you must be your own person. and that is something that all of us carried with us our entire lives. >> now from booktv's recent visit to hyde park, new york. with the help of our local cable partner. we take a tour of the fdr presidential library and museum with director paul sparrow. >> paul sparrow, director of the fdr library. what is this room and what kind of history was made here?

>> this is totally unique in the presidential library system. it is the only room actually used by a sitting president at a presidential library. when fdr first started construction on the library in 1938 he assumed he would leave office in the end of 1940 at the end of his second term like every president before him had. but because of the rising tensions in europe the democratic party nominated him for one third term and he was elected. when the library opened in june 1941 he was the president of the united states. to this essentially became the northern oval office. he was appear on many many occasions. he entertained both political leaders like mr. churchill and he did a lot of meetings here. he did radio broadcast from here. two of his fireside chats and for other radio broadcast from this room during that period. he really directed the war from this room.

>> 30 -- is a forward i had to remember which ones? >> there were two technically called fireside chats. and then you have all the radio broadcast and different things on election night and had to christmas eve broadcast from your peers of the september 7 in 1942 was one of the fireside chats. and in december 1943, the christmas eve of broadcasting he did hear. it was a very interesting broadcast. he just returned from tehran and cairo. he talked about the united nations and the idea that this was the first time, the big three churchill, stalin and roosevelt got together. he came here to recuperate. he had his whole family, stay here. it was a very important night. he was telling america how

things are going to be done and the scope of the global battle. he was talk about a russian front. how the american and british forces were coming through russia up in italy, and the expense in the pacific. there was a turning point in the war. prior to that certainly 1942 and early 1943, the allies had really struggled. the nazis and the japanese had one victory after victory. but suddenly the sense of the tide had turned. and now with big three leading this was an important time for him to let the people know. he had a vision after the world ended that the united nations was going to come together and sort of create a body for governing world peace as he had hoped the league of nations would. and the united nations would be an important organization moving forward.

>> what is the story of that over your shoulder? >> print members but didn't really have a home appear. his mother's home was brentwood. so he would live at his mother's house and they had a study in her home. from 1933 to 1941 that was his office as president when he came to hyde park. of course she loved it because all of the foreign leaders and political leaders would come to her home and she would entertain them. she really enjoyed that. so there was a funny story, when he decided he was going to donate the property to the government so they can build a library here had big public signing ceremony where he and eleanor signed the property over but they did not own the property. it still belonged to sarah and she wasn't pleased with this. so they had to fly over so she could sign the deed because she went to paris. and then they were able to sign it over to the government. during that sarah wanted to create something special. so she had the sports commission and give it to him in the library open so she

could look over his shoulder and make sure he didn't make mistakes. >> the story of their relationship, how close were they? well i did enjoy the college with him and that in the home, didn't she have a bedroom right next to his? >> in the home there are actually three bedrooms on the second floor. he has a corner bedroom, she has a corner bedroom and there's one in the middle. which eleanor slept in after her husband came down with polio. sarah has been known for this controlling figure but she was really an inspirational figure. and the grandchildren loved her. berman early age she devoted her life to franklin. it was a very difficult child birth. doctors said she told to never have another child. so they knew this was going to be the only child peers of james roosevelt was on was 25 years old and she was had a child from a previous marriage when he was much older.

to admit it really they have is household the three of them. growing up fdr had everything he wanted. he was an adult child. they traveled the world, they went to europe every year. he has sailboats and everything his heart could want. had a home in new york, home in the border of canada and maine. they really were a close family. and she wanted to make sure that he had everything he could have. i think it is one of the amusing stories that sarah thought that franklin was successful because he was a delano. we were very successful involved with china trade, her father had made and lost fortunes in the china trade. sarah actually went to china when a teenager, sailed across and she was very cosmopolitan woman.she understood the world beyond america's shores. so she would provide guidance.

she gave him strength and self-confidence. throughout their relationship up until 1941 when she died, she remained a source of strength for him. he turned to her in times when he needed someone to believe in him. i think that is the essence of it. there was conflict between eleanor and sarah. because she played such a big role in their life. she built a home for them. once i was there is on one side was sarah's. and of course she put doors so she could go back and forth. so she was definitely a big strong presence but also a strong supporter. >> how long did she spend at harvard when he was there? >> she was in boston part of the time. i think sometimes it was overplayed but there was no question that she felt like she needed to be around for him. >> franklin was not a great student. he sort of did what he needed to do.

