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Today in History: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First “Fireside Chat”
03/12/10
On March 12, 1933, newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the first in a historic series of 31 radio addresses he called “fireside chats.” When Roosevelt took office, the United States was in its fourth year of the Great Depression. During the course of this economic crisis, thousands of businesses failed, hundreds of banks closed, one-third of the workforce could not find jobs, and millions of Americans were hungry, frightened, and desperate. Part of Roosevelt’s strategy in dealing with this crisis involved using the medium of radio to speak plainly and reassuringly to the American people about his plans for economic recovery.
In Roosevelt’s first fireside chat, he sought to restore public confidence in the nation’s banking system. “There is an element in the readjustment of our financial system more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people themselves,” he declared. (We are unable to display the text of the document at this time. To view the text of the broadcast, please visit this website: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrfirstfiresidechat.html.) Roosevelt continued to make regular radio broadcasts through the remainder of his four terms in office. The fireside chats helped him connect with the American people in a way that no president ever had before.