
Imagine the sense of
betrayal she must have felt.

303
00:16:46,714 --> 00:16:48,173
It must have been devastating.

304
00:16:58,684 --> 00:16:59,518
Thanks, Babs.

305
00:17:05,399 --> 00:17:05,983
There's something--

306
00:17:06,066 --> 00:17:07,818
Is it about Elliott?

307
00:17:07,901 --> 00:17:10,279
I hear he's been a right
devil while I was gone.

308
00:17:13,073 --> 00:17:13,907
Do you love her?

309
00:17:25,919 --> 00:17:26,920
Then we must get a divorce.

310
00:17:35,095 --> 00:17:36,972
I believe I love her.

311
00:17:37,097 --> 00:17:41,477
That's very sweet, but
you sound like an idiot.

312
00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:47,191
I've spent my life doing
everything that was asked me,

313
00:17:47,274 --> 00:17:50,360
but Lucy makes me happy.

314
00:17:50,444 --> 00:17:55,491
It sounds ridiculous, I
know, but I feel free.

315
00:17:55,574 --> 00:17:59,036
Louis Howe is Franklin
Roosevelt's closest

316
00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:01,163
political advisor.

317
00:18:01,246 --> 00:18:06,168
He is in so many ways
Franklin's opposite.

318
00:18:06,251 --> 00:18:09,379
He's small, he's
perpetually dirty,

319
00:18:09,463 --> 00:18:15,969
his hands are blackened from
cigarette ash and newsprint.

320
00:18:16,095 --> 00:18:19,681
And FDR really relied on
Louis Howe as a great confidant,

321
00:18:19,765 --> 00:18:23,310
a great advisor to him.

322
00:18:23,393 --> 00:18:26,188
You want to talk
about being free?

323
00:18:26,313 --> 00:18:28,482
Right now you have the
freedom to do whatever

324
00:18:28,607 --> 00:18:30,734
you want with your career.

325
00:18:30,818 --> 00:18:33,570
Run for office,
build a reputation.

326
00:18:33,654 --> 00:18:35,614
The sky's the limit.

327
00:18:35,697 --> 00:18:39,451
If you do this, if
you leave your wife,

328
00:18:39,535 --> 00:18:40,744
there'll be a scandal.

329
00:18:40,828 --> 00:18:42,579
It'll be all over the papers.

330
00:18:42,663 --> 00:18:44,248
You'll have to resign.

331
00:18:44,331 --> 00:18:48,252
I'll survive all that.

332
00:18:48,335 --> 00:18:51,088
Besides, it's Eleanor
who's asking for a divorce.

333
00:18:53,966 --> 00:18:54,967
What about your mother?

334
00:18:57,845 --> 00:19:03,100
You think she'll accept
a divorced Roosevelt?

335
00:19:03,183 --> 00:19:06,270
She's going to cut
you off, disown you.

336
00:19:06,353 --> 00:19:08,605
You'll be on your own.

337
00:19:08,689 --> 00:19:09,898
Think about that, Frank.

338
00:19:09,982 --> 00:19:12,276
Really think about
what that means.

339
00:19:16,905 --> 00:19:21,952
You may be in love, Frank, but
you've got to make a choice.

340
00:19:22,035 --> 00:19:25,998
Do you want to be happy or do
you want to be the president

341
00:19:26,081 --> 00:19:27,082
of the United States?

342
00:19:33,589 --> 00:19:36,300
FDR makes a practical
decision that he will stay

343
00:19:36,383 --> 00:19:39,845
in the marriage so as to
not lose his social status

344
00:19:39,928 --> 00:19:44,474
and his political career, and
Eleanor goes along with it.

345
00:19:44,558 --> 00:19:46,101
I think for the
sake of the family,

346
00:19:46,226 --> 00:19:48,770
divorce was a huge
scandal at that time,

347
00:19:48,854 --> 00:19:51,773
she agreed to stay
with him in marriage.

348
00:19:51,857 --> 00:19:53,317
Evidently they
would never really

349
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,820
have intimate
relationships again.

350
00:19:56,904 --> 00:19:59,239
Shortly after the
affair was discovered,

351
00:19:59,364 --> 00:20:00,616
the war came to an end.

352
00:20:03,243 --> 00:20:06,330
In 1918, the Allies
win World War I,

353
00:20:06,413 --> 00:20:09,541
and the impact was felt
most severely in Europe,

354
00:20:09,666 --> 00:20:14,004
where you're looking at 40
to 50 million casualties.

355
00:20:14,087 --> 00:20:16,840
About half of those are
deaths and about half

356
00:20:16,924 --> 00:20:19,426
of those are wounded.

357
00:20:19,509 --> 00:20:22,304
The Americans come
back from World War I

358
00:20:22,429 --> 00:20:25,557
and they see Europe
descending into violence.

359
00:20:25,682 --> 00:20:28,727
There's outbreaks of
near revolution in most

360
00:20:28,852 --> 00:20:30,020
of the European countries.

361
00:20:30,103 --> 00:20:34,149
And they say, what did we
intervene in this war for?

362
00:20:34,233 --> 00:20:36,860
But at the same time, a lot
of the unsolved problems

363
00:20:36,944 --> 00:20:40,155
of America remain
below the surface.

364
00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:42,366
Men have to return to jobs.

365
00:20:42,449 --> 00:20:44,701
Some of these jobs
are still available.

366
00:20:44,785 --> 00:20:47,579
Some of them aren't.

367
00:20:47,663 --> 00:20:52,251
And labor wars are erupting
all over manufacturing centers

368
00:20:52,334 --> 00:20:53,794
in the United States.

369
00:20:53,877 --> 00:20:57,172
And for returning
African-Americans, what they

370
00:20:57,256 --> 00:20:59,508
discovered was that
the reign of Jim Crow

371
00:20:59,591 --> 00:21:01,593
was even more entrenched.

372
00:21:04,805 --> 00:21:08,016
In 1919, Woodrow Wilson
suffers a terrible stroke

373
00:21:08,141 --> 00:21:09,643
and he's essentially
incapacitated

374
00:21:09,768 --> 00:21:11,395
for the rest of his term.

375
00:21:11,478 --> 00:21:15,065
Franklin's hero Teddy
Roosevelt has recently died,

376
00:21:15,148 --> 00:21:17,776
and Franklin is looking
at what is his next step.

377
00:21:22,948 --> 00:21:25,075
In 1920, women had
just gotten the vote.

378
00:21:27,661 --> 00:21:29,413
FDR was good looking.

379
00:21:29,496 --> 00:21:31,623
The Democrats wanted
a good-looking guy

380
00:21:31,748 --> 00:21:35,752
to run for vice president,
and so FDR got on the ticket

381
00:21:35,836 --> 00:21:40,048
with Governor Cox in Ohio,
the Democratic candidate, who

382
00:21:40,173 --> 00:21:43,552
probably knew he
was going to lose.

383
00:21:43,677 --> 00:21:47,764
For a young Assistant
Secretary of the Navy to leap

384
00:21:47,848 --> 00:21:51,351
from that job to the national
ticket as candidate for vice

385
00:21:51,476 --> 00:21:54,229
president, this was
the gift of all times,

386
00:21:54,354 --> 00:21:57,566
because Roosevelt knew
that even if Cox lost,

387
00:21:57,691 --> 00:22:00,902
FDR would be a well-known
presidential figure

388
00:22:00,986 --> 00:22:03,238
of the future.

389
00:22:03,363 --> 00:22:06,616
This is also a moment when
Eleanor emerges as something

390
00:22:06,700 --> 00:22:09,828
of a political observer,
because Louis Howe,

391
00:22:09,953 --> 00:22:13,623
FDR's political advisor, has
Eleanor traveling with him

392
00:22:13,707 --> 00:22:17,127
on the train on this
whistle stop tour.

393
00:22:17,210 --> 00:22:20,839
The 1920 campaign is
Franklin Roosevelt traveling

394
00:22:20,964 --> 00:22:22,758
the country, places
he's never been,

395
00:22:22,841 --> 00:22:25,969
giving speech after speech,
thousands of speeches

396
00:22:26,053 --> 00:22:27,346
over the course of three months.

397
00:22:27,429 --> 00:22:28,388
So he can try things.

398
00:22:28,513 --> 00:22:29,765
He can be bold.

399
00:22:29,890 --> 00:22:33,935
He can really test his message
and evolve and improve.

400
00:22:34,061 --> 00:22:36,104
It's all the skills that
he's going to need later

401
00:22:36,229 --> 00:22:37,814
on in his political career.

402
00:22:37,898 --> 00:22:40,192
It's the perfect
testing ground for him.

403
00:22:40,275 --> 00:22:45,530
He's learning what works and
that he genuinely liked people.

404
00:22:45,655 --> 00:22:53,538
I am certain that America
will choose the path of progress

405
00:22:53,622 --> 00:22:59,878
and set aside the
doctrines of despair.

406
00:23:00,003 --> 00:23:04,132
May the guiding
spirit of our land

407
00:23:04,257 --> 00:23:11,181
keep our feet on the broad road
that leads to a better tomorrow

408
00:23:11,264 --> 00:23:16,686
and gives us the
strength to carry on.

409
00:23:16,770 --> 00:23:18,230
[applause]

410
00:23:21,525 --> 00:23:23,652
What do you think?

411
00:23:23,735 --> 00:23:24,611
Me?

412
00:23:24,694 --> 00:23:25,320
Yes, you.

413
00:23:25,404 --> 00:23:27,697
Do you like the speech?

414
00:23:27,781 --> 00:23:29,324
It was good.

415
00:23:29,449 --> 00:23:30,700
You think it could
have been better?

416
00:23:34,496 --> 00:23:35,789
It was a little vague.

417
00:23:35,872 --> 00:23:36,665
Yeah?

418
00:23:39,459 --> 00:23:44,381
Well, I suppose he should
consider his audience.

419
00:23:44,464 --> 00:23:47,884
I imagine that people
from farms and small towns

420
00:23:47,968 --> 00:23:51,930
might feel rather distant from
what happens in Washington

421
00:23:52,055 --> 00:23:54,850
or New York City.

422
00:23:54,975 --> 00:23:59,521
People want to feel special.

423
00:23:59,646 --> 00:24:02,482
They want to know that
they've been understood.

424
00:24:06,820 --> 00:24:08,738
What is it?

425
00:24:08,822 --> 00:24:11,533
Maybe I have the
wrong candidate.

426
00:24:11,616 --> 00:24:15,036
Don't be so ridiculous.

427
00:24:15,162 --> 00:24:18,915
Eleanor Roosevelt had a
comfort with everyday people,

428
00:24:18,999 --> 00:24:22,335
an ability to connect to
people who were really living

429
00:24:22,419 --> 00:24:25,213
at the very margins
of American society,

430
00:24:25,297 --> 00:24:30,010
and so Eleanor Roosevelt is key
in the presidential campaign

431
00:24:30,135 --> 00:24:33,722
of 1920.

432
00:24:33,847 --> 00:24:36,224
Eleanor becomes more involved,
but it's also important

433
00:24:36,308 --> 00:24:41,104
because FDR now starts listening
to Eleanor in a different way.

434
00:24:43,648 --> 00:24:45,734
James Cox loses.

435
00:24:45,859 --> 00:24:47,903
It was a disaster
for the Democrats,

436
00:24:47,986 --> 00:24:50,906
but Roosevelt comes out,
he's now this national figure

437
00:24:51,031 --> 00:24:52,908
and everybody knows
him, and he is

438
00:24:53,033 --> 00:24:54,868
seen as one of the most
appealing Democrats

439
00:24:54,951 --> 00:24:55,744
in the country.

440
00:24:58,538 --> 00:25:01,708
In the summer, after the
Democrats lose the election,

441
00:25:01,791 --> 00:25:04,544
FDR is deeply involved with
the Boy Scouts of America

442
00:25:04,628 --> 00:25:08,006
and he goes to the jamboree that
they're having in upstate New

443
00:25:08,089 --> 00:25:09,299
York.

444
00:25:09,382 --> 00:25:11,968
He then continues on up to
his family's vacation home up

445
00:25:12,052 --> 00:25:12,969
in Campobello.

446
00:25:18,391 --> 00:25:21,061
What's all this yelling about?

