Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

from FDR's first Inqaugural Address

The affable, witty Roosevelt used his great personal charm to keep most people at a distance. In campaign speeches, he favored a buoyant, optimistic, gently paternal tone spiced with humor. But his first inaugural address took on an unusually solemn, religious quality.

And for good reason — by 1933 the depression had reached its depth. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address outlined in broad terms how he hoped to govern and reminded Americans that the nation’s “common difficulties” concerned “only material things.”

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For further information

Address to Congress Requesting a Declaration of War with Japan
December 8, 1941

Listen to FDR's radio address on the election of liberals.

Fireside Chats were FDR's personal communication with the American people.