Meet the Author
Franklin D. Roosevelt
American · 1882–1945 · 32nd President of the United States
Portrait: Leon Perskie, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The only president elected four times, who used radio talks to speak directly to Americans through the Depression and the Second World War.
2 StoryBites Editions2 Speeches & essays
Why read Franklin D. Roosevelt?
Roosevelt wrote for the ear, knowing radio would carry his voice into American homes. The Pearl Harbor Address is short and built from blunt facts, including a list of places Japan attacked overnight, before it asks Congress to declare war. Read it to see how a leader turns shock into resolve, starting with ‘a date which will live in infamy.’
A life in six dates
- 1882Born in Hyde Park, New York
- 1921Loses the use of his legs to an illness diagnosed as polio
- 1928Elected governor of New York
- 1932Elected president
- 1933Gives his first radio fireside chat
- 1941Delivers the Pearl Harbor Address to Congress
- 1945Dies in Warm Springs, Georgia, early in his fourth term
Themes across the collection
The StoryBites Editions
Context that actually matters
The attack on Pearl HarborJapanese forces struck the U.S. naval base in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, and Congress declared war on Japan within hours of Roosevelt’s speech the next day.
The draftRoosevelt dictated the first draft himself, and his handwritten edits changed ‘a date which will live in world history’ to ‘infamy.’
Radio and the presidencyHis fireside chats made radio a direct line between the president and voters, so Americans already knew his voice when he spoke about the war.