he was very involved in the school newspaper. he would always say in later years he was a journalist when he would have his press conferences because of his years at the harvard crimson. but he was very independent from her even though she was living in that same town as he was. what's more interesting is after he graduated, he met eleanor he fell in love with her. he told sarah they wanted to get married. and she was not a fan of the idea at all. she told him that he had to wait a year. it could not announce it, they had to keep it secret and he had to wait a year before they announced it. then she did anything she could to distract him. traveling and doing all of these things. because at the end of the year they got married in 1905. and it was at that point i think that the conflict between eleanor and sarah began to evolve. because eleanor became a mother and raised five children.

there were differences in how you should mother. sarah had been a very doting mother to franklin.as eleanor became more politically active she had a life outside of the family. if there were conflicts between them had to do with the changing role of women during that period. and that particularly as she became involved with unions and the women movement and became an active political participant. not just a mother. >> we are standing in the study of fdr's which he actually is when he was alive in 1945. where is the library in relationship to saint new york city? and how easy is it for people to get here?hyde park is about two hours north of new york city right on the hudson river. going back a little bit there is a reason a number of leading families lived here. the vanderbilts of the pier, the roosevelt lived here, there were a number of very important american families that lived along the hudson river because

it was essentially america's main street. it was a very important thruway for moving goods up and down the river into new york which was of course a major seaport and a hub for trade with europe. this was a very important area. and of course was the trains were built in the 19th century, it became easy. an hour and and a half to 2 hours to get from new york up into this area. as a matter of fact there is a train station right here in hyde park, new york. and they could essentially store his presidential car here when he would come up. so it was easy for them to get from washington to hear or to get from new york to here. the family has apartments in new york almost his entire life. so they went back and forth frequently. it was easy to get here and one of the reasons that is franklin matured as president, particularly during the war years, he had two escapes. he had warm springs georgia which was a rehabilitation

center for polio which he really created. then there was hyde park. he would come here and he could really do like this was his home. he could relax, indulge in his passions, walk in the woods, seeing the birds and having his friends over, being with his books, this was a place where he really was comfortable. >> how did paul sparrow get here? >> well, i was involved with the television business for a long time and became involved with museums when the museum opened in washington d.c.. i spent about 16 years there immersed and how do we tell history in new and different ways? when the opportunity came to be involved with the national archives i had been involved with them almost my whole career. i think it is one of america's best treasures. and i realize this is a dream job for me. something i had been preparing for my whole life. because i am a storyteller.

and this is the greatest story in american history. people can argue but i feel franklin roosevelt was obeyed as president and that franklin and eleanor were the most important political couple. they helped end of the civil war. he only served four years. george washington helped create american democracy and serve eight years. roosevelt served 12 years through the great depression and world war ii and was a leader that transcended in some ways but a political - he fundamentally change the way the federal government interacts. when he came president america was in his most dire state. 25, 35 percent unemployment. millions of people were homeless. people would be literally starving in the streets. in the federal government had no role, no mechanism even to help them. roosevelt came in and said that is not right. this is the government for the people. therefore the government has to

support the people.find ways to put people back to work. help them keep their homes, provide farms, improve the environment. he faced one of the great environmental disasters in american history. because of terrible land practices in the mess they had not planted trees, terrible dustbowl. and he really understood that you had to stop that. so the farmers can be successful. you had to stop the erosion of soil. and so the civilian conservation corps planted 2 billion trees from texas to canada. and that eventually prevented further erosion and transformed the landscape of america's midwest. he created a safety net for americans who were leaving their jobs, losing their homes and that changed everything happened since then. we can argue about the policies, how much the federal government did, how did they pay for these. but there is no question that there was a fundamental change in the relationship and the

federal government and american cities. >> becky for a moment. where did you grow up? >> i grew up on long island. >> did you go to college? >> i went to uc santa cruz. i have an unusual background. i was a music major and the new documentary film maker before it we need to television.i am not the traditional academic historian but i did come up as a storyteller. almost all of my work in television was finding stories and then finding the best way to tell the stories. >> what kind of documentary did you do? >> the first time it was about - santa cruz california, one of the breeding areas for elephant fields. i did documentary film about elephant fields. i was originally hired to do the sound recording. on my first day of shooting, my first documentary, we were standing on the beach and the cameraman was standing next to me. i suddenly saw him running down the beach and i said where are you going?