447
00:25:21,186 --> 00:25:21,978
Come on.

448
00:25:22,062 --> 00:25:23,146
Dinner is ready.

449
00:25:23,230 --> 00:25:26,483
August of 1921 was going
to be this rare treat

450
00:25:26,566 --> 00:25:30,570
for an extended family
holiday, and in the end

451
00:25:30,695 --> 00:25:31,863
they got one day.

452
00:25:31,988 --> 00:25:32,781
Franklin?

453
00:25:38,078 --> 00:25:39,788
Franklin?

454
00:25:39,913 --> 00:25:40,747
Are you all right?

455
00:25:53,176 --> 00:25:55,262
All right, let's
try the left one.

456
00:26:04,271 --> 00:26:06,398
That's fine.

457
00:26:06,439 --> 00:26:10,485
Mr. Roosevelt, you've
contracted infantile paralysis.

458
00:26:17,033 --> 00:26:17,826
Polio.

459
00:26:21,121 --> 00:26:24,332
I don't believe it.

460
00:26:24,457 --> 00:26:27,085
Polio is contagious, isn't it?

461
00:26:27,168 --> 00:26:29,671
Should we be worried
about the children?

462
00:26:29,796 --> 00:26:32,340
Your husband's been
sick for weeks already.

463
00:26:32,465 --> 00:26:33,508
If they were going
to get it, they

464
00:26:33,633 --> 00:26:34,801
would have gotten it by now.

465
00:26:37,637 --> 00:26:38,513
This can't be right.

466
00:26:42,726 --> 00:26:45,895
FDR got sick in 1921, and
it was a mysterious disease.

467
00:26:45,979 --> 00:26:47,731
They didn't really
know what caused it.

468
00:26:47,814 --> 00:26:50,483
They didn't know how to cure it.

469
00:26:50,567 --> 00:26:53,361
It seemed to affect children,
which, of course, is

470
00:26:53,486 --> 00:26:54,863
terrifying.

471
00:26:54,988 --> 00:26:57,407
When this strange
new disease spread

472
00:26:57,490 --> 00:27:00,410
throughout American cities
in the first decades

473
00:27:00,493 --> 00:27:04,706
of the 20th century, it's
terrifying to people.

474
00:27:04,831 --> 00:27:07,334
There were 6,000 deaths
in the United States,

475
00:27:07,417 --> 00:27:11,087
2,000 in New York City
alone, and tens of thousands

476
00:27:11,171 --> 00:27:13,798
of children who are
infected with it.

477
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:17,177
It was very much seen
as a children's disease,

478
00:27:17,260 --> 00:27:19,846
not something a
healthy, vigorous adult

479
00:27:19,929 --> 00:27:21,097
would have to worry about.

480
00:27:26,436 --> 00:27:27,312
What can I do?

481
00:27:30,231 --> 00:27:33,026
Nothing.

482
00:27:33,109 --> 00:27:34,027
It's fine, Babs.

483
00:27:37,697 --> 00:27:38,740
Everything will be fine.

484
00:27:42,869 --> 00:27:45,955
When Franklin Roosevelt
is struck down by polio,

485
00:27:46,039 --> 00:27:48,249
he is 39 years old.

486
00:27:48,375 --> 00:27:51,252
He never walks again unaided.

487
00:27:51,378 --> 00:27:55,799
He goes from being totally
in control of everything

488
00:27:55,882 --> 00:27:59,636
to being dependent at all times.

489
00:27:59,719 --> 00:28:03,139
FDR felt physical pain,
and worse than physical pain,

490
00:28:03,264 --> 00:28:05,767
terror, the terror
of never knowing

491
00:28:05,892 --> 00:28:07,268
if you're going to walk again.

492
00:28:07,394 --> 00:28:09,479
Here's a guy with enormous
political ambitions,

493
00:28:09,562 --> 00:28:11,815
he's got a large
family, everybody's

494
00:28:11,940 --> 00:28:13,608
expecting great things
from him, and he's

495
00:28:13,733 --> 00:28:17,320
lying in a darkened
room and he can't move.

496
00:28:17,404 --> 00:28:21,616
He fell into a deep depression
upon discovering that he no

497
00:28:21,741 --> 00:28:24,911
longer had the use of his legs.

498
00:28:24,994 --> 00:28:29,499
In those days, people
weren't used to seeing folks

499
00:28:29,582 --> 00:28:30,500
with disabilities.

500
00:28:30,583 --> 00:28:32,794
They didn't see
people in wheelchairs.

501
00:28:32,919 --> 00:28:36,756
And he feared that his
public life was over.

502
00:28:39,426 --> 00:28:40,802
In the beginning
they weren't even sure

503
00:28:40,927 --> 00:28:43,471
that he could recover
the upper body,

504
00:28:43,596 --> 00:28:45,265
but he did everything he could.

505
00:28:45,348 --> 00:28:48,351
He experimented with every
new gadget that came along

506
00:28:48,435 --> 00:28:51,396
that might help him walk better,
and that's what he would do

507
00:28:51,521 --> 00:28:52,689
when he becomes a leader.

508
00:28:52,772 --> 00:28:53,773
I'm going to experiment
with this one.

509
00:28:53,898 --> 00:28:55,442
If it doesn't work,
I'm going to admit it,

510
00:28:55,567 --> 00:28:58,486
and then I'll try
something else.

511
00:28:58,611 --> 00:29:03,324
FDR's effort in the wake of
polio is to remake himself,

512
00:29:03,450 --> 00:29:05,827
and against the advice of many
of his friends and family,

513
00:29:05,952 --> 00:29:08,496
including his mother, to
not retire to Hyde Park

514
00:29:08,580 --> 00:29:11,958
and live as a country gentleman
but to get back into politics

515
00:29:12,041 --> 00:29:14,085
and back into leadership.

516
00:29:14,210 --> 00:29:16,504
His experience of
being paralyzed

517
00:29:16,629 --> 00:29:20,842
gave him a sense of setting
one's mind to achieve goals,

518
00:29:20,967 --> 00:29:23,261
and understanding how
to overcome adversity

519
00:29:23,386 --> 00:29:25,054
becomes a key part
of his makeup.

520
00:29:28,641 --> 00:29:32,729
In 1924, Al Smith, a
fairly powerful politician

521
00:29:32,812 --> 00:29:36,691
in New York, asked FDR to become
the chairman of his campaign

522
00:29:36,816 --> 00:29:38,610
for president committee,
and then asked

523
00:29:38,735 --> 00:29:41,196
FDR to place his
name in nomination

524
00:29:41,321 --> 00:29:44,407
at the Democratic
National Convention.

525
00:29:44,491 --> 00:29:46,367
FDR was taking a big gamble.

526
00:29:46,493 --> 00:29:50,497
The gamble was that he
could appear in public,

527
00:29:50,580 --> 00:29:53,833
give a stirring speech
nominating Al Smith,

528
00:29:53,917 --> 00:29:57,337
and look like someone who
is in no way being held back

529
00:29:57,420 --> 00:30:01,049
by the fact that
he had had polio.

530
00:30:01,174 --> 00:30:03,843
Giving a speech on
the convention floor

531
00:30:03,927 --> 00:30:10,850
means Franklin needs to somehow
move across a stage apparently

532
00:30:10,934 --> 00:30:12,560
walking.

533
00:30:12,685 --> 00:30:15,396
This was not something
that he could do.

534
00:30:15,522 --> 00:30:19,275
He had these
incredibly heavy braces.

535
00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:23,238
It was excruciating
to just take a step.

536
00:30:23,363 --> 00:30:26,074
And yet he would practice
day after day after day.

537
00:30:26,199 --> 00:30:28,201
He would have his
son hold him and then

538
00:30:28,284 --> 00:30:30,620
he would have his
braces locked in place.

539
00:30:30,703 --> 00:30:32,413
He wasn't sure that
he could do it.

540
00:30:45,593 --> 00:30:46,386
That's 15 feet.

541
00:30:46,469 --> 00:30:49,556
It's the distance
to the podium.

542
00:30:49,639 --> 00:30:52,392
It doesn't seem so far.

543
00:30:52,517 --> 00:30:54,602
Can't we just wheel
Pa onto the platform?

544
00:30:54,686 --> 00:30:58,314
I walk or I back
out altogether.

545
00:30:58,398 --> 00:31:00,525
All right, now let's
give it a shot.

546
00:31:23,965 --> 00:31:25,341
Pa!

547
00:31:25,425 --> 00:31:26,843
[groans]

548
00:31:30,179 --> 00:31:31,055
I'm all right.

549
00:31:36,269 --> 00:31:37,061
Again.

550
00:31:53,536 --> 00:31:55,705
Want a break?

551
00:31:55,788 --> 00:32:01,169
No, it's just I need
to be able to walk alone.

552
00:32:04,923 --> 00:32:06,424
Elliott, grab me
the other crutch.

553
00:32:09,969 --> 00:32:10,762
That's a good boy.

554
00:32:46,714 --> 00:32:48,299
NEWSREADER: There never
was a political convention

555
00:32:48,383 --> 00:32:51,052
to match the Democratic
National gathering in 1924

556
00:32:51,177 --> 00:32:54,389
in New York with
drama and color.

557
00:32:54,514 --> 00:32:56,099
Imagine the scene.

558
00:32:56,182 --> 00:32:59,185
Thousands of people
packing this auditorium

559
00:32:59,268 --> 00:33:01,562
at Madison Square Garden.

560
00:33:01,688 --> 00:33:04,941
It took extraordinary
courage, and if he fell,

561
00:33:05,024 --> 00:33:08,403
it could really end his hopes
of going into public life.

562
00:33:08,528 --> 00:33:10,655
It would be a huge
humiliation, an embarrassment,

563
00:33:10,738 --> 00:33:12,740
and yet he dared.

564
00:33:12,865 --> 00:33:19,789
And now please welcome
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

565
00:33:19,872 --> 00:33:20,915
of New York.

566
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:22,875
[applause]

567
00:33:46,566 --> 00:33:49,861
We forgot to check the podium.

568
00:33:49,986 --> 00:33:51,112
What do you mean?

569
00:33:51,237 --> 00:33:52,488
Someone needs to make
sure it's strong enough

570
00:33:52,613 --> 00:33:53,406
to support him.

571
00:34:10,339 --> 00:34:13,301
Joe, do me a favor
and shake the podium.

572
00:34:13,426 --> 00:34:17,013
Give it a shake now, will you?

573
00:34:17,138 --> 00:34:19,974
Good.

574
00:34:20,099 --> 00:34:21,559
[applause]

575
00:34:44,791 --> 00:34:47,919
And when he got to the
podium, he gripped that podium

576
00:34:48,002 --> 00:34:49,754
so hard that his
hand was shaking

577
00:34:49,837 --> 00:34:53,549
and his knuckles were white,
and yet he wore a huge smile.

578
00:35:04,602 --> 00:35:12,860
It gives me great pleasure to
meet again so many friends whom

579
00:35:12,944 --> 00:35:17,907
I have not seen since the last
Democratic National gathering.

580
00:35:17,990 --> 00:35:19,325
[applause]

581
00:35:20,576 --> 00:35:27,041
America needs a pathfinder,
a blazer of the trail

582
00:35:27,166 --> 00:35:32,880
to the high road, to
stand upon the ramparts

583
00:35:33,005 --> 00:35:37,218
and die for our principles.

584
00:35:37,343 --> 00:35:43,391
We offer one who
has the will to win,

585
00:35:43,516 --> 00:35:51,023
who not only deserves
success but commands it.

586
00:35:51,107 --> 00:35:58,114
The happy warrior,
Alfred E. Smith.

587
00:35:58,197 --> 00:36:00,241
[applause]

588
00:36:21,554 --> 00:36:22,597
The whole place erupts.

589
00:36:26,726 --> 00:36:31,480
And when he describes Alfred
Smith as the happy warrior,

590
00:36:31,564 --> 00:36:34,609
it's really he who comes
off as the happy warrior,

591
00:36:34,692 --> 00:36:37,153
and by the end of
the convention,

592
00:36:37,236 --> 00:36:41,657
the press about his
speech is glowing

593
00:36:41,741 --> 00:36:43,951
and he has put himself
back on the map

594
00:36:44,076 --> 00:36:47,580
as a possible future
presidential contender.

