American Experience

Program Summary

The longest-serving president in U.S. history, and leader through the Great Depression and World War II -- two of the nation's worst crises -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt is considered by many to be our greatest president. In his early years, as a pampered, sheltered scion of a wealthy family, FDR exhibited no outward signs of greatness. With his cousin Theodore as a role model, however, FDR purposely forged a successful political career for himself, until his devastating paralysis from polio seemed to crush his dreams. With the support of his wife, Eleanor, FDR not only recovered, but remade himself into a strong, optimistic national leader. An aristocrat beloved by "ordinary" citizens and despised by many of his own class as a traitor, FDR, for better or worse, forever changed the American people's relationship with their government. The governmental "safety net" he created would be his greatest legacy -- and the source of ongoing controversy today.

Program Segments: The entire program has been produced for home video use in two video cassettes. The total viewing time is 4.5 hours. For your convenience, we have described the program in segments. You may want to use specific segments to focus classroom discussion and activities.

Tape One Part One -- The Center of the World

Segment 1 (David McCullough appears on screen)
Length: approximately 7 minutes
Starting image: film of FDR's funeral train

David McCullough introduces the program; overview of FDR's life and his effect on the American public

Segment 2 (begins at: 7 minutes, 11 seconds)
Length: approximately 12 minutes
Starting image: opening title shot

FDR's childhood, adolescence and family; his intense relationship with his mother, Sara and his elderly, ill father; not accepted by other boys at boarding school at Groton; doesn't get into the exclusive Porcellian Club at Harvard, but does become editor of "The Harvard Crimson."

Segment 3 (begins at: 18 minutes, 41 seconds.)
Length: approximately 14 minutes
Starting image: photograph of Roosevelt family

Eleanor Roosevelt's unhappy childhood: most of her immediate family (mother, father, and brother) die before she is 10 years old; described herself as an "ugly little girl"; attends boarding school in England; meets FDR; marries FDR on March 17, 1905; the couple has six children (five of whom survive infancy).

Segment 4 (begins at: 32 minutes, 9 seconds)
Length: approximately 9 minutes
Starting image: family photograph of Eleanor, Franklin, and two of their children

FDR's early political career; association with Louis Howe; becomes New York state senator and then secretary of the navy under Wilson

Segment 5 (begins at: 40 minutes, 43 seconds)
Length: approximately 14 minutes
Starting image: photograph of FDR holding his son and Eleanor holding a younger child

The Roosevelts' marriage becomes troubled; Eleanor discovers FDR's affair with Lucy Page Mercer but agrees to stay married; frustrated by the "social slavery" of Washington society, Eleanor becomes politically active in her own right

Tape Two Part Two -- Fear Itself

Segment 1 (begins at: image of a foggy, deserted beach)
Length: 20 minutes, 26 seconds
Starting image: foggy beach

FDR stricken with polio; spends the next seven years trying to regain the use of his legs; Sara Roosevelt tries to persuade FDR to abandon his political career, but Eleanor encourages him to remain in politics; Eleanor moves into her own house, Val-Kil, which FDR built for her, and takes on reform causes

Segment 2: (begins at: 20 minutes, 26 seconds)
Length: approximately 11 minutes
Starting image: photograph of FDR at the Democratic National Convention

FDR establishes a rehabilitation center in Warm Springs, Georgia; in Georgia, learns about the lives of ordinary people; develops an understanding of pain and struggle

Segment 3 (begins at: 31 minutes, 18 seconds)
Length: 7 minutes, 20 seconds
Starting image: photograph of FDR in a bathing suit

FDR begins to resurrect his political career; becomes governor of New York

Segment 4 (begins at: 38 minutes, 38 seconds)
Length: approximately 12 minutes
Starting image: photograph of a boy sitting in a window

President Hoover is overwhelmed by the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression; FDR changes his mind about government aid for the poor and assistance for the aged; runs for president against Hoover and wins