and he was running as fast as he can. attend run and there is a elephant field behind me and an elephant is charging at me. i jumped on a sand dune to get away from him. and i said this is an interesting job. i should look into this. >> what did you do in television? >> i started out as an editor then became a producer and eventually executive producer. i work in san francisco for part of my career and then washington for most of my career. one of my more interesting exploits was as an executive producer for america's most wanted. i used to help catch criminals which was a fascinating way to see the power of television. in communicating with people. one of db's first interactive programs will we put people's pictures on, and people would call to tell us where they were and we would arrest them. it really showed you that there was a real-time phenomenon that could happen with television. and it really made the world a better place. we helped return you know 35 missing children, we put a

thousand fugitives, it was interesting. >> how long have you been directed here, who owns this, who do answer to and how many people work here? >> library as part of the national archives. there are 13 presidents libraries right now they're about to be 14 with president obama. this was the first presidential library, the first presidential federal library. i work for the united states. this probably 30 people who work here overall. in the editorial and program people, our archivists, museums have a big role to play. we tried to make this facility available.we are actually an island of the national archives inside the national park. so like in a lot of circumstances i've dear put you different organizations in charge of the same thing. so he gave his home in the

property to the national park service but he gave his library to the national archives. so the other facilities here part of the national park system are eleanor roosevelt's home and it was a small cottage that franklin roosevelt built in 1940. he was going to retire to it. it was one of the first times that is fully wheelchair accessible. no threshold on the doors, all door handles are low, windows are low. he really wanted to live there when he left the white house. these are all part of the national park and part of what we think of as the roosevelt legacy here. in hyde park. >> how many square feet designated for exhibits and you have a foundation? and what does it cost to run this? >> there 12,000 feet up your exhibit space. and we did something unusual. we used some of the storage space where we keep things that are not technically on display and we put glass walls and peer to the public can see things like part of the art collection and fdr's car which is

legendary, he drove the king and queen of england around in it. he had special hand controls made by ford that allow you to drive even though he was paralyzed. many of his ship models, he had an extra nurse ship model collection. so the visible storage area really helps people see behind the scenes in some of the storage. there is a foundation, the roosevelt institute is our 501(c) partner. the way they structure this is that the federal government pay for the preservation and storage of the actual records. the archives themselves and the materials associated with the presidential library. they will pay for the staff to maintain that but they will not pay for things like education programs, new exhibits, technology, educational outreach. so we need private money to be able to do those things. so then the model that was created by franklin roosevelt was that all of the money was raised privately. then everything he owned was

donated to the federal government. and the federal government agreed that they would manage it and preserve it. one of the things that i think in this generation particularly people have a hard time with his time frames. national archives has to think on a timeframe of hundreds of years. if you think about our great founding charters, the constitution, the emancipation proclamation. these are hundreds of years old peers amended in order students and historians hundreds of yes, sir no going to -- you have to see where you're at balancing the delicate preservation of the paper, books, artifacts. and we need to share them with the public. everything here belongs to the american people. fdr won the american people to come to hyde park, study him, sees collections.

he knew that if these papers were just in some federal building in washington d.c. that people who would come to study him were not really know who he was. his character was born here in hyde park. >> what does it cost to run this? equivocate give your number because there are five different budgets for security and maintenance and staffing and the institute contributes money. i was a overall cost is somewhere in the seven or $9 million range. but we do not have a single budget. >> how many visitors? >> we were very lucky in 2014. the great filmmaker ken burns a wonderful series of public television which looked after teddy roosevelt and eleanor roosevelt and franklin roosevelt and it was a fantastic series. it really made public interest in the roosevelt's. we saw attendance really starting to climb at that point.

i've been here less than two years. i am a newbie to the roosevelt legacy family. but in that. what we have tried to do is expand. new permanent exhibit open in 2013 which is helpful. the narrative that we tell in our permanent exhibit was 13 years in the making. they put together a group of historians in 2000.he said we are going to completely rethink what the presidential library should be. how do we tell that story?how to be be honest, confront the issues, deal with controversy, admit his failures and celebrate his successes? the entire exhibit was reconceived. it really is now i think one of the most successful presidential libraries. enough time has passed where we can honestly deal with things like the japanese force of the temporary exhibit now can have it features 200 photographs, extraordinary pictures taken by dorothy langan ansell adams

that documents the process of japanese americans. many of whom were american citizens of the 120,000 incarcerated, 80,000 were legal american citizens. and how the constitutional rights were violated by a man that i and many people think was one of our greatest champions of civil rights. and yet, because of the story of the time, because of the pressure of the war, because of the nature of the japanese attacking pearl harbor, these people were singled out. they were into these camps. by looking the narrative, by looking at that story can examine the inner workings of the roosevelt administration. but more portly, put a lesson out there for people. say this is what happens. why did this happen and how can we prevent this from happening again? in the 1980s they determined it was in fact a mistake. federal government apologized. ronald reagan said let us swallow the surviving people who had been in the camps and $20,000 restitution payment was made.

