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The fireside chats were a series of evening radio addresses given by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, between 1933 and 1944.
- Overview
- First Fireside Chat Addresses Banking Crisis
- Calming Effect of FDR's Words
- HISTORY Vault: U.S. Presidents
As Americans confronted a banking crisis, the Great Depression and then World War II, FDR talked to Americans through radio broadcasts.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, the United States was entering the fourth year of the Great Depression, the worst economic downturn in the nation’s history.
The stock market had fallen a staggering 75 percent from 1929 levels, and one in every four workers was unemployed. In the weeks before Roosevelt took office, things had gotten even worse. Some 4,000 banks were forced out of business, costing millions of people their life savings. As depositors panicked and rushed to withdraw their money from the remaining banks, the crisis threatened to bring down the nation’s entire financial system.
This Day In History: 03/12/1933- FDR Gives 1st Fireside Chat
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” Roosevelt famously declared on that cold and cloudy Inauguration Day. But stirring words would not be enough, and Roosevelt knew it: “This nation asks for action, and action now.”
Two days later, he declared a nationwide “bank holiday,” temporarily shutting down the nation’s entire banking system. Called into a special session, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act on March 9. The bill gave the federal government the power to investigate each bank’s finances. Those that were judged to be healthy and stable enough would reopen on March 13.
But on March 12, 1933, the day before banks were set to reopen, it wasn’t clear that these emergency measures had done enough to calm the public’s fears. That evening, at 10 pm Eastern time, Roosevelt addressed the nation via radio broadcast, directly from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House. (Yes, he was actually sitting next to a fireplace.)
“My friends, I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking,” he began. For roughly 13 minutes, more than 60 million Americans listened as Roosevelt explained—in straightforward language designed “for the benefit of the average citizen”—what the federal government had done in the past few days to address the banking crisis, why they had done it and what the next steps were going to be.
After explaining how banking worked, Roosevelt laid out what had happened to cause the current crisis. He argued that the government’s emergency measures would enable a survey of the nation’s banks and allow stable ones to reopen. After that, he said, people could feel completely safe returning their money to the banks rather than hoarding it at home out of fear. “I can assure you,” he said, “that it is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than under the mattress.”
Finally, Roosevelt called on the American people to renew their “confidence and courage,” and to have “faith,” rather than be “stampeded by rumors or guesses.”
Roosevelt wasn’t the first president to use the medium of radio, but he was the first to use it so effectively to speak directly to the American people, without the filter of the press. Using a slow, calm and steady voice that rose and fell naturally, he seemed to be engaging in a conversation with his listeners. In reality, his words had been carefully written, revised and fact-checked by a team of advisers, but Roosevelt had a way of making them feel informal and fresh.
The effect was powerful: On March 13, when healthy banks reopened, people lined up in droves to return their cash. More than half of the funds Americans had withdrawn during the crisis were back in the bank within two weeks. March 15, the first day stocks were traded after the banking holiday, saw the market’s largest ever one-day percentage price increase, reflecting a new surge of confidence among American investors.
Before Roosevelt’s second radio address, broadcast on May 7, 1933, the CBS station manager Harold Butcher dubbed the speeches “fireside chats.” Thousands of letters had begun pouring into the Roosevelt White House every day, many of them expressing gratitude for the president’s words. A single fireside chat could generate more than 450,000 cards, letters and telegrams.
It was a long, hard slog, however, before the country began to regain its economic foothold. After a period of gradual recovery, a sharp recession hit in 1937. Then a second severe contraction in 1938 reversed many gains in production and employment and prolonged the effects of the Great Depression through the end of the decade. Through it all, FDR continued to speak to the American people directly through his radio addresses.
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- Sarah Pruitt
Apr 23, 2010 · The Fireside Chats refer to some 30 speeches President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed to the American people via radio from March 1933 to June 1944.
- Accepting the Democratic Presidential Nomination and Promising ‘A New Deal’ July 2, 1932. History Shorts: FDR Takes the Democratic Convention by Storm. In 1932, the U.S. held its first presidential election during the Great Depression.
- First Inaugural Address: 'The Only Thing We Have to Fear...' March 4, 1933. Inaugural Address: Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt assumed office on March 4, 1933, three years into the Great Depression.
- First Fireside Chat: Calming Fears Over the Banking Crisis. March 12, 1933. Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Fireside Chat. In the first week of his presidency, Roosevelt declared a four-day bank holiday to stop the panic run on banks that could have been catastrophic for the economy.
- Speech to Congress Promoting Social Security. January 17, 1935. Franklin D. Roosevelt Creates Social Security. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law on Aug.
Roosevelt did not appoint or nominate a single African American as secretary or assistant secretary to his cabinet. About one hundred African Americans met informally, however, to provide the administration with advice on issues related to African Americans.
fireside chats, series of radio addresses delivered by U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1944. Although the chats were initially meant to garner Americans’ support for Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, they eventually became a source of hope and security for all Americans.
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Apr 14, 2019 · Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address is perhaps the most famous speech of its kind in American history, with its memorable phrase, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
