Great Speeches

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486408941
• eBook ISBN: 9780486153612
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Literature

In the relatively short span of 25 years — from his first national campaign in 1920 to his death in the first year of his fourth term as President in 1945 — Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered hundreds of speeches, many of them masterly orations.
Perhaps the finest speechmaker in American history, FDR was a consummate expert at reading his audience. He could be dazzlingly informal, imperiously statesmanlike, witheringly sarcastic, stern, and serious, and when the occasion permitted, outright funny. Though his audiences often included more than 30 million listeners in America and millions more around the world, he succeeded in doing what so many speakers strive for and so few accomplish — he left his listeners with the feeling that he was speaking to them alone.
This representative collection of 27 of FDR's finest speeches recalls a number of momentous events in his political career and the life of the nation. Included are his dramatic and inspirational First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1933) in which he told the nation that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"; his first "Fireside Chat" (March 12, 1933) over the radio; his dramatic War Message to Congress (December 8, 1941) following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ("a day that will live in infamy"); his Fourth Inaugural Address (January 20, 1945); and many more.
Assembled here in one convenient volume, these speeches provide students of history, politics, and rhetoric, as well as general readers, with an immensely useful reference, a wealth of fine oration, and a valuable window on the Roosevelt years.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Introduction
• Table of Contents
• Acceptance Speech For Vice-Presidential Nomination - Hyde Park, August 9, 1920
• Campaign Speech - Buffalo, October 20, 1928
• Message to the New York State Legislature - Albany, August 28, 1931
• Acceptance Speech - Chicago, July 2, 1932
• Commonwealth Club of San Francisco - September 23, 1932
• First Inaugural Address - Washington, D.C., March 4, 1933
• First Fireside Chat - Washington, D.C., March 12, 1933
• Second Fireside Chat - Washington, D.C., May 7, 1933
• Acceptance Speech - Philadelphia, June 27, 1936
• Campaign Speech - Chicago, October 14, 1936
• Second Inaugural Address - Washington, D.C., January 20, 1937
• Quarantine Address - Chicago, October 5, 1937
• Fireside Chat (on the Outbreak of World War II) - Washington, D.C., September 3, 1939
• “Dagger in the Back” - Charlottesville, June 10, 1940
• Press Conference - Washington, D.C., December 17, 1940
• Fireside Chat (“The Arsenal of Democracy”) - Washington, D.C., December 29, 1940
• State of the Union Message to Congress (“The Four Freedoms”) - Washington, D.C., January 6, 1941
• Third Inaugural Address - Washington, D.C., January 20, 1941
• Fireside Chat (on German submarine attacks) - Washington, D.C., September 11, 1941
• War Message to Congress - Washington, D.C., December 8, 1941
• Fireside Chat - Washington, D.C., February 23, 1942
• Fireside Chat - Washington, D.C., October 12, 1942
• Radio Address to New York Herald Tribune Forum - Washington, D.C., November 17, 1942
• Fireside Chat (on GI Bill of Rights) - Washington, D.C., July 28, 1943
• Fireside Chat (on the Fifth War Loan Drive) - Washington, D.C., June 12, 1944
• Campaign Speech to the Teamsters Union - Washington, D.C., September 23, 1944
• Fourth Inaugural Address - Washington, D.C., January 20, 1945
• DOVER • THRIFT • EDITIONS