by having the ability to be academically honest, a lintel actually vigorous in the way we are investigating his legacy. we are giving great credence fear missing this was an extra ordinary man during extraordinary times. he made mistakes, he made great strides in changing politics. and if you want to learn more come visit. >> in this room there are a lot of books. in this library there are tremendous number of books. how many books did fdr have in his collection? >> fdr had any credibly inquisitive mind. there were 22,000 books and fdr's personal collection. about 50,000 books your total in the library. and research books are reference books about the results. get 22,000 books. there are 914 both mr. malone. every book in here was selected by fdr to be in this room. this room is almost identical to the way it was on the day that he died. nothing has changed. some furniture was moved but

this is basically as it was on the day he died.he served four years in this room as it is. and the books are fascinated. his entire bookshelf over that of all of the winston churchill books. that was one of the most extraordinary friendships and american history between two leaders. and every time churchill came out with a new book, every time he came out with a new book he would sign it and send it over to fdr to look at. and he would write little notes so winston churchill inscribed one book, a fresh egg from a faithful hen. and he loved sharing those things. the two of them were very close. there is a vocal case of rudyard kipling books. he loved him. also we have another favorite author here, stevenson. and a first edition here, when you open the cover there is a watercolor right there glued to the front page with lee stevens

mentor. sue had certain areas he was particularly interested with his books. naval history. he is truly a world-class collection of naval history books. selected ships laws. first-person manuscripts. love books written by people that were on shift that did interesting things.whether they were circumnavigating the globe, exhibitions were major battles. his collection naval books was quite extraordinary. if there is one book in his collection that had the biggest impact on his presidency, and as a book by chappell called the influence of sea power in the world history published in the late 19th century. he has three volumes of it. one was his older brothers, and have given to him by his uncle fred and this book was influential in how the russians developed their navy. in world war i. how that japanese developed stairs and world war ii. it was about how large naval fleets can influence military conflicts.and it was very

influential in how they, he was assistant secretary of the navy and world war i helped rebuild the american navy feared and how he prepared for world war ii. so this gives you insight into what he was interested in and you can tell he was almost insatiably curious.>> the story of the english -- >> the first english translation of adolf hitler's -- franklin roosevelt red and spoke german and french fluidly. he had read the original german. he read in the original german. he understood the message that hitler was given his people. they came to power and frankly about the same time. so this book says it had been so heavily extricated to not let the true story.

almost all of the vicious anti-semitism had been taken out of the english translation. it is typical of how he was keeping up with was was going on in the world and politics. he was able to discern really what was being said versus what was being said to the people. >> there are number 21,000 books in a library, would you keep them? >> there kept in a special room. actually it was divined by fdr himself. in the big renovation and restoration in 2013 a decision was made all the upper archived rooms, storage rooms where the documents are kept were updated. but that room is kept exactly the way it was. sue is those original bookshelves, extrawide aisles seed to get up and down in his wheelchair. even had some original clamshell case is that he would put his speech and documents and so they could keep them on his lap and his wheelchair and

look at. he really intended to work and use this as a repository for his material after he left the white house. so the library is one whole side of it, these are fdr's bones in another cider all the books that were after he died might have belonged to other family members. he started collecting as a child. he actually created a stamp that he put in his books. it has a stamp on it. sometimes he would write the date, the location where he got it, hyde park, white house, wherever. and in some he would write little notes. he was an avid reader of detective novels. one interesting story is about a book called the star-spangled virgin. so the ministry that takes place on st. croix.in the front he has his name and date and write a little note, see pages 74 through 76. you open up those pages and it is a description of a motorcade