595
00:36:47,705 --> 00:36:49,498
There was that great
sense of accomplishment.

596
00:36:49,582 --> 00:36:51,834
I think this was a
huge moment for him.

597
00:36:51,918 --> 00:36:54,295
He comes home that night
and he said, we did it.

598
00:36:54,420 --> 00:36:56,547
I did it.

599
00:36:56,672 --> 00:36:58,466
After the success
of the convention,

600
00:36:58,549 --> 00:37:01,761
FDR absolutely is committed
to recovering from polio,

601
00:37:01,844 --> 00:37:04,347
to being able to walk
again, to continuing

602
00:37:04,430 --> 00:37:05,640
his political career.

603
00:37:08,142 --> 00:37:10,228
His good friend
George Foster Peabody

604
00:37:10,311 --> 00:37:13,731
tells him about this
resort down in Georgia that

605
00:37:13,814 --> 00:37:19,362
has a reputation for miraculous
cures for polio survivors,

606
00:37:19,445 --> 00:37:23,366
and he feels that, OK, now I
finally have a path forward.

607
00:37:25,952 --> 00:37:28,204
1924, Franklin
makes his first trip

608
00:37:28,287 --> 00:37:31,874
to Warm Springs with
his personal valet

609
00:37:31,958 --> 00:37:33,167
and with Missy LeHand.

610
00:37:36,087 --> 00:37:37,296
Missy LeHand was
initially hired

611
00:37:37,380 --> 00:37:40,883
to help with the vise
presidential campaign in 1920.

612
00:37:40,967 --> 00:37:45,263
She was also this wise cracking,
extremely confident Irish girl

613
00:37:45,346 --> 00:37:49,350
from Boston, who didn't
take crap from anybody.

614
00:37:49,475 --> 00:37:51,686
She was as close
to a chief of staff

615
00:37:51,769 --> 00:37:54,355
as you can be in those days when
women weren't allowed to hold

616
00:37:54,438 --> 00:37:55,773
those kinds of positions.

617
00:38:00,820 --> 00:38:03,864
In the fall of 1924,
Franklin is swimming around

618
00:38:03,990 --> 00:38:07,827
in the water at Warm Springs,
and it does feel magical.

619
00:38:07,952 --> 00:38:11,497
He feels this power that
he hasn't felt at any point

620
00:38:11,580 --> 00:38:15,543
since his polio infection.

621
00:38:15,668 --> 00:38:18,754
Franklin decides, you know
what, I can use this resort

622
00:38:18,838 --> 00:38:22,925
to benefit all polio
survivors, and he purchases it

623
00:38:23,009 --> 00:38:26,012
with about 50% of
his entire net worth

624
00:38:26,095 --> 00:38:29,265
and transforms it into the
preeminent rehabilitation

625
00:38:29,348 --> 00:38:30,349
center in the world.

626
00:38:35,521 --> 00:38:38,858
He becomes a leader among
the polio patients there.

627
00:38:38,941 --> 00:38:40,568
He was their camp counselor.

628
00:38:40,651 --> 00:38:44,196
He was Doc Roosevelt. He would
exercise with them in the pool,

629
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:47,033
and he made them feel that they
had a purpose again in life.

630
00:38:47,116 --> 00:38:50,244
He made them feel that
they could have joy in life

631
00:38:50,369 --> 00:38:53,622
once again, and experiencing
that kind of leadership

632
00:38:53,706 --> 00:38:55,791
really made him feel,
I can be a leader.

633
00:38:55,875 --> 00:38:57,752
It doesn't matter if
I can't walk again.

634
00:38:57,835 --> 00:38:58,669
I can do this.

635
00:39:04,425 --> 00:39:07,595
The area around
Warm Springs was poor.

636
00:39:07,720 --> 00:39:11,390
It was poor white people
and poor Black people,

637
00:39:11,515 --> 00:39:13,309
and that was a
good thing for him

638
00:39:13,392 --> 00:39:15,603
to see how the other half lived.

639
00:39:15,728 --> 00:39:19,482
He was sensitive
to their suffering.

640
00:39:19,565 --> 00:39:23,152
And he would drive
all around the area.

641
00:39:23,235 --> 00:39:24,779
When he talked to
the local farmers,

642
00:39:24,904 --> 00:39:26,989
he could see that they
had no running water.

643
00:39:27,073 --> 00:39:27,865
They had no electricity.

644
00:39:27,990 --> 00:39:29,950
They had no food
to eat sometimes.

645
00:39:30,076 --> 00:39:35,122
And he understood what it
would do to your daily lives.

646
00:39:35,206 --> 00:39:38,084
Warm Springs is really the path
that leads to his leadership.

647
00:39:38,167 --> 00:39:40,336
That's the place where he
truly found a deeper sense

648
00:39:40,419 --> 00:39:44,131
of purpose, not just
wanting a series of titles

649
00:39:44,215 --> 00:39:47,093
to become a politician,
but wanting to do something

650
00:39:47,176 --> 00:39:49,929
with that leadership where you
could make people feel that you

651
00:39:50,012 --> 00:39:52,306
would change their lives.

652
00:39:52,390 --> 00:39:54,850
In the '20s, while Franklin
Roosevelt is recovering

653
00:39:54,934 --> 00:39:57,019
and plotting his comeback
into public life,

654
00:39:57,103 --> 00:40:01,148
it just seems America's
soaring into prominence.

655
00:40:01,232 --> 00:40:04,485
America is fast becoming the
world's dominant economy.

656
00:40:07,488 --> 00:40:11,367
And it's a time of tremendous
economic growth and also

657
00:40:11,450 --> 00:40:14,995
profound cultural changes.

658
00:40:15,079 --> 00:40:17,039
Investments are
through the roof,

659
00:40:17,123 --> 00:40:19,792
and it seems like the good
times are here and here to stay

660
00:40:19,917 --> 00:40:24,004
and that everybody's going
to make bank in the 1920s.

661
00:40:24,130 --> 00:40:28,300
It feels at one point like
money is falling from trees.

662
00:40:28,426 --> 00:40:31,679
The roaring '20s is
described as euphoric.

663
00:40:31,762 --> 00:40:36,016
Lip rouge, cigarettes,
and silk stockings

664
00:40:36,100 --> 00:40:38,227
were no longer the
sine of a hussy.

665
00:40:38,310 --> 00:40:41,522
LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR: People are
engaging in decadent behavior.

666
00:40:41,605 --> 00:40:43,566
Social mores are changing.

667
00:40:43,649 --> 00:40:46,110
Hemlines are getting shorter.

668
00:40:46,193 --> 00:40:47,653
People are buying stock.

669
00:40:47,778 --> 00:40:50,072
They're borrowing to
buy stock, but there's

670
00:40:50,156 --> 00:40:53,200
this kind of giddy
euphoria that seizes really

671
00:40:53,325 --> 00:40:54,368
the whole country.

672
00:40:54,493 --> 00:40:57,204
There's a sense in
America in the late 1920s

673
00:40:57,329 --> 00:41:00,583
that the party's
never going to end.

674
00:41:00,666 --> 00:41:01,876
But it all crashes.

675
00:41:05,463 --> 00:41:09,133
1928, Al Smith's going
to run for president again,

676
00:41:09,258 --> 00:41:12,303
but he still has
plans for Franklin.

677
00:41:12,428 --> 00:41:15,806
He's governor of New York, and
if he's going to be president,

678
00:41:15,890 --> 00:41:17,766
he wants Franklin
Roosevelt to take over

679
00:41:17,850 --> 00:41:19,226
as governor of New York.

680
00:41:21,770 --> 00:41:23,564
Al Smith was also sort
of thinking, well,

681
00:41:23,647 --> 00:41:25,941
if I lose the presidency,
then, you know,

682
00:41:26,025 --> 00:41:28,777
FDR would just be a
puppet and I'll still

683
00:41:28,861 --> 00:41:35,493
be power behind the throne as
the ex-governor of New York.

684
00:41:35,618 --> 00:41:37,411
When Roosevelt agreed
to run for governor

685
00:41:37,536 --> 00:41:40,414
of New York in 1928,
it was something

686
00:41:40,539 --> 00:41:42,333
of a testing of the waters.

687
00:41:42,458 --> 00:41:45,628
He wanted to know if he had the
energy to be the kind of leader

688
00:41:45,711 --> 00:41:52,134
he had been before, and it
turned out that the Roosevelt

689
00:41:52,218 --> 00:41:56,138
political skills, the ability
to tell a story, the ability

690
00:41:56,222 --> 00:41:59,433
to convey a vision, that was
still there, and in some ways

691
00:41:59,558 --> 00:42:01,644
it was more persuasive
than before.

692
00:42:01,727 --> 00:42:05,814
He seemed to be a deeper soul.

693
00:42:05,898 --> 00:42:09,860
He had the maturity of having
suffered through hard times.

694
00:42:09,985 --> 00:42:14,281
As it happened, Smith
loses the presidency,

695
00:42:14,406 --> 00:42:18,035
but Roosevelt wins
the governorship.

696
00:42:18,118 --> 00:42:21,455
Al Smith also thought that FDR
was a lightweight whom he could

697
00:42:21,539 --> 00:42:22,414
control.

698
00:42:30,923 --> 00:42:32,216
"New York Times"
wants to know,

699
00:42:32,299 --> 00:42:35,010
should they refer to you as
Governor Roosevelt or Governor

700
00:42:35,094 --> 00:42:35,928
Franklin Roosevelt?

701
00:42:36,053 --> 00:42:41,350
Governor Franklin
D. Roosevelt.

702
00:42:41,433 --> 00:42:46,689
Oh, by the way, remember, Al
Smith is still waiting for you.

703
00:42:46,772 --> 00:42:50,192
Al, good to see you.

704
00:42:50,276 --> 00:42:52,695
Thought I'd stop by and
hand over your speech.

705
00:42:58,576 --> 00:43:03,789
I'm sure this is swell, but
I've already written my speech.

706
00:43:11,922 --> 00:43:16,719
You know, Frank, you
should take it easy.

707
00:43:16,802 --> 00:43:18,679
Let me handle things.

708
00:43:18,804 --> 00:43:22,224
I actually think I can
do some good up here.

709
00:43:22,308 --> 00:43:23,726
Well, that's funny.

710
00:43:23,809 --> 00:43:27,187
You didn't even want to run.

711
00:43:27,271 --> 00:43:30,608
Yet here I am.

712
00:43:30,691 --> 00:43:33,611
And that's my chair
you're sitting in.

713
00:43:33,736 --> 00:43:36,947
This isn't about
whose chair it is.

714
00:43:37,072 --> 00:43:40,701
This is about doing my duty
to the people of New York.

715
00:43:40,784 --> 00:43:45,247
Now, I've got a pile
of problems left over

716
00:43:45,331 --> 00:43:49,418
from your administration,
so if you'll excuse me,

717
00:43:49,501 --> 00:43:50,878
I've got a lot of work to do.

718
00:44:07,728 --> 00:44:12,024
Roosevelt was elected
governor in 1928,

719
00:44:12,149 --> 00:44:16,153
and he is following his
plan just like Uncle Teddy.

720
00:44:16,278 --> 00:44:18,238
He's been in the state
legislature, Assistant

721
00:44:18,322 --> 00:44:23,744
Secretary of the Navy, and
now governor of New York.

722
00:44:23,827 --> 00:44:29,458
But suddenly comes the
stock market crash.

723
00:44:29,541 --> 00:44:31,627
NEWSREADER: The tremendous
crowds, which you see gathered

724
00:44:31,710 --> 00:44:35,297
outside the Stock Exchange,
are due to the greatest crash

725
00:44:35,381 --> 00:44:37,424
in the history of the
New York Stock Exchange

726
00:44:37,508 --> 00:44:39,760
in market prices.

727
00:44:39,843 --> 00:44:43,472
The stock market crashed in
1929 because Americans believed

728
00:44:43,555 --> 00:44:44,807
in fairy tales.

729
00:44:44,890 --> 00:44:47,184
People get invested
with unreasonable

730
00:44:47,267 --> 00:44:50,479
hope that they can keep on
making money for nothing.