Tape Three Part Three -- The Grandest Job in the World

Segment 1 (David McCullough appears on screen)
Length: approximately 2 minutes
Starting image: David McCullough

David McCullough introduces the third part of the program; overview of FDR as he takes office for the first time

Segment 2 (begins at: 2 minutes, 12 seconds)
Length: 23 minutes
Starting image: film of a train emerging from a tunnel

FDR tells the country, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"; the first Hundred Days of the New Deal; the National Recovery Administration goes into effect; banks are reopened; FDR uses radio "fireside chats" to communicate directly with the people

Segment 3 (begins at: 25 minutes)
Length: approximately 5 minutes
Starting image: photograph of FDR and Eleanor

Eleanor expands the role of first lady: travels across the country and reports back to FDR on the effects of the New Deal; becomes his "legs, his emissary," at times more popular than her husband; continually advocates for social reform for minorities and the poor

Segment 4 (begins at: 30 minutes, 24 seconds)
Length: approximately 11 minutes
Starting image: photograph of people in a breadline in front of a sign reading "There's no way like the American way." The New Deal falters; angry Americans turn to opposition leaders like Father Coughlin, Francis Townsend, and Senator Huey Long; industry leaders oppose workers' power to bargain collectively; the Supreme Court declares the NRA unconstitutional, but FDR forges ahead; New Deal programs bring electricity to rural areas, build nation's infrastructure

Segment 5 (begins at: 42 minutes, 20 seconds)
Length: approximately 6 minutes
Starting image: photo of FDR standing at the back of a train

Press agrees to "conspiracy of consent" and avoids any display of FDR's disability

Segment 6 (begins at: 48 minutes, 6 seconds)
Length: approximately 4 minutes
Starting image: photograph of FDR holding his arm up in the air

Second presidential campaign; FDR popular with ordinary people but hated by the wealthy; Eleanor criticized for her sympathetic attitude toward African Americans; FDR wins a second term in a landslide

Segment 7 (begins at: 53 minutes, 42 seconds)
Length: approximately 20 minutes
Starting image: film of the presidential motorcade for second inauguration

FDR challenges Supreme Court over New Deal legislation; World War II begins; FDR opposes isolationism

Tape Four Part Four -- The Juggler

Segment 1 (begins at: film of an explosion) Length: 1 minute, 38 seconds

World War II escalates, but the public opposes U.S. involvement

Segment 2 (begins at: 1 minutes, 38 seconds)
Length: approximately 18 minutes
Starting image: crowds cheering FDR's election to a third term

FDR devises the lend-lease program to provide Britain with support; meets secretly with Winston Churchill and pledges U.S. help; Sara Roosevelt dies

Segment 3 (begins at: 19 minutes, 18 seconds)
Length: 13 minutes
Starting image: photograph of FDR

Pearl Harbor attacked by the Japanese; U.S. enters war; Churchill moves into the White House to plan war strategy; FDR galvanizes the country, setting high production goals; visits soldiers in North Africa

Segment 4 (begins at: 32 minutes, 4 seconds)
Length: 8 minutes, 26 seconds
Starting image: film of snow falling

Some of FDR's wartime actions (internment of Japanese Americans, failure to rescue European Jews) seem questionable now; Eleanor wants to use the war as a vehicle for social reform; war production eliminates the last vestiges of the Depression; FDR's failing health

Segment 5 (begins at: 40 minutes, 30 seconds)
Length: approximately 11 minutes
Starting image: zoom-in on FDR's face

D-day in June 1944; further deterioration of the Roosevelts' marriage; Eleanor travels constantly; FDR diagnosed with congestive heart failure; sent to the South to recuperate; FDR resumes his relationship with Lucy Mercer

Segment 6 (begins at: 51 minutes, 16 seconds)
Length: 18 minutes
Starting image: photo of FDR wrapped in a coat in an open car

Despite ill health, FDR campaigns for a fourth term and wins; forms an alliance with Stalin; FDR dies at Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12, 1945, at age 63; the nation goes into mourning