going through and the protagonist is on the side of the road. when he realizes who goes by, he says that is mr. -- and he had little indication on the side. here is the president of the us, this is 1939. arguably the busiest man in the world and is time to look at these books and make notes in the margins on a reference to a trip he made as president in 1934. >> why 300 bibles? >> are interesting. a number of the bibles were family bibles. a lot of them are in dutch. but he collected books. and bibles are one of the areas that he collected in. there's also probably know, for 500 books about religion. about every kind of religion. a lot of them are about christianity but many about other religions as well. so he has a small collection of bibles. one of the bibles on display here is a dutch bible. it was a family bible. it was used all four times

during his inauguration. john president ever inaugurated four times obviously. and it is a very large book. it reflects his belief that family is important. he was not a traditionally sort of devout christian. and yet he is references from the bible in his speeches all the time. he used them as a way of making a point. he believed the bible was very effective in providing advice on how people should act. how do you convince people to do the right thing. he thought the bible was very effective in doing that. this is why he quotes it all the time. he had almost like a sermon like quality to many of his most important and powerful speeches. if you look at the d-day prayer. which was put out on june 6, 1944, a point in which he did not know whether the greatest military in world history was going to e a success or failure. it is a very personal prayer.

and it reflects his belief that we are at a critical moment in world history. and that his belief in the american people comes through in that prayer. class almighty god, [inaudible]

>> how do you and the 21,000 downstairs, how do you separate his grade school time, high school time, college time trend frequently used the library of congress organizational system. they essentially are organized by subject matter. there is a whole bookshelf of history books about new york state. dutchess county, the hudson river, hyde park, other towns. >> this is dutchess county. >> we are in dutchess county, new york. he was very interested. he actually has a document, the deed of sale for hyde park from 1689 i think it is. between the dutch settlers and native americans that lived

here. it is in dutch. he has all sorts of early records of the early families of new york state, he really cared and was interested in this. i really talk to he had an amazing naval history of books. he also had enormous number books about american history. international history. he had a great collection of all of his speeches which were bound and would often give them as christmas presents.even to his wife. here honey, merry christmas! he is an enormous collection of natural history books. he used to collect and stuff birds here. you can see a number of his birds at the home in springwood. he has a whole range of other natural history books. he was deeply interested in how nature worked. he planted almost 250,000 trees on this property alone. in hyde park. and he described himself as a tree grower. he thought of himself as a tree

grower. it's a very funny story during world war ii, he actually had a christmas tree farm. they would suck christmas trees. winston churchill came famously and spent christmas at the white house after pearl harbor in 1941. they don't really have the same tradition in england of these ornaments and christmas trees. they sat there and watched the lighting of the christmas tree. so the next year after had christmas tree chip to him during the war -- he had it shipped to him. >> can the public walk-through where his private papers are? i mean private books? >> no, there is a glass door where you can see the bookshelf with the new york and dutchess county history. but like many things because of security involved in protecting the books the public is not allowed to go in there. >> one of the rules about

people touching these books and does anybody get to read them? >> we do have a public research room. this is open to the public. you can go on the research room, after certain documents for speeches, books. over time, some documents become fragile. for they become so valuable like the pearl harbor speech. someone comes in want to see the original draft of the pearl harbor speech we have to bring out a reproduction. because the speech is both fragile and priceless. so some speeches or some material we create reproductions which we share other times you can actually, we will bring the box out to you. you signed it out and sit at the desk and you can look at the materials. many of the books are available for people to come and look at in the reference room. they cannot take them home but they can look at them. some books again, they have become so fragile or valuable that they cannot be checked out. if there shown to an historian or someone it is usually someone that is preserving the book.

so we have to think in terms of hundreds of years. he wanted materials to be available three generations from now. and so the preservation has to balance with the accessibility. one of the guiding strategies is called make access happen. so there's a whole digitization process going on. where we want to digitize the documents and make them accessible as possible. not everyone can come to hyde park. if you create an archive people come to you and you show them things that doesn't work as well in the modern world. we now need to make the digital copies available as widely as possible. >> how much is available online right now? >> about a man documents are available online. we have a platform online. all of the speeches are online. and this was supported by at&t they allowed us to digitize all of the speech files and link them up whenever there's audio

available of the speeches. and so sometimes you might have six or seven or eight different drafts of a major speech and you can see all the drafts with all of the written comments and you can go back and watch the evolution of the speeches. everyone knows, his most famous line in presidential auditory is the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. that line doesn't show up until the seventh draft of the speech. >> did he write it? >> there is argument about who aptly came up with it. but he gets credit for it. some people think that one of the other writers wrote it. but there is a part in the opening part of the speech and it came as they were evolving the speech. as they were trying to craft a message, what did he want to say to the american people? what is it that they needed to hear at that moment? it is one of the things that we study his speech and listen to his radio broadcast, he really