731
00:44:50,562 --> 00:44:52,648
When it crashed, it
took down millionaires,

732
00:44:52,731 --> 00:44:56,276
but it also took down plumbers,
carpenters, manufacturing

733
00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:58,904
workers, farmers,
and many others.

734
00:44:58,987 --> 00:45:00,322
And there's a lot of fear.

735
00:45:00,406 --> 00:45:01,657
People are worried.

736
00:45:01,740 --> 00:45:03,534
They're worried about
a lot of things.

737
00:45:03,617 --> 00:45:08,455
And what follows is a steadily
worsening economic situation

738
00:45:08,580 --> 00:45:12,084
with high unemployment and
then sky high unemployment.

739
00:45:12,167 --> 00:45:15,170
Business failures,
bank failures.

740
00:45:15,254 --> 00:45:16,380
It's a real crisis.

741
00:45:22,761 --> 00:45:26,181
And the mood of
the country, 1929 on

742
00:45:26,265 --> 00:45:29,143
forward is one of
bleakness and despair.

743
00:45:32,771 --> 00:45:34,857
And at the beginning of
the Great Depression,

744
00:45:34,940 --> 00:45:36,984
we have a president,
Herbert Hoover,

745
00:45:37,067 --> 00:45:39,737
who firmly believes that
it's not the government's job

746
00:45:39,862 --> 00:45:43,073
to take care of the
American people.

747
00:45:43,157 --> 00:45:46,368
He says, this is the
job of aid societies,

748
00:45:46,452 --> 00:45:48,454
the Red Cross and food banks.

749
00:45:50,956 --> 00:45:53,333
But as governor of
New York, FDR says,

750
00:45:53,417 --> 00:45:56,712
this is a unique and
tragic circumstance

751
00:45:56,795 --> 00:45:58,547
and the government
has to do something

752
00:45:58,630 --> 00:46:01,508
to help the people
who are suffering.

753
00:46:01,633 --> 00:46:04,261
FDR believed in bold
experimentation.

754
00:46:04,344 --> 00:46:07,181
He would try anything, and
he would say repeatedly,

755
00:46:07,264 --> 00:46:08,265
try something.

756
00:46:08,348 --> 00:46:09,600
If it doesn't work,
try something else,

757
00:46:09,725 --> 00:46:11,852
but do something.

758
00:46:11,977 --> 00:46:15,022
He understood that the
nation was in crisis.

759
00:46:15,147 --> 00:46:17,983
And so some leaders would
think that that was the moment

760
00:46:18,066 --> 00:46:20,569
to be timid, but he understood
that this was a call

761
00:46:20,652 --> 00:46:21,779
to be bold.

762
00:46:21,904 --> 00:46:24,907
So he brought in academics
to talk to him, to help

763
00:46:24,990 --> 00:46:27,701
him explain what was going on.

764
00:46:27,785 --> 00:46:30,204
This was somewhat of
a radical proposal,

765
00:46:30,287 --> 00:46:33,081
because most politicians, they
brought in political advisors,

766
00:46:33,165 --> 00:46:38,003
not academics, and they were
nicknamed the Brains Trust.

767
00:46:38,086 --> 00:46:40,881
I'm sure you're
wondering why you're here.

768
00:46:40,964 --> 00:46:42,716
I need your help.

769
00:46:42,841 --> 00:46:45,427
I need to know what you know
about the current economic

770
00:46:45,511 --> 00:46:46,303
situation.

771
00:46:50,849 --> 00:46:53,602
Today would be nice.

772
00:46:53,685 --> 00:46:56,814
Some think the decline is
a result of under consumption

773
00:46:56,939 --> 00:46:59,233
and inadequate
demand, and this has

774
00:46:59,316 --> 00:47:02,402
led to a decline in
industrial production

775
00:47:02,486 --> 00:47:06,281
as manufacturers experience
an unintended surplus.

776
00:47:06,365 --> 00:47:09,576
Whoa, whoa, I need you
to speak my language.

777
00:47:09,660 --> 00:47:10,911
Sir?

778
00:47:10,994 --> 00:47:13,205
If I can't understand it,
how are the American people

779
00:47:13,288 --> 00:47:14,456
going to?

780
00:47:14,540 --> 00:47:17,543
The bottom line is, people
are buying less stuff,

781
00:47:17,668 --> 00:47:19,670
so factories are
making less stuff.

782
00:47:19,753 --> 00:47:23,423
And if they're making less,
they don't need as many workers.

783
00:47:23,507 --> 00:47:26,301
And if a man's not
working, he's not buying.

784
00:47:26,385 --> 00:47:29,137
There's your real
problem, unemployment.

785
00:47:32,724 --> 00:47:35,394
Franklin Roosevelt
doesn't read book after book

786
00:47:35,477 --> 00:47:37,312
to learn about a subject.

787
00:47:37,396 --> 00:47:39,106
He listens to people.

788
00:47:39,189 --> 00:47:41,441
He'll ask really
probing questions

789
00:47:41,525 --> 00:47:43,735
and try to get to the heart
of the matter that way.

790
00:47:47,072 --> 00:47:50,576
One thing has never
been clear to me.

791
00:47:50,659 --> 00:47:54,246
If the people are expected to
follow laws and do their duty

792
00:47:54,329 --> 00:47:58,333
to the country, why doesn't the
country have a duty to them?

793
00:47:58,417 --> 00:48:01,503
The country has a
duty to JP Morgan.

794
00:48:01,587 --> 00:48:02,796
[laughter]

795
00:48:03,422 --> 00:48:05,716
That's the problem.

796
00:48:05,799 --> 00:48:07,718
Think about your forgotten man.

797
00:48:07,843 --> 00:48:10,095
Been working his whole life.

798
00:48:10,220 --> 00:48:13,140
Now just when he needs some
help, he's out of luck.

799
00:48:13,265 --> 00:48:15,809
Yeah, but people
don't want handouts.

800
00:48:15,934 --> 00:48:17,477
Well, that's right Frances.

801
00:48:17,561 --> 00:48:18,854
They want jobs.

802
00:48:18,937 --> 00:48:20,397
They want to earn their money.

803
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:22,566
But there are no jobs.

804
00:48:22,649 --> 00:48:25,360
So we'll create jobs.

805
00:48:25,444 --> 00:48:31,033
FDR is challenging the core
assumption that government has

806
00:48:31,116 --> 00:48:33,493
no role in helping
the common man,

807
00:48:33,577 --> 00:48:35,829
that the government's role is
to help banks and big business,

808
00:48:35,913 --> 00:48:38,540
and he is saying that
the forgotten man is

809
00:48:38,624 --> 00:48:39,875
who the government
should be helping.

810
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:43,045
This is his motivation for what
he's trying to do in New York

811
00:48:43,128 --> 00:48:44,338
State to provide relief.

812
00:48:44,463 --> 00:48:47,132
More importantly, it forms
the foundation of everything

813
00:48:47,257 --> 00:48:50,260
he does after.

814
00:48:50,344 --> 00:48:52,554
How do you think you're going
to convince Albany to put up

815
00:48:52,638 --> 00:48:53,472
that kind of money?

816
00:48:57,935 --> 00:49:02,022
They can say no
to me, but they

817
00:49:02,147 --> 00:49:03,523
can't say no to the people.

818
00:49:06,818 --> 00:49:09,821
FDR is a great political
leader in a sense

819
00:49:09,905 --> 00:49:13,075
that he understands how to
read the public mood, how

820
00:49:13,158 --> 00:49:15,118
to motivate people.

821
00:49:15,202 --> 00:49:17,996
And FDR realizes
that if he wants

822
00:49:18,080 --> 00:49:21,458
to reach the great masses,
that the radio provides

823
00:49:21,541 --> 00:49:23,752
an incredible
opportunity to do that.

824
00:49:32,594 --> 00:49:36,765
I don't have to tell you
how important the speech is.

825
00:49:36,848 --> 00:49:38,767
Just relax.

826
00:49:38,850 --> 00:49:43,605
Talk just like you're in their
living rooms, because you are.

827
00:49:43,689 --> 00:49:44,523
It's time.

828
00:49:53,699 --> 00:49:57,077
In my judgment, my
friends, my calm judgment,

829
00:49:57,160 --> 00:50:05,794
the nation faces today a more
grave emergency than in 1917.

830
00:50:05,877 --> 00:50:11,466
It has been said that Napoleon
lost the Battle of Waterloo

831
00:50:11,550 --> 00:50:14,177
because he forgot his infantry.

832
00:50:14,302 --> 00:50:17,931
Roosevelt had the perfect
conversational voice, a voice

833
00:50:18,015 --> 00:50:21,101
that seemed intimate, could
make people feel he was talking

834
00:50:21,184 --> 00:50:23,770
directly to them.

835
00:50:23,854 --> 00:50:29,401
The present administration in
Washington provides, I think,

836
00:50:29,526 --> 00:50:31,570
a close parallel.

837
00:50:31,695 --> 00:50:37,075
It has forgotten the infantry
of our economic army,

838
00:50:37,159 --> 00:50:45,333
but I say we must put our faith
once more in the forgotten man

839
00:50:45,417 --> 00:50:49,838
at the bottom of the
economic pyramid.

840
00:50:49,921 --> 00:50:55,052
It is high time to admit,
with courage, that we

841
00:50:55,177 --> 00:51:02,809
are in the midst of an emergency
at least equal to that of war.

842
00:51:02,934 --> 00:51:05,771
Let us mobilize to meet it.

843
00:51:10,233 --> 00:51:13,236
You can't overemphasize
how important this speech is

844
00:51:13,320 --> 00:51:15,697
to his entire career.

845
00:51:15,781 --> 00:51:22,871
When you talk like that, you
sound like a president, Frank.

846
00:51:22,954 --> 00:51:24,372
I don't think you
can escape being

847
00:51:24,456 --> 00:51:27,459
the next Democratic nominee.

848
00:51:27,542 --> 00:51:33,548
If I'm throwing my
hat in, I intend to win.

849
00:51:33,632 --> 00:51:35,217
First we take care
of the opposition.

850
00:51:38,470 --> 00:51:40,847
You know what to do.

851
00:51:40,972 --> 00:51:41,807
Let them have it.

852
00:51:47,813 --> 00:51:49,064
As the New York
governor, Roosevelt

853
00:51:49,147 --> 00:51:53,610
had an opportunity to test
drive ideas at the state level

854
00:51:53,693 --> 00:51:58,323
to see if they work, to
see if they're popular.

855
00:51:58,448 --> 00:52:01,326
Franklin Roosevelt launched
a number of programs.

856
00:52:01,409 --> 00:52:03,829
One of the most famous was
called TERA, the Temporary

857
00:52:03,912 --> 00:52:06,748
Emergency Relief Act, which
put money into the hands

858
00:52:06,832 --> 00:52:08,542
of the unemployed.

859
00:52:08,667 --> 00:52:10,585
And so when he announces
that he's running for president

860
00:52:10,669 --> 00:52:13,088
of United States in
1932, he can point

861
00:52:13,171 --> 00:52:16,424
to a record of accomplishment.

862
00:52:16,508 --> 00:52:19,094
Roosevelt could not have
been better positioned

863
00:52:19,177 --> 00:52:23,598
to get the Democratic
nomination for president.

864
00:52:23,682 --> 00:52:25,934
And he ran against a
president, Herbert Hoover,

865
00:52:26,017 --> 00:52:27,936
very conservative Republican.

866
00:52:28,019 --> 00:52:30,147
We have a perfect
day for this trip,

867
00:52:30,272 --> 00:52:32,607
and I'm very happy to
be going out to Chicago,

868
00:52:32,691 --> 00:52:35,277
and everybody knows the
reason why I'm so happy.

869
00:52:37,863 --> 00:52:40,282
When Roosevelt goes
to the convention

870
00:52:40,365 --> 00:52:43,451
and shows up where no
other nominee had shown up

871
00:52:43,535 --> 00:52:47,622
in the past to accept
the nomination,

872
00:52:47,706 --> 00:52:49,749
this is something
that is unprecedented.

873
00:52:49,875 --> 00:52:54,629
It's because he wants to
make a statement to say,

874
00:52:54,713 --> 00:52:57,382
I've been hobbled by my
physical constraints,

875
00:52:57,507 --> 00:53:00,093
but I'm going to
be your president.

