The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days
Reports during the Presidential transition period noted Barack Obama was reading Jonathan Alter’s 2007 study The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope as he began planning his own administration’s course. Alter’s book is a record of a pivotal moment in American history where President Roosevelt redefined the relationship between the American people and their government and began steering a course out of the Great Depression.
Alter argues that FDR’s combination of inspirational leadership, open-minded risk-taking, and activist government policies ultimately saved both American democracy and capitalism itself. The book is a useful counterpoint to recent criticisms of Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, and it’s also a gripping read that documents one of the most precarious moments in American history.
Alter paints a vivid portrait of the country in winter 1933 as Roosevelt took office. At the absolute low point of the Great Depression, when Fascism was wildly popular in Italy and Hitler had just gained power in Germany, Alter reveals the temptations Roosevelt faced from advisors who advocated similarly dictatorial steps to solve America’s economic disaster. The book tells the riveting story of Roosevelt’s rejection of this path and the seat-of-his-pants qualities of the interventionist New Deal programs that Alter argues ultimately saved capitalism.
The book includes seldom-told tales like the pre-inauguration assassination attempt that nearly took Roosevelt’s life. Alter also describes the most acrimonious transition in American history, during which President Hoover and Roosevelt barely communicated and FDR’s son claimed his father nearly punched Hoover in the face.
One of the most interesting stories is Alter’s description of the first “Fireside Chat,” on March 12, 1933. Roosevelt’s revolutionary use of the relatively new medium of radio brought the voice of the American President into citizens’ homes for the first time. His warm, conversational style was literally unheard of from previous politicians who had to shout to be heard in un-amplified speeches to large crowds, and Alter compares the effect to the similarly reassuring tones of Bing Crosby’s crooning voice over the radio.
The real revolution was, in fact, Roosevelt’s first two words of the Fireside Chat: “My friends.” The Defining Moment goes a long way toward explaining FDR’s achievements and filling in interesting psychological details of his complicated personality, but those two words, and the resultant redefinition of American government’s role in the lives of its citizens, reveal perhaps the most significant moment of all.
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Thanks for recognizing my book!
Best, Jonathan Alter