lies can transform -- he realized that you transform -- they would project and speak in a way that was very sort of stiff and formal. when he was governor when he first started the idea of his radio conversations. when he became president he really perfected the idea of having a personal conversation. he envisions his neighbor sitting across the kitchen table when he would do this fireside chat. i think the best example of his political persuasiveness is his first fireside chat as president which was just a few days after he took office. he took office and was the last president inaugurated in march. four years later the first inaugurated in january. the first thing he did was shut down all the banks. because every bank in america. he called it a bank of america but he still closed and because i thousand of them have failed in the weeks after his

inauguration. so on the sunday night before the reopening of the bentley gave his first fireside chat. >> and that was a short one. >> yes but it is an extraordinary speech. he said i want to take a few minutes to talk about banking. and as will rogers said he did such a good job of expanding the banking crisis that even the bankers understood it. he talked about the fact that we were going to reopen the banks and explain how they work. which is to give you money to the bank, the lender not to businesses. the bank is not just -- the bank money was not just sitting on a shelf. -- he did this because he knew he had enough cash in the federal reserve banks in those cities that if there was a run on the banking the loaded truck with cash and raised it over to the bank and meet the demand and end the fear. it was so persuasive. that at the end of the first week after the games reopened

there wasn't a run on the bank. more than million dollars and flung back into the bank.he had ended the banking crisis. tickly with his words. and that is the son of a great leader. >> corrects the fireside chat and relate that to today. we have a presidents' day -- we have a president today that tweets. this is a day to go around that, is that true? >> every american president wants to find a way to talk to the public. if they can get their point across and get the media out of the way they will be successful. but what is interesting about the journalism community back then it is it was two different subgroups. there were reporters and photographers that cover him who loved him. they adored him. and then there was a rich publisher and owners who detested him. >> why? >> because he shifted the

financial responsibility for the upper class. he had changed the taxing system. change the power of labor, he shifted the balance of power where capital had been dominant and labor had been submissive. he tried to balance it out. he encouraged labor unions, he encouraged legislation to restrict the power of big capital and big money. and so, the one percent were very disturbed about this. they considered him a traitor to his class. one of his ancestors i think roosevelt had been a partner of alexander hamilton in the creation of the bank of new york. i mean his family was part of that one percent. so the perceived him as a traitor to their class good but the changes he was making to do that, he understood he had to fundamentally bring the working class up if you're going to get the economy working again. dad your purchasing power, they had to have decent jobs, they needed security, you had to make them feel they were part of the economy. so you can lift homeownership,

bring people back and do the things you had to do to have a healthy economy. and it was a herculean task. the journalists who covered him, you know, when he would do conferences at the white house he was a behind the oval office, behind the desk and the press were just stream in and sit in the corner. it was around him, smoked cigarettes, do all sorts of things. and he would have this back and forth. he had over 900 press conferences during his presidency. and they would be back and forth. sometimes he was a this is off the record you cannot use it. you know a lot of them by name. it would make jokes with them, feed them tidbits of information. remember this whole time, eleanor roosevelt is his incredibly effective political partner. when he wanted to find out what was going on in the world he would send her out.she would tour the country, going to call minds, she visited, she would go out and find out what farmers were doing. she would come back and report. if he wanted to test out id

would have eleanor roosevelt talk about a person her column or one of her speeches. and if it created a big ruckus he could just say, that is my mrs., i cannot control her. she does whatever she wants. and if it was successful he would incorporate it into his policy.they were a very effective team. and she was a media powerhouse. he appreciated her impact. she wrote a column every day for 20 years. six days a week. she had radio shows, she was on television after franklin died. she was a very influential person and a voice that really spoke to helping those most in need. >> and museum part, there is a picture of fdr in a wheelchair. leave behind me i am bumping into it i will step back so you can explain this. this is one of the wheelchair that is in the office all the time. he talked about the media and you say that they only have seen him in one of these in a public photo four times. why? whether the media not show this? >> there are several