876
00:53:00,218 --> 00:53:07,392
I pledge myself to a New
Deal for the American people.

877
00:53:07,475 --> 00:53:11,813
Give me your help not
to win votes alone

878
00:53:11,897 --> 00:53:18,278
but to win in this
crusade to restore America

879
00:53:18,403 --> 00:53:20,488
to its own people!

880
00:53:20,572 --> 00:53:21,990
[applause]

881
00:53:27,245 --> 00:53:31,208
In that nominating speech,
he says, I pledge a New Deal

882
00:53:31,291 --> 00:53:34,669
for the American people.

883
00:53:34,753 --> 00:53:36,630
He means he's going to
change the relationship

884
00:53:36,713 --> 00:53:39,466
between the federal
government and the common man,

885
00:53:39,549 --> 00:53:40,759
the common woman.

886
00:53:40,842 --> 00:53:45,096
Policy needs to be dominated
by the realities that we

887
00:53:45,180 --> 00:53:50,936
discover and by the national
services that we seek.

888
00:53:51,061 --> 00:53:53,980
Roosevelt was campaigning
on this New Deal.

889
00:53:54,064 --> 00:53:58,443
It was saying that, I as
governor was able to deliver

890
00:53:58,526 --> 00:54:01,488
for the people of my state.

891
00:54:01,571 --> 00:54:05,825
What if we did that
across the country?

892
00:54:05,909 --> 00:54:10,497
It was a campaign of optimism,
of hope about what can be done,

893
00:54:10,580 --> 00:54:13,583
rather than Hoover
saying, I feel your pain,

894
00:54:13,667 --> 00:54:17,754
but we're going to let someone
else manage how we come out

895
00:54:17,879 --> 00:54:20,382
of this.

896
00:54:20,465 --> 00:54:23,218
Herbert Hoover was
completely at a loss

897
00:54:23,301 --> 00:54:25,762
as how to deal with
the Depression.

898
00:54:25,845 --> 00:54:28,848
He believed in laissez-faire,
just let the government step

899
00:54:28,974 --> 00:54:30,850
back.

900
00:54:30,976 --> 00:54:33,895
He was negative,
he was pessimistic.

901
00:54:33,979 --> 00:54:35,855
He refused to acknowledge
that there were things

902
00:54:35,981 --> 00:54:38,400
that the government
should be doing.

903
00:54:38,483 --> 00:54:41,569
He was unlike FDR, who
was confident and vibrant.

904
00:54:41,653 --> 00:54:43,238
Every photograph you
see him in campaigning,

905
00:54:43,321 --> 00:54:44,698
he's standing tall.

906
00:54:44,781 --> 00:54:48,034
He projects absolute optimism
that the American public just

907
00:54:48,118 --> 00:54:51,288
flocked to him.

908
00:54:51,371 --> 00:54:55,417
And he wins the
election in a landslide.

909
00:54:55,500 --> 00:54:58,753
Franklin Roosevelt, he was
elected in an hour of crisis.

910
00:54:58,837 --> 00:55:05,218
Our fundamental economic
infrastructure had fallen apart

911
00:55:05,302 --> 00:55:12,600
and we were only, what, 150
years old at that point.

912
00:55:12,684 --> 00:55:19,024
And then, on January 30th, 1933,
FDR celebrates his birthday,

913
00:55:19,149 --> 00:55:22,068
and Adolf Hitler comes
to power in Germany.

914
00:55:26,489 --> 00:55:32,912
So in that season you have
Hitler and the Depression.

915
00:55:32,996 --> 00:55:34,748
In the 1930s,
people are looking

916
00:55:34,873 --> 00:55:36,791
for solutions to the
problem, not only here,

917
00:55:36,875 --> 00:55:37,542
but also in Europe.

918
00:55:37,625 --> 00:55:40,295
It's a global depression.

919
00:55:40,378 --> 00:55:44,090
In Germany and Italy,
Hitler and Mussolini said,

920
00:55:44,215 --> 00:55:46,926
there's a Great Depression,
people are suffering.

921
00:55:47,052 --> 00:55:49,929
It shows that democracy
is not a great idea.

922
00:55:50,013 --> 00:55:52,807
You need a strong leader
managing the economy

923
00:55:52,891 --> 00:55:55,435
and telling people what to do.

924
00:55:55,560 --> 00:55:58,646
There were many in the United
States who thought, well, maybe

925
00:55:58,730 --> 00:56:02,650
Hitler and Mussolini
have something.

926
00:56:02,734 --> 00:56:06,237
FDR knew enough
about world history

927
00:56:06,363 --> 00:56:10,992
to know that if he as president
did not pretty quickly solve

928
00:56:11,076 --> 00:56:13,703
the Great Depression or at
least give people the idea

929
00:56:13,787 --> 00:56:18,333
that help was on the way, that
they might turn to fascism.

930
00:56:18,416 --> 00:56:21,961
He knew that American
democracy was literally

931
00:56:22,045 --> 00:56:23,588
resting on his shoulders.

932
00:56:26,633 --> 00:56:28,802
Those weeks before he
takes the inauguration are

933
00:56:28,927 --> 00:56:30,720
extraordinarily
filled with panic.

934
00:56:34,099 --> 00:56:37,018
Somebody said to FDR, if you
make this work, if you get

935
00:56:37,143 --> 00:56:39,813
through the Depression, you'll
be one of the great presidents.

936
00:56:39,896 --> 00:56:41,523
If you don't, you'll
be one of the worst.

937
00:56:44,984 --> 00:56:47,654
He said, no, if it doesn't
work, I will be the last.

938
00:56:57,455 --> 00:56:59,749
After Franklin Roosevelt's
landslide victory in November

939
00:56:59,874 --> 00:57:03,002
of 1932, there's this long
period before he's actually

940
00:57:03,128 --> 00:57:07,715
inaugurated in March of
1933, and during this period,

941
00:57:07,841 --> 00:57:11,052
the country is suffering
catastrophic losses.

942
00:57:19,018 --> 00:57:22,272
By 1933, thousands
of banks have failed,

943
00:57:22,397 --> 00:57:24,774
thousands of businesses have
failed, thousands of farms

944
00:57:24,858 --> 00:57:27,902
have been foreclosed upon,
prices have collapsed,

945
00:57:28,027 --> 00:57:29,779
incomes have collapsed.

946
00:57:29,863 --> 00:57:32,949
It is an absolute
economic catastrophe,

947
00:57:33,074 --> 00:57:36,035
and people are experiencing
real suffering.

948
00:57:39,414 --> 00:57:43,126
You seen vast encampments
of homeless people.

949
00:57:43,209 --> 00:57:45,879
They call these Hoovervilles.

950
00:57:46,004 --> 00:57:47,797
It hit old people,
it hit young people,

951
00:57:47,881 --> 00:57:49,799
it hit rural people,
it hit urban people,

952
00:57:49,924 --> 00:57:50,925
and the people were afraid.

953
00:57:51,050 --> 00:57:52,886
They had no idea that
it would ever end.

954
00:57:53,011 --> 00:57:55,472
They couldn't see where
it was going to change.

955
00:57:55,597 --> 00:57:57,474
There was a feeling
of hopelessness,

956
00:57:57,557 --> 00:58:00,977
that people who lost jobs
would never work again,

957
00:58:01,102 --> 00:58:03,897
that their children
would always go hungry.

958
00:58:04,022 --> 00:58:06,399
There was no reason
to believe that it

959
00:58:06,524 --> 00:58:08,818
was going to get better.

960
00:58:08,902 --> 00:58:14,324
The charities in the
United States were bankrupt.

961
00:58:14,407 --> 00:58:19,996
There is no functioning
relief system.

962
00:58:20,121 --> 00:58:22,081
People don't have
money to buy food.

963
00:58:22,207 --> 00:58:24,959
You'd see thousands of people
in breadlines every day

964
00:58:25,043 --> 00:58:27,837
in cities waiting for
handouts for food.

965
00:58:27,921 --> 00:58:30,715
There were many Americans
living like scavengers

966
00:58:30,798 --> 00:58:34,344
in the cities, who would follow
vegetable trucks as they made

967
00:58:34,427 --> 00:58:37,680
their rounds in the hope that
a cabbage or a head of lettuce

968
00:58:37,764 --> 00:58:39,849
would fall off the truck.

969
00:58:39,974 --> 00:58:41,184
Children were malnourished.

970
00:58:41,309 --> 00:58:45,438
They sat glassy-eyed in
classrooms in the schools that

971
00:58:45,563 --> 00:58:47,524
were open.

972
00:58:47,607 --> 00:58:51,194
Immigrants were returning
to their home countries.

973
00:58:51,319 --> 00:58:56,199
100,000 Americans applied
for work in the Soviet Union.

974
00:58:56,282 --> 00:59:00,537
This is how dire the
circumstances were.

975
00:59:00,620 --> 00:59:01,955
And Americans
also were dealing

976
00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:04,290
with a lot of
terrible confusion,

977
00:59:04,415 --> 00:59:08,711
because most Americans are
able to say, but I was honest,

978
00:59:08,795 --> 00:59:11,798
I was hardworking, I was
sober, I pinched my pennies,

979
00:59:11,923 --> 00:59:14,717
I worked really hard
I overcame adversity,

980
00:59:14,842 --> 00:59:16,886
and here I am without
a job, without income,

981
00:59:16,970 --> 00:59:20,348
hungry children, losing
my home, losing my car.

982
00:59:20,431 --> 00:59:20,932
What?

983
00:59:21,015 --> 00:59:22,058
What has happened?

984
00:59:22,183 --> 00:59:26,187
Something has gone
terribly wrong.

985
00:59:26,271 --> 00:59:29,357
Roosevelt realized that
the American people needed

986
00:59:29,440 --> 00:59:32,235
to see that there were people
in Washington who were paying

987
00:59:32,318 --> 00:59:35,154
attention to them, who
were trying to fix things.

988
00:59:35,280 --> 00:59:38,074
I think he recognized
in some sense

989
00:59:38,157 --> 00:59:41,744
that results were important,
but they were less important,

990
00:59:41,828 --> 00:59:44,247
at least in the short
term, than the impression

991
00:59:44,330 --> 00:59:46,249
that he could give that
the government cared,

992
00:59:46,374 --> 00:59:48,918
that Washington cared
about people who lived

993
00:59:49,043 --> 00:59:51,170
in the parts of the
country that were hardest

994
00:59:51,296 --> 00:59:52,797
hit by the Depression.

995
00:59:55,675 --> 00:59:57,594
March 4th, 1933.

996
00:59:57,677 --> 01:00:00,179
FDR is finally going to be
inaugurated as president

997
01:00:00,305 --> 01:00:01,306
of the United States.

998
01:00:01,389 --> 01:00:04,934
400,000 people come out
for this transition.

999
01:00:05,018 --> 01:00:08,313
It was an existential
hour, as important as 1861,

1000
01:00:08,396 --> 01:00:11,774
and what FDR brought is what
Lincoln brought to some extent,

1001
01:00:11,858 --> 01:00:14,527
which was a conviction that
democracy and capitalism must

1002
01:00:14,652 --> 01:00:19,282
survive, but a profound
flexibility on the means

1003
01:00:19,365 --> 01:00:20,617
to achieve those ends.

1004
01:00:20,700 --> 01:00:24,287
He was not ideologically rigid.

1005
01:00:24,370 --> 01:00:28,791
He was a juggler, he
was an improviser,

1006
01:00:28,875 --> 01:00:32,962
and it's what we needed.

1007
01:00:33,046 --> 01:00:37,091
But there's no escaping
the reality of disability

1008
01:00:37,175 --> 01:00:38,468
for Franklin.

1009
01:00:38,593 --> 01:00:40,553
From the moment he
wakes up, someone

1010
01:00:40,678 --> 01:00:41,971
has to pull him out of bed.

1011
01:00:42,055 --> 01:00:43,389
He needs help getting dressed.

1012
01:00:43,514 --> 01:00:45,808
He needs help getting
his braces on.

1013
01:00:48,436 --> 01:00:51,105
Big day.

1014
01:00:51,189 --> 01:00:53,232
That's for sure.

1015
01:00:53,358 --> 01:00:56,194
And his son Jimmy
is his constant source

1016
01:00:56,277 --> 01:01:00,031
of literal physical support, the
person whose arm he leans on.

