Fireside Chats - Definition and Overview

The Fireside Chats were a series of 30 evening radio talks given by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his administration, between 1933 and 1944.

In an attempt to give Americans a feeling of more pride and hope in their country during the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt gave evening radio talks to the American public. These chats explained New Deal programs and gave people a sense of hope and security during difficult times. Roosevelt needed the American people to understand why he was doing the things he was doing and how his policies and government programs would eventually help the American economy and lift the shadow of the Depression.

During World War II, the Great Depression wound down but Roosevelt continued giving Fireside Chats, explaining major wartime policies to the American people.

Chronological List of Fireside Chats

• On the Bank Crisis - Sunday, March 12, 1933
• Outlining the New Deal Program - Sunday, May 7, 1933
• On the Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program - Monday, July 24, 1933
• On the Currency Situation - Sunday, October 22, 1933
• Review of the Achievements of the Seventy-third Congress - Thursday, June 28, 1934
• On Moving Forward to Greater Freedom and Greater Security - Sunday, September 30, 1934
• On the Works Relief Program - Sunday, April 28, 1935
• On Drought Conditions - Sunday, September 6, 1936
• On the Reorganization of the Judiciary - Tuesday, March 9, 1937
• On Legislation to be Recommended to the Extraordinary Session of the Congress - Tuesday, October 12, 1937
• On the Unemployment Census - Sunday, November 14, 1937
• On Economic Conditions - Thursday, April 14, 1938
• On Party Primaries - Friday, June 24, 1939
• On the European War - Sunday, September 3, 1939
• On National Defense - Sunday, May 26, 1940
• On National Security - Sunday, September 29, 1940
• Announcing Unlimited National Emergency - Tuesday, May 27, 1941
• On Maintaining Freedom of the Seas - Thursday, September 11, 1941
• On the Declaration of War with Japan - Tuesday, December 9, 1941
• On Progress of the War - Monday, February 23, 1942
• On Our National Economic Policy - Tuesday, April 28, 1942
• On Inflation and Progress of the War - Monday, September 7, 1942
• Report on the Home Front - Monday, October 12, 1942
• On the Coal Crisis - Sunday, May 2, 1943
• On Progress of War and Plans for Peace - Wednesday, July 28, 1943
• Opening Third War Loan Drive - Wednesday, September 8, 1943
• On Teheran and Cairo Conferences - Friday, December 24, 1943
• State of the Union Message to Congress - Tuesday, January 11, 1944
• On the Fall of Rome - Monday, June 5, 1944
• Opening Fifth War Loan Drive - Monday, June 12, 1944

External links

• Complete Text of all 30 Fireside Chats (http://www.mhric.org/fdr/)
• Museum of Broadcast Communications entry on the Fireside Chats (http://www.museum.tv/mbcfdr.shtml)
• The New Deal Network (http://newdeal.feri.org/)
• Miller Center of Public Affairs (http://millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/diglibrary/prezspeeches/roosevelt/)
• Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University (http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/showfindingaid.cfm?findaidid=RooseveltFD) has many Roosevelt speeches in mp3 format