interesting things. it is not a traditional wheelchair. this was built on a couple of bicycle wheels with wheels in the back. so the first half of his life, he was a very healthy dynamic person. he didn't get polio until his late 30s and 1921. at that point he started went into almost seclusion. he had been the vice presidential candidate in 1920. he was a nationally known public figure. he had been assistant secretary of the navy. he was determined that he was going to be able to walk again. so the american people knew he had polio. they knew he was slightly crippled. when he appeared at a democratic convention in 1928, he had this enormous standing ovation. he started staggered up, he would use the steel braces on his legs to brace himself. people knew he was crippled in some ways but very few knew he was paralyzed from the waist down. there was tremendous prejudice back then about people who are disabled. fairly widespread belief that

if you were physically disabled you might be mentally disabled. they wanted to really downplay his physical disability. so the press was not allowed to photograph him in his wheelchair. often times when he was doing speeches for bringing people in the oval office or this from here, he would come in and wheelchair. he would be transferred to one of the chairs until he would just be sitting in the chair when his guest or the press arrived. if a photographer at a public event saw that he was being helped they were told not to take photographs. and then when he would go to the podium they would pen away and then once he's there they would pan back. and when he was done speaking the camera would pan awakens he did not see him leave the podium. this was a very important secret for the white house to keep. he did not want people to understand the extent of his disability. they wanted him to project this

aura of confidence and vitality of energy.and of course he was incredibly dynamic. and everyone who met him was just enthralled by his enthusiasm, his articulate presentation of ideas. and you can see all the pictures of him campaigning. he is standing strong, he had enormous trust and was very strong in his upper body. he worked out constantly. you're much more likely to see footage of him in a swimming pool where he looks just like everyone else throwing the ball around then you are to see him with his crippled and whether legs or in a wheelchair. >> when did you get interested first in him personally? quest i have been interested in him since i was a child. my mother who was from connecticut, went to college down in virginia. she would always tell the stories that were people down there referred to president roosevelt never used his name. they just called him a man in the white house. and that he was a very unpopular figure. and she would tell stories.so she was born in 1960 so she lived through this entire

period and believe that he had been america's greatest leader. entity for redbook? >> well, he published several books of his speeches, but he never wrote a book on his own. he had a screenplay he had written that in the 20s he was trying to sell to the hollywood movie studios, sort of a spy mystery.

it was pretty awful and no one bought it. he wrote the forward to a book on whaling ships of new bedford, but he never wrote a book that was published. >> what does the director do? >> nothing. either greater staff in the world. i stand up and talk to people like you. it's really extraordinary that the commitment of the people that work for the national archives. they believed in that mission. many people of that here 10, 15 years that have dedicated their life to this institution. >> where do they train? >> most go for library or museum studies. at the world of archives is changing with a certain core fundamental function to have to do in terms of the way he preserved documents and organize them and put them in folders and how you make them available to the public. some of the core functions have not changed significantly, but the world of realization hasn't changed to providing access to things.

if you are in archives you have to think in terms of 100 years, not just in terms of tomorrow. >> how often do they have someone i came out of, journalism instead of coming out of history or art-- archival training? >> i don't know the answer to that. their evident number of of people who have been authors or journalists that have risen to library director status. a lot of time library directors have a more outward focused mission, so if you have a very highly skilled and competent staff i don't have to worry about whether the records are properly maintained because i know they are, so than my job is to raise money for the library and try to do public programming to connect to the community and to interface with the federal government, national park service, so it's not as important that i have technical archival skills. it's important i know how to be a leader and give the team the support they need. >> what would happen and we have

watched his team president's adjust cutting a lot of things in the arts and humanities, what would happen if they cut the money from the federal government to run a place like this? >> you would adapt and change i think the federal government has fluctuated back and forth in the way they funded things. there are certain key functions of the federal government. the national archives maintain all federal records so you can't really do away with the national archives. it's essential function of government keeping congressional records and records of all the agencies and to make those records available to the public and congress. they perform a vital function that can't be changed. if they cut off a need to presidential libraries you would see a greater shift to private support and it would be difficult to raise the money necessary for support of institutions at the level and quality of these institutions. the presidential library is the finest example of research institutions and museums,

everything that is done is done to preserve this material and make it assessable to the public. it's possible to shift to private funding, but it would be difficult. >> in the museum, there are lots of new charts and one, attention when i was walking through that in 1933 the us government spend $4 billion. in 1941, $34 billion. in 1933, 24.9% unemployment in the us, obviously in the bill of the depression, but 9042, 4.7% unemployment. does it say then that when there is war it is good for the country with more manufacturing and people up jobs? >> i think there are two different things going on there. one, federal spending that started in 1930s was not primarily military. most of the early spending had to do with job creation, infrastructure redevelopment,