1017
01:01:07,080 --> 01:01:12,085
I do sometimes wonder
if I'll have the strength

1018
01:01:12,210 --> 01:01:13,002
to do the job.

1019
01:01:16,589 --> 01:01:17,799
You'll do great.

1020
01:01:20,385 --> 01:01:22,178
I know everything
will be fine.

1021
01:01:22,261 --> 01:01:23,054
Don't worry.

1022
01:01:25,765 --> 01:01:27,517
In the 1930s, in
the Great Depression,

1023
01:01:27,600 --> 01:01:28,810
there's a lot of
fear in the air,

1024
01:01:28,935 --> 01:01:30,853
but there's a lot of questions
in the air too about,

1025
01:01:30,937 --> 01:01:32,313
is he up to the task?

1026
01:01:35,108 --> 01:01:35,900
Come here.

1027
01:01:38,444 --> 01:01:39,570
I'll pray for strength.

1028
01:01:42,281 --> 01:01:49,288
I'll pray for guidance to
do the job and do it right.

1029
01:01:53,084 --> 01:01:53,918
I know you will.

1030
01:02:03,970 --> 01:02:06,723
NEWSREADER: The cars proceeded
down toward the Capitol,

1031
01:02:06,806 --> 01:02:09,600
bearing with them the hopes
of the country for a New Deal.

1032
01:02:12,228 --> 01:02:15,481
The Depression was a
tumultuous, complicated period

1033
01:02:15,606 --> 01:02:18,526
of time, but
Franklin Roosevelt's

1034
01:02:18,609 --> 01:02:21,362
fundamental conviction
was that you

1035
01:02:21,446 --> 01:02:24,699
had to show that the
system could respond

1036
01:02:24,782 --> 01:02:29,412
and that therefore the
system was worth defending.

1037
01:02:29,454 --> 01:02:31,581
The fate of democracy
hangs in the balance.

1038
01:02:31,664 --> 01:02:34,041
This is not an understatement.

1039
01:02:34,125 --> 01:02:37,044
This is a moment in which
leadership is vitally

1040
01:02:37,128 --> 01:02:40,214
important.

1041
01:02:40,298 --> 01:02:44,719
This is a day of
national consecration.

1042
01:02:44,802 --> 01:02:52,268
First of all, let me assert my
firm belief that the only thing

1043
01:02:52,351 --> 01:02:56,314
we have to fear is fear itself.

1044
01:02:59,150 --> 01:03:04,614
This nation asks for
action, and action now.

1045
01:03:07,366 --> 01:03:12,580
The people of the United
States have not failed.

1046
01:03:12,663 --> 01:03:19,629
In their need they want
direct, vigorous action.

1047
01:03:19,712 --> 01:03:21,255
[applause]

1048
01:03:28,513 --> 01:03:31,265
His first inaugural, he
talks about how we cannot let

1049
01:03:31,349 --> 01:03:35,102
the Depression paralyze our
efforts or convert advance

1050
01:03:35,186 --> 01:03:36,312
into retreat.

1051
01:03:36,395 --> 01:03:38,606
I've always thought it was
fascinating that he used

1052
01:03:38,689 --> 01:03:43,945
the word paralyze, and I don't
know how conscious it was,

1053
01:03:44,028 --> 01:03:50,284
but it was a sign that he
saw the world as motion,

1054
01:03:50,368 --> 01:03:55,456
and he no longer
could move literally,

1055
01:03:55,540 --> 01:03:59,460
so he would use all of his
energies to help the country

1056
01:03:59,544 --> 01:04:02,046
move figuratively.

1057
01:04:07,718 --> 01:04:11,264
He sets up a expectation
for the American public

1058
01:04:11,347 --> 01:04:12,932
that you have to help me.

1059
01:04:13,057 --> 01:04:15,685
If you want to get through this
problem, I can do some things,

1060
01:04:15,768 --> 01:04:18,437
but you have to do other things.

1061
01:04:18,563 --> 01:04:20,398
And the most important
thing he did was to say,

1062
01:04:20,523 --> 01:04:23,276
the people are not responsible
for this depression.

1063
01:04:23,359 --> 01:04:26,654
The failure of leadership
is responsible,

1064
01:04:26,737 --> 01:04:29,782
and I am here to
give that leadership.

1065
01:04:29,907 --> 01:04:31,826
And with that leadership,
there would be hope.

1066
01:04:31,909 --> 01:04:34,537
There would be jobs.

1067
01:04:34,620 --> 01:04:37,874
Here is this paralyzed man who
was making the people who feel

1068
01:04:37,957 --> 01:04:40,376
paralyzed feel hope once again.

1069
01:04:40,459 --> 01:04:43,629
And he said, we need action
and we need action right now.

1070
01:04:43,754 --> 01:04:46,173
And if the Congress will
not give me what I need,

1071
01:04:46,257 --> 01:04:48,467
I will use the broad
powers of the executive

1072
01:04:48,551 --> 01:04:49,802
as if we were at a war.

1073
01:05:00,771 --> 01:05:04,233
It wasn't quite clear
what he was going to do,

1074
01:05:04,317 --> 01:05:06,903
but in that period he
and his brain trust,

1075
01:05:06,986 --> 01:05:11,407
the experts that he was
assembling around himself,

1076
01:05:11,490 --> 01:05:16,037
worked out a plan of bold,
unprecedented action.

1077
01:05:16,162 --> 01:05:17,246
His cabinet
includes Louis Howe

1078
01:05:17,330 --> 01:05:20,958
as chief of staff,
Democratic Party leader Steve

1079
01:05:21,083 --> 01:05:23,586
Early as press secretary.

1080
01:05:23,669 --> 01:05:26,589
For secretary of labor, Franklin
brings in Frances Perkins,

1081
01:05:26,672 --> 01:05:29,550
the first ever female
cabinet member.

1082
01:05:29,634 --> 01:05:32,553
He also brings in a progressive
Republican named Harold Ickes

1083
01:05:32,637 --> 01:05:35,932
to be secretary of the
interior, and Jim Farley

1084
01:05:36,015 --> 01:05:37,016
is postmaster general.

1085
01:05:39,644 --> 01:05:42,772
You all look great
from where I'm sitting.

1086
01:05:42,855 --> 01:05:44,065
Then you need glasses.

1087
01:05:44,148 --> 01:05:45,608
[laughter]

1088
01:05:46,525 --> 01:05:49,403
We all know what
we're up against,

1089
01:05:49,487 --> 01:05:52,239
but now it's our turn to fix it.

1090
01:05:56,827 --> 01:05:59,413
The economy has been
plunging for three years,

1091
01:05:59,497 --> 01:06:03,584
and it still hadn't
found bottom.

1092
01:06:03,668 --> 01:06:06,045
And the critical thing
at that particular moment

1093
01:06:06,170 --> 01:06:09,465
was that the banking
system had seized up.

1094
01:06:09,548 --> 01:06:11,300
One of the reasons
the banks failed

1095
01:06:11,384 --> 01:06:13,219
is the banks had
taken that money

1096
01:06:13,344 --> 01:06:14,971
and invested it in
the stock market.

1097
01:06:15,054 --> 01:06:16,681
And so when the stock
market went down,

1098
01:06:16,764 --> 01:06:18,933
they didn't have enough money
to pay their depositors,

1099
01:06:19,016 --> 01:06:21,394
so banks were simply closing.

1100
01:06:21,477 --> 01:06:22,979
They had already closed
by the thousands,

1101
01:06:23,062 --> 01:06:26,232
and it looked as
though America's

1102
01:06:26,357 --> 01:06:32,279
national financial system was
on the verge of utter collapse.

1103
01:06:32,363 --> 01:06:34,281
It's important to
realize there was no safety

1104
01:06:34,365 --> 01:06:35,408
net in those days.

1105
01:06:35,533 --> 01:06:37,576
If a bank collapsed,
the federal government

1106
01:06:37,660 --> 01:06:39,412
wasn't going to help you.

1107
01:06:39,495 --> 01:06:42,331
It is a real crisis, a
crisis that no one could ever

1108
01:06:42,373 --> 01:06:44,792
have imagined hitting
one of the wealthiest

1109
01:06:44,875 --> 01:06:47,128
countries in the world.

1110
01:06:47,211 --> 01:06:49,839
Was capitalism failing?

1111
01:06:49,922 --> 01:06:52,466
Had capitalism actually failed?

1112
01:06:52,550 --> 01:06:55,344
Many people thought the
United States of America

1113
01:06:55,469 --> 01:06:59,974
as a political entity was over,
that our capitalist system was

1114
01:07:00,057 --> 01:07:00,891
over.

1115
01:07:05,730 --> 01:07:08,524
The country's on
the edge of a cliff,

1116
01:07:08,607 --> 01:07:10,359
but we're not going
to let it fall.

1117
01:07:10,484 --> 01:07:11,986
The first thing
we're going to do

1118
01:07:12,069 --> 01:07:14,572
is to declare a banking holiday.

1119
01:07:14,697 --> 01:07:18,409
It'll prevent further runs and
buy time for Secretary Woodin

1120
01:07:18,492 --> 01:07:19,785
to draft some legislation.

1121
01:07:19,869 --> 01:07:23,581
You're going to have to expand
presidential authority if you

1122
01:07:23,664 --> 01:07:24,999
want to get anything done.

1123
01:07:25,082 --> 01:07:26,333
Precisely.

1124
01:07:26,417 --> 01:07:30,004
But first we have to figure
out which banks can be saved

1125
01:07:30,087 --> 01:07:32,465
and which have to close.

1126
01:07:32,548 --> 01:07:34,133
My team put this together.

1127
01:07:37,261 --> 01:07:39,597
Arrows are the banks.

1128
01:07:39,722 --> 01:07:42,016
Color denotes its status.

1129
01:07:42,099 --> 01:07:45,019
But where do we start?

1130
01:07:45,102 --> 01:07:48,189
Let's start in New York.

1131
01:07:48,272 --> 01:07:50,441
March 5th, essentially
his first act

1132
01:07:50,566 --> 01:07:51,442
as president of
the United States

1133
01:07:51,525 --> 01:07:55,029
is to close every
bank in America.

1134
01:07:55,112 --> 01:07:57,156
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN: The banks
were going to close for a week.

1135
01:07:57,281 --> 01:07:59,033
They're going to
open Monday morning.

1136
01:07:59,116 --> 01:08:00,367
And he uses a
wonderful phrase.

1137
01:08:00,451 --> 01:08:01,869
He calls it a bank holiday.

1138
01:08:01,952 --> 01:08:04,455
And that gave Franklin
a chance to call Congress

1139
01:08:04,580 --> 01:08:06,540
into an emergency session.

1140
01:08:06,624 --> 01:08:09,210
And incredibly, in the
space of several hours,

1141
01:08:09,293 --> 01:08:12,588
they passed this huge
emergency banking bill.

1142
01:08:12,713 --> 01:08:14,423
Divide up the banks
into three categories.

1143
01:08:14,548 --> 01:08:16,425
Those banks that are
healthy enough to reopen,

1144
01:08:16,550 --> 01:08:19,053
those banks that can reopen
but are going to need help

1145
01:08:19,136 --> 01:08:20,971
from the federal government,
and those banks that

1146
01:08:21,055 --> 01:08:24,308
are so bad that there's not
much we can do about them.

1147
01:08:24,391 --> 01:08:26,560
NEWSREADER: New money
back buy real assets

1148
01:08:26,644 --> 01:08:29,188
from Uncle Sam's Treasury
to revitalize the country's

1149
01:08:29,313 --> 01:08:30,356
commerce.

1150
01:08:30,439 --> 01:08:32,149
This emergency
banking bill will

1151
01:08:32,233 --> 01:08:34,401
allow them to have currency
shipped to the banks that

1152
01:08:34,485 --> 01:08:36,403
are stable enough to handle it.

1153
01:08:36,487 --> 01:08:38,864
Planes are on the tarmac
ready to fly the currency

1154
01:08:38,989 --> 01:08:41,075
to each one of the banks.