creation of new regulatory agencies providing support for farmers, homeowners, so most with money going into the economy, but not primarily military nature. the military buildup doesn't start until 38, 39 as he start to see a wrapup and then in 1940 when fdr talks about arsenal democracy and they start transforming the industrial dive of american economy into a military complex. there's no question that in times of extreme economic distress government funding is critical to maintaining economic stability. again, we can argue the policy and how much government should be involved and how much you shall let the market determine. market has failed, so this point the government had to step in because the market wasn't capable of making a correction at that point. when you have smaller crises often time the market is able to

give us back on track, but in this case the federal spending for military which created massive deficits provided for employment, so in that case yes the creation of full employment was driven by military spending, but if you look at the chart unemployment drops dramatically even before the massive military spending. >> talking to bob recently about his books on lyndon johnson he points out fdr was incredibly important to lyndon johnson. do you have a personal history of that relationship and were there other politicians he was responsible for preparing to run for office connect one of the things fdr was a genius that was detecting palance and he saw something in lyndon johnson and the way lyndon johnson first sort of became a political figure in texas was through the distribution of works project administration another federal funding going to the districts. this was a very controversial issue at that point with the idea of federal money going to

state and local projects, so lyndon johnson was able to use that as a conduit for the cash to build a power play and when he came to washington and to serve in congress he was one of fdr's most loyal supporters. he was barely knew at that point, but he believed in fdr's mission and if you look at almost everything he attempted to do during the great society years he was trying to fulfill the work of franklin roosevelt. he truly believed this war on poverty, the idea of lifting up those people who are most in need, civil rights agenda, civil rights act of the voting act, things directly related, direct descendents of franklin and eleanor roosevelt, so there were few people he idolized more. when i was visiting that ellijay ranch in one of his daughters was telling me, showing me something fdr gave lyndon johnson and he said it was his most prized possession.

fdr influenced an entire generation of political leaders and not just people who served directly with him, the people who served in the armed forces during world war ii. every president served up until bill clinton, every president served in world war ii. ronald reagan famously said-- [inaudible] >> fdr is on the mind of all politicians, judges in terms of what you accomplish. he was a great pragmatist. one of the things he is often labeled as this sort of liberal progressive, communist, but when you look at his actual policies and the way he would compromise with congress, he was a pragmatist on top of everything and in the early parts of his administration he supported the growth of labor, but when you look at the later part of his administration and you start building up of the war in the arsenal democracy he shifts his focus to industrial is.

he had to work with big business and creates a system where in many cases they were getting contracts with a guaranteed 10% profit margin because he knew he needed the business to invest in the structure he needed. he was a pragmatist. what was the most important thing? rearm and prepare for this global conflict, so he was a pragmatist and i think the best politics of both parties sees-- parties looking his success in changing the way government looks. looking at his success in moving legislation through congress and using that as a role model of how they can be successful. >> what would he feel today if he saw we were $20 trillion in debt and that we are going to have to change things in a time like his social security plan to pay for it in a few years? >> fdr believed everyone should pay their share and he was committed to writing income inequality, but in world war ii everyone suffered.

of the amount of bass-- cash you could buy, the amount of beef you could buy, everything in your daily life was rationed. every single american was impacted by the war. there was no, that's just other people or the military has to suffer. everyone was equally engaged. there was not a single american did not know someone directly involved in the war effort or someone who is fighting. there were 10 million americans in uniform during the work and he believed that should be equally spread about. he understood there would be a massive deficit during the war and he also believed that rebuilding of infrastructure would create an economy that when the war ended we would be major economic powers in the world and would be able to pay those expenses down. there were sacrifices made throughout and if you look at one of the most important components of the entire administration during the war years where the war bond efforts. they put massive efforts into getting people to give money to

the federal government. these weren't taxes. a war bond is that you give the federal government money and they take your money in the end date give it back with you with a one or 2% interest earned, so it wasn't just that he was taxing the people here key was saying it's your responsibility as american citizens to support the federal government in this war against fascism. do you believe in america and democracy and if so then you need to contribute. i think it's a different attitude that we had today where most of the burden of military service falls on the small sliver of our population, one or 2% provide almost all the military support for this country, so it's no longer a shared burden and i think that is a bigger problem than the idea of saying we have a massive deficit. the reason we have large deficit is because we are not equally sharing the burden of doing the things we need to do both domestically and internationally >> theec