1155
01:08:41,158 --> 01:08:44,829
Before Roosevelt, before this
moment in American history,

1156
01:08:44,954 --> 01:08:48,624
the federal government had never
taken it upon itself to bolster

1157
01:08:48,749 --> 01:08:50,876
an industry the way
the federal government

1158
01:08:51,001 --> 01:08:53,295
was bolstering the
banking industry.

1159
01:08:53,379 --> 01:08:56,757
It was quite a striking,
even a revolutionary thing

1160
01:08:56,841 --> 01:08:58,134
for the government to undertake.

1161
01:08:58,217 --> 01:09:01,178
Franklin is afraid that once
they've opened the banks again,

1162
01:09:01,303 --> 01:09:03,264
that people will then rush
to take their money out

1163
01:09:03,347 --> 01:09:04,765
because they haven't
had it for a whole week,

1164
01:09:04,849 --> 01:09:06,767
and then the whole
system would collapse.

1165
01:09:06,851 --> 01:09:08,769
This was zero hour.

1166
01:09:08,853 --> 01:09:13,732
So FDR has got the biggest
challenge for a leader, which

1167
01:09:13,858 --> 01:09:17,570
is make people feel a
little bit reassured,

1168
01:09:17,695 --> 01:09:20,364
and at the same time,
get them to do something

1169
01:09:20,447 --> 01:09:23,784
that their instincts tell
them not to, which is keep

1170
01:09:23,868 --> 01:09:27,288
your money in the banks.

1171
01:09:27,413 --> 01:09:29,290
Franklin decides
on a Sunday night

1172
01:09:29,373 --> 01:09:32,960
before the Monday opening, he's
going to give a fireside chat

1173
01:09:33,043 --> 01:09:34,879
to the people.

1174
01:09:34,962 --> 01:09:38,215
This is really the first
presidential fireside chat.

1175
01:09:38,340 --> 01:09:40,342
Nervous?

1176
01:09:40,467 --> 01:09:42,428
What's there to
be nervous about?

1177
01:09:42,511 --> 01:09:45,306
I just have to convince the
entire American public to trust

1178
01:09:45,389 --> 01:09:46,724
me with their life savings.

1179
01:09:46,807 --> 01:09:48,100
In 13 minutes.

1180
01:09:55,649 --> 01:09:57,067
[phone rings]

1181
01:09:58,736 --> 01:10:00,321
Got it.

1182
01:10:00,404 --> 01:10:02,364
NBC says ready to go.

1183
01:10:02,448 --> 01:10:04,617
CBS is live.

1184
01:10:04,700 --> 01:10:08,078
10 seconds, Mr. President.

1185
01:10:08,162 --> 01:10:10,122
In 5, 4.

1186
01:10:15,586 --> 01:10:19,256
Ladies and gentlemen, the
president of the United States.

1187
01:10:19,381 --> 01:10:24,470
My friends, I want to talk for
a few minutes with the people

1188
01:10:24,595 --> 01:10:28,515
of the United States
about banking.

1189
01:10:28,599 --> 01:10:32,311
I want to tell you what has
been done in the last few days

1190
01:10:32,436 --> 01:10:36,815
and why it has been done, and
what the next steps are going

1191
01:10:36,899 --> 01:10:39,318
to be.

1192
01:10:39,443 --> 01:10:43,489
This bank holiday,
while resulting

1193
01:10:43,614 --> 01:10:48,827
in great inconvenience, is
affording us the opportunity

1194
01:10:48,911 --> 01:10:54,708
to supply the currency
necessary to meet the situation.

1195
01:10:54,792 --> 01:10:59,755
It is possible that
when the banks resume,

1196
01:10:59,880 --> 01:11:03,509
people who have not
recovered from their fear

1197
01:11:03,634 --> 01:11:07,179
may again begin withdrawals.

1198
01:11:07,263 --> 01:11:11,600
Let me make it clear
that the banks will

1199
01:11:11,684 --> 01:11:14,895
take care of all needs.

1200
01:11:14,979 --> 01:11:18,732
I can assure you
that it is safer

1201
01:11:18,816 --> 01:11:26,490
to keep your money in a reopened
bank than under the mattress.

1202
01:11:26,573 --> 01:11:29,868
80% of the adult radio
audiences are listening,

1203
01:11:29,952 --> 01:11:32,037
and it was said that streets
were empty at the time

1204
01:11:32,121 --> 01:11:37,042
because everybody is sitting
staring at their radio.

1205
01:11:37,126 --> 01:11:41,463
We have provided the
machinery to restore

1206
01:11:41,547 --> 01:11:45,175
our financial situation.

1207
01:11:45,259 --> 01:11:50,180
It is up to you to
support and make it work.

1208
01:11:54,018 --> 01:11:59,773
It is your problem no
less than it is mine.

1209
01:11:59,857 --> 01:12:03,360
Together we cannot fail.

1210
01:12:06,447 --> 01:12:08,282
Remarkable piece
of work in a space

1211
01:12:08,365 --> 01:12:09,742
of just less than 15 minutes.

1212
01:12:09,867 --> 01:12:12,161
He calls on the American
people and he says,

1213
01:12:12,244 --> 01:12:14,621
basically, we have done what
we can do here in Washington.

1214
01:12:14,747 --> 01:12:19,460
Now we look to you,
and with your support,

1215
01:12:19,543 --> 01:12:21,628
our work will succeed.

1216
01:12:21,712 --> 01:12:24,298
And so he puts the
American people

1217
01:12:24,381 --> 01:12:27,468
essentially into
potential cooperation

1218
01:12:27,551 --> 01:12:29,011
with the administration.

1219
01:12:31,805 --> 01:12:33,891
Franklin gives his
address on Sunday night,

1220
01:12:33,974 --> 01:12:35,893
and the big question is,
what's going to happen tomorrow

1221
01:12:35,976 --> 01:12:37,353
morning when we
reopen the banks?

1222
01:12:39,897 --> 01:12:42,941
The next day would
be the true test.

1223
01:12:43,025 --> 01:12:45,319
Did this work?

1224
01:12:45,402 --> 01:12:48,906
If it fails, then it will mean,
the whole financial system

1225
01:12:49,031 --> 01:12:52,993
will fail in the very first
week of his presidency.

1226
01:12:53,077 --> 01:12:55,662
It is not an exaggeration
to say that the country is

1227
01:12:55,746 --> 01:12:56,663
on the verge of collapse.

1228
01:13:02,711 --> 01:13:04,421
Miss LeHand,
today's lunch menu.

1229
01:13:04,505 --> 01:13:05,839
Jellied bouillon.

1230
01:13:05,923 --> 01:13:08,008
Mrs. Nesbitt says
it's nutritious.

1231
01:13:08,092 --> 01:13:09,176
Don't like it.

1232
01:13:09,259 --> 01:13:10,135
Have you heard anything?

1233
01:13:10,219 --> 01:13:11,303
Not yet.

1234
01:13:11,428 --> 01:13:12,554
Maybe we should cancel
the president's lunch.

1235
01:13:12,638 --> 01:13:13,847
Because of the bouillon?

1236
01:13:13,931 --> 01:13:15,516
Well, now there's two reasons.

1237
01:13:15,599 --> 01:13:18,352
No, I'm concerned if things
don't go our way with banks.

1238
01:13:18,435 --> 01:13:20,312
They will.

1239
01:13:20,396 --> 01:13:23,148
They have to.

1240
01:13:23,273 --> 01:13:26,735
It's Monday morning and
there's long lines at the bank

1241
01:13:26,819 --> 01:13:27,820
again, and they panic.

1242
01:13:27,945 --> 01:13:30,447
Maybe they've come to
take their money out.

1243
01:13:30,572 --> 01:13:32,366
Did this work?

1244
01:13:32,449 --> 01:13:34,701
We should have heard
something by now.

1245
01:13:34,785 --> 01:13:37,538
Do you think it's a bad sign?

1246
01:13:37,621 --> 01:13:42,000
No news is no news.

1247
01:13:42,084 --> 01:13:43,585
[phone rings]

1248
01:13:52,886 --> 01:13:53,679
Yes?

1249
01:13:59,601 --> 01:14:01,061
I see.

1250
01:14:01,145 --> 01:14:02,146
Thank you.

1251
01:14:06,483 --> 01:14:09,778
They're standing in line.

1252
01:14:09,862 --> 01:14:12,406
They're bringing
their money back.

1253
01:14:12,489 --> 01:14:15,242
We're going to be OK.

1254
01:14:15,325 --> 01:14:17,578
They're actually
carrying satchels of money

1255
01:14:17,661 --> 01:14:19,371
to bring their money
back to the banks.

1256
01:14:19,496 --> 01:14:22,207
So that night, headlines,
confidence in banking system

1257
01:14:22,332 --> 01:14:22,916
resume.

1258
01:14:23,000 --> 01:14:26,128
Banking crisis over.

1259
01:14:26,253 --> 01:14:27,754
And the only thing
that has changed

1260
01:14:27,838 --> 01:14:30,340
is FDR's leadership
and his ability

1261
01:14:30,466 --> 01:14:33,177
to convince the American
public that he has solutions

1262
01:14:33,260 --> 01:14:36,763
that things will get better, and
it is an extraordinary moment

1263
01:14:36,847 --> 01:14:37,764
in American history.

1264
01:14:37,848 --> 01:14:41,935
FDR essentially ends
the banking crisis

1265
01:14:42,019 --> 01:14:45,939
in one simple radio broadcast.

1266
01:14:46,023 --> 01:14:48,400
The immediate resolution
of the banking crisis

1267
01:14:48,484 --> 01:14:51,737
instantly lifted
spirits, and that

1268
01:14:51,820 --> 01:14:56,283
began to suggest that Franklin
knew what he was doing

1269
01:14:56,366 --> 01:15:00,287
and that, in fact, the
system would endure.

1270
01:15:00,370 --> 01:15:03,624
And then he decides, hey,
this momentum is pretty good.

1271
01:15:03,707 --> 01:15:05,751
Maybe I'll keep
Congress in session.

1272
01:15:05,834 --> 01:15:09,087
They stay for 100 days, and
that's where the famous 100 day

1273
01:15:09,213 --> 01:15:11,673
marker comes, and every
president has said, why do we

1274
01:15:11,798 --> 01:15:12,925
have to be compared to this?

1275
01:15:13,008 --> 01:15:15,052
It's not fair.

1276
01:15:15,135 --> 01:15:17,971
No president and no Congress
had ever passed so much

1277
01:15:18,055 --> 01:15:19,348
legislation so quickly.

1278
01:15:19,473 --> 01:15:24,561
In those 100 days, FDR will
sign into law 15 massive pieces

1279
01:15:24,645 --> 01:15:25,812
of legislation.

1280
01:15:28,857 --> 01:15:30,984
If you were somebody who
paid attention to politics,

1281
01:15:31,068 --> 01:15:33,237
this was indeed the most
exciting time in history,

1282
01:15:33,362 --> 01:15:35,322
because nothing had
ever happened this fast.

1283
01:15:35,405 --> 01:15:40,577
Big programs were being
passed, boom, boom, boom, boom.

1284
01:15:40,661 --> 01:15:43,705
FDR rolled out the New
Deal really in three phases.

1285
01:15:43,830 --> 01:15:46,667
The first part was relief
just to get people to survive,

1286
01:15:46,750 --> 01:15:49,670
and that meant unemployment
insurance, immediate short term

1287
01:15:49,753 --> 01:15:50,963
jobs.

1288
01:15:51,046 --> 01:15:53,674
What the country was facing
was a lost generation

1289
01:15:53,757 --> 01:15:58,011
of young people, so FDR came
up with the CCC, the Civilian

1290
01:15:58,095 --> 01:15:59,972
Conservation Corps.

1291
01:16:00,097 --> 01:16:02,057
PAUL SPARROW: They would
build roads and farms

1292
01:16:02,140 --> 01:16:04,017
and they would work
on national parks.

1293
01:16:04,101 --> 01:16:09,189
I now take great pleasure in
dedicating Shenandoah National

1294
01:16:09,314 --> 01:16:10,524
Park.

1295
01:16:10,607 --> 01:16:13,068
The idea was $1 a day.

1296
01:16:13,193 --> 01:16:17,739
So this immediately pushes
money into the community,

1297
01:16:17,823 --> 01:16:20,534
and FDR loved the CCC.

1298
01:16:20,617 --> 01:16:24,204
He would go to their camps
and he would visit with them.

1299
01:16:24,288 --> 01:16:26,832
The next thing was recovery
which meant priming the pump

1300
01:16:26,915 --> 01:16:29,042
to get the economy
going again, and those

1301
01:16:29,126 --> 01:16:31,378
were the big
infrastructure projects.

1302
01:16:31,461 --> 01:16:33,380
But then the third
part was reform,

1303
01:16:33,463 --> 01:16:36,508
and that meant that you had to
change what it was that caused

1304
01:16:36,592 --> 01:16:39,886
the problems of the
Depression in the first place.

1305
01:16:39,970 --> 01:16:42,514
So he regulated the stock
market, he regulated the banks.

1306
01:16:42,598 --> 01:16:45,392
All of this was reforming
the system itself.

1307
01:16:45,475 --> 01:16:47,144
The New Deal has
given us a square deal,

1308
01:16:47,269 --> 01:16:48,312
and we're all back
to work and we

1309
01:16:48,395 --> 01:16:50,230
hope we may be able
to continue to do so

1310
01:16:50,314 --> 01:16:52,899
without any outside
interference.

1311
01:16:52,983 --> 01:16:56,403
The first 100 days also
saw HLC, the Homeowners Loan

1312
01:16:56,486 --> 01:16:57,362
Corporation.

1313
01:16:57,487 --> 01:16:58,905
This is an emergency
program set up

1314
01:16:59,031 --> 01:17:03,577
to give people loans to help
them stay in their homes.

1315
01:17:03,660 --> 01:17:06,663
FDR provides immediate
satisfaction and relief

1316
01:17:06,788 --> 01:17:11,084
to the American people, and that
is a defining moment and that

1317
01:17:11,168 --> 01:17:14,921
completely changes the role
of the American federal

1318
01:17:15,005 --> 01:17:17,174
government.

1319
01:17:17,299 --> 01:17:19,468
The mood of the country
changed overnight.

1320
01:17:19,551 --> 01:17:20,761
NEWSREADER: To this
address every week

1321
01:17:20,844 --> 01:17:23,055
are delivered
thousands of letters.

1322
01:17:23,180 --> 01:17:24,723
My favorite letter
came from a guy

1323
01:17:24,848 --> 01:17:27,017
who said, "I've lost my dog.

1324
01:17:27,100 --> 01:17:28,268
I've lost my job.

1325
01:17:28,352 --> 01:17:30,687
My wife is mad at me.

1326
01:17:30,812 --> 01:17:33,231
But it's OK because
now, Franklin Roosevelt,

1327
01:17:33,357 --> 01:17:35,233
you are there."

1328
01:17:35,359 --> 01:17:38,111
Franklin Roosevelt
made government

1329
01:17:38,195 --> 01:17:41,865
an ambient force in the lives of
people who might otherwise have

1330
01:17:41,948 --> 01:17:44,618
only encountered the
government at the post office

1331
01:17:44,701 --> 01:17:47,412
or perhaps the subsidized
railroad or something.

1332
01:17:47,537 --> 01:17:50,791
People felt that FDR had
saved their lives, saved

1333
01:17:50,874 --> 01:17:53,085
their children's life, given
them a chance, a chance

1334
01:17:53,168 --> 01:17:54,002
to go forward.

1335
01:17:56,713 --> 01:17:58,507
But in the early
days of the New Deal,

1336
01:17:58,632 --> 01:18:00,467
when Franklin and Eleanor
Roosevelt moved to Washington

1337
01:18:00,550 --> 01:18:04,471
D.C., it was a difficult
experience for Eleanor.

1338
01:18:04,554 --> 01:18:06,973
She was so worried that
the ceremonial functions

1339
01:18:07,057 --> 01:18:10,185
of the first lady would overtake
all the real work that she'd

1340
01:18:10,310 --> 01:18:12,771
been doing out in the field.

1341
01:18:12,896 --> 01:18:17,984
And she dreads being
confined to a life of tea

1342
01:18:18,068 --> 01:18:20,987
and white glove tests.

1343
01:18:21,071 --> 01:18:23,949
But then she meets
the great journalist

1344
01:18:24,032 --> 01:18:28,829
Lorena Hickok, who was the most
significant woman journalist

1345
01:18:28,912 --> 01:18:29,955
of her era.

1346
01:18:30,080 --> 01:18:31,498
I think Lorena
Hickok, her friend,

1347
01:18:31,581 --> 01:18:34,418
helped to make her know
that she could change

1348
01:18:34,501 --> 01:18:36,837
the role of the first
lady and it would be OK.

1349
01:18:36,920 --> 01:18:39,381
It was more than OK.

1350
01:18:39,464 --> 01:18:44,010
Lorena Hickok said to Eleanor,
if you do press conferences,

1351
01:18:44,094 --> 01:18:46,513
you can get more jobs for women.

1352
01:18:46,596 --> 01:18:52,185
So Eleanor makes it very
clear to every outlet that

1353
01:18:52,269 --> 01:18:56,022
wants to cover her that they
must send a woman reporter.

1354
01:19:09,286 --> 01:19:12,873
Thank you all for coming.

1355
01:19:12,956 --> 01:19:17,043
Let me start by saying that
the subjects I plan to cover

1356
01:19:17,127 --> 01:19:20,213
will not encroach on
politics, or as I call it,

1357
01:19:20,297 --> 01:19:24,342
my husband's side of the news.

1358
01:19:24,468 --> 01:19:31,057
I plan to discuss
my daily schedule,

1359
01:19:31,141 --> 01:19:36,688
prints on the White House
walls, low cost recipes

1360
01:19:36,772 --> 01:19:40,525
for housewives, and
other household matters.

1361
01:19:40,650 --> 01:19:44,237
What's your view on the
subsistence homestead program?

1362
01:19:44,321 --> 01:19:48,366
Oh, I'm sorry, I said
no political questions.

1363
01:19:48,492 --> 01:19:50,786
What about old age pensions?

1364
01:19:50,869 --> 01:19:53,246
And what do you think
of women in the workforce?

1365
01:19:53,330 --> 01:19:56,208
I'm sure these questions
would all be better suited

1366
01:19:56,333 --> 01:19:58,543
to the president.

1367
01:19:58,627 --> 01:20:00,212
We want to hear
what you think.

1368
01:20:18,021 --> 01:20:23,652
Right now, legislation is
being drafted to set fair labor

1369
01:20:23,777 --> 01:20:27,531
practices, but the wages
being set for women

1370
01:20:27,656 --> 01:20:29,616
are far lower than
those for men.

1371
01:20:33,036 --> 01:20:39,459
If you ask, me our jobs as
teachers, nurses, homemakers,

1372
01:20:39,543 --> 01:20:44,464
and seamstresses have never
been more important or more

1373
01:20:44,548 --> 01:20:51,221
in demand, yet we're not
being fairly compensated.

1374
01:20:51,304 --> 01:20:54,266
This is especially
true for colored women.

1375
01:20:54,391 --> 01:20:57,853
So what do you
plan to do about it?

1376
01:20:57,978 --> 01:20:59,980
Well, that's the first really
good question of the day.

1377
01:21:03,900 --> 01:21:05,819
Through the press
conferences, Eleanor was really

1378
01:21:05,902 --> 01:21:08,488
finding her voice, and
an entire generation

1379
01:21:08,572 --> 01:21:12,075
of female journalists
got their start.

1380
01:21:12,158 --> 01:21:14,035
In the meantime, she was
traveling around the country

1381
01:21:14,119 --> 01:21:16,454
inspecting the New Deal
programs for her husband,

1382
01:21:16,538 --> 01:21:18,790
and she was able to find
out which ones were working

1383
01:21:18,874 --> 01:21:19,791
and which ones weren't.

1384
01:21:22,502 --> 01:21:25,130
And the New Deal programs
became better as a result.

1385
01:21:25,213 --> 01:21:29,342
That does not mean, my
friends, that I am satisfied

1386
01:21:29,426 --> 01:21:32,679
or that you are satisfied
that our work is ended.

1387
01:21:32,762 --> 01:21:37,851
We have a long way to go,
but we are on the way.

1388
01:21:37,934 --> 01:21:42,522
FDR had tremendous success in
restoring people's confidence.

1389
01:21:42,606 --> 01:21:45,525
But at the same time, both
Hitler and Mussolini are also

1390
01:21:45,609 --> 01:21:49,195
responding to the
Depression, to want and need,

1391
01:21:49,279 --> 01:21:53,700
but they're doing it through
the mechanism of exciting fear

1392
01:21:53,783 --> 01:21:55,994
and division and hatred.

1393
01:21:56,119 --> 01:21:58,872
In Hitler's case, hatred
of the Jews, and those

1394
01:21:58,955 --> 01:22:01,625
are powerful hatreds,
and they work.

1395
01:22:01,708 --> 01:22:04,878
But Hitler and Mussolini also
stimulate their economies

1396
01:22:04,961 --> 01:22:07,547
by building these
magnificent war machines.

1397
01:22:07,631 --> 01:22:12,552
It means jobs, factory jobs
building tanks and planes.

1398
01:22:12,636 --> 01:22:16,056
Roosevelt sees all this
and he's deeply concerned.

1399
01:22:16,139 --> 01:22:19,726
He says, the state has to have
a big role to impress voters

1400
01:22:19,809 --> 01:22:21,895
with what we're trying to do
so that we can say, hey, look,

1401
01:22:21,978 --> 01:22:24,898
we're working just as hard as
Nazi Germany or fascist Italy,

1402
01:22:24,981 --> 01:22:26,650
just in a more democratic way.

1403
01:22:29,444 --> 01:22:33,073
FDR sees this looming
threat from totalitarianism,

1404
01:22:33,156 --> 01:22:37,243
from fascism, from Hitler,
that the very end of democracy

1405
01:22:37,327 --> 01:22:40,413
is on the table, that if
he can't put America back

1406
01:22:40,497 --> 01:22:42,999
on the global stage, that the
fascists are going to take

1407
01:22:43,124 --> 01:22:45,085
control, and he
dedicates himself

1408
01:22:45,168 --> 01:22:48,171
to not allowing that to happen.

1409
01:22:48,254 --> 01:23:03,103
[speaking german]

1410
01:23:03,186 --> 01:23:06,940
[speaking german]

1411
01:23:07,023 --> 01:23:10,694
Franklin hated what Hitler
and Nazism was threatening

1412
01:23:10,777 --> 01:23:14,239
to produce, a world of tyranny,
a world where democracy would

1413
01:23:14,322 --> 01:23:15,281
come to an end.

1414
01:23:15,365 --> 01:23:17,951
This is Western
civilization at risk

1415
01:23:18,034 --> 01:23:20,787
right now from the greatest
challenge that it's ever faced.

1416
01:23:25,542 --> 01:23:28,420
Going to be a tough campaign.

1417
01:23:28,503 --> 01:23:31,339
The Supreme Court wants
to throw out the New Deal.

1418
01:23:31,464 --> 01:23:32,298
[people shouting questions]

1419
01:23:32,382 --> 01:23:33,425
Now, hold on, boys.

1420
01:23:33,550 --> 01:23:35,301
What are you planning
to do with this power?

1421
01:23:35,427 --> 01:23:38,263
Roosevelt is deeply concerned
about the rising tension

1422
01:23:38,388 --> 01:23:40,932
in Europe and the
inevitability of a big war.

1423
01:23:41,057 --> 01:23:45,645
The situation in France
changes everything.

1424
01:23:45,729 --> 01:23:48,690
I'd rather have a
declaration of war from America

1425
01:23:48,815 --> 01:23:52,652
and no supplies for six
months than double the supply

1426
01:23:52,736 --> 01:23:54,279
and no declaration.

1427
01:23:54,362 --> 01:23:57,323
He is the dealer in hope
for the entire free world, not

1428
01:23:57,407 --> 01:23:59,117
an inconsequential
responsibility.

1429
01:23:59,200 --> 01:24:01,411
Mr. President, we
have intelligence

1430
01:24:01,494 --> 01:24:04,664
which suggests the Japanese
fleet is on the move.

1431
01:24:04,748 --> 01:24:10,462
Yesterday, December
7th, 1941, a date

1432
01:24:10,545 --> 01:24:14,090
which will live in infamy.