roosevelt, harry truman was now the vice president elect.ch after his inauguration, truman said in this shrinking world, no nation can live safely alone. peace loving nations must band together for the preservation of human progress. as president roosevelt's second in command, these words expressed the american program. franklin roosevelt born to wealth and harry truman one-time farm boy were firmly united on that and every other major world aim. as the nation is plunged into mourning by roosevelt's death, harry s. truman becomes the president, the seventh vice president to assume the office under similar circumstances. he announced that the san francisco conference will go ahead as scheduled and immediately receives the nation's military leaders. war secretary stinson, and admiral king. james f. burns high roosevelt aide who took part in the crimea conference, secretary of state, british form secretary eden and ambassador halifax also arrive with the president. president truman receives thunderous applause. he pledges to carry forward the w

roosevelt, however, was a politician. he never met a man or a person he wouldn't want to shake hands with. he always had a joke. he was always smiling, and laughing. and he also had that politician's deep-seeded aversion to ever answering a question with a straight answer. he didn't want to get tied down to one particular answer. he always wanted plausible deniability. he always wanted to be able to change his mind and go a different direction, which drove marshall absolutely nuts. because as a military guy, he needs decisions. he needs to know what direction the country is going so he can make things happen. marshall also never let the president get too close to him personally. he never laughed at any of the president jokes. he never allowed the president to call him george, and he never went to visit the president at his home in hyde park, new york. marshall was also an army man whereas the president was a navy man. he had served as the assistant secretary of the navy. he loved the navy. he loved the sea, and he was an

roosevelt? what is striking is the messages areeen churchill and stalin nearly double the messages that are sent between stalin and franklin roosevelt. roosevelt mostly tweaks the drafts of others area he is not as involved in the writing arrest or kill or stalin -- as churchill or stalin is. he is trying to use significant maximum quality time with stalin. roosevelt, who can't travel, uses others. he used eleanor through the 1930's to get a sense of the pulse of america. he uses people like harry and harriman. hopkins a picture of 1941,es to moscow in july soon after the german invasion, to figure out if the russians are going to survive. hopkins doesn't go near the front. his judgment about soviet survival is based on meeting stalin, talking to stalin. there is a detailed letter back from hopkins about the willpower of stalin, the command of this man. uses in the war, roosevelt joseph davis who had been the american ambassador in the 1930's, to go to stalin and propose a meeting between the tw

it originates under theodore roosevelt. the regulation of railroads which is actually a kind of opening salvo of progressive era. municipal ownership immune utilities. prohibition of outline of alcohol. social work, the modern field of social work then as now dominated by women. anti prostitution and pornography campaigns in the form of what was called the white slavery movement. saving women from what we would call today sex trafficking. you can see a strong moral and protective element to this campaign. legal birth control, which was the act of the late 19th century made discussing disseminating any kind of information about birth control illegal. election reform, which i will talk about particularly on the state level in just a few minutes. okay, maybe i put these sort of -- making judgments, some of these i'm seeing is provinces it is because i put them at the bottom, but also course of social control of welfare clients, forced attempt to strip immigrants of their culture in the name of american civilization. voter disf

roosevelt's mother built as a wedding present for franklin and eleanor roosevelt.oth families moved in in 1908. fdr occupied, and his wife eleanor and their children occupied the east side of the house. fdr's mother stayed in the west side of the house, and immediately opened the walls so that, as eleanor said, my mother-in-law was on our side of the house for the next 25 years, sometimes at the least expected moments. we'll leave that to the imagination. but this was fdr's political base. it was also the home at which he recovered from polio in 1921. fdr's mother wanted him to go to hyde park and sort of retire in luxury, or rustic luxury. eleanor insisted that he stay here because here he could get his bearings back into society and government, politics. the house was -- had two elevators, which made fdr immediately mobile once he got into a wheelchair. here he ran his campaigns for governor of new york. and here he conducted his campaign for the presidency in 1932. it was his base. and this house, i guess, most famously in terms of historical importance was the

roosevelt reluctantly agreed to that. roosevelt had demands as well. he expected to get the very best that marshall had. they came to an agreement and marshall became the acting army chief of staff. this is in april of 1939, he was acting until the first of september, 1939. september 1, the day that germany attacked:. world war ii begins, marshall becomes the chief of staff of the army. germany attacks poland and france in 1939. it brings the u.s. out of its complacency. congress understands they need to begin preparing for war. the louisiana maneuvers held in 1940 and 1941 were designed to see how well the army performed. the answer was not well. the exercises had revealed a number of equipment problems such as iron pipes being labeled cannons and trucks being labeled tanks. single seat by planes being labeled bombers. the army was understaffed. 200,000 soldiers total in the army at this point. marshall determine it might be time to build up the army. after the first series of exercises, marshall and the president go to congress and enact the civil se

in the senate when roosevelt was president, and he said this about theodore roosevelt. he said that theodore roosevelt's brilliance was indifferentiating that species of anarchism which we popularly term boll she vichl, isolating radicalism from that form of normal progress called liberalism. so i guess in modern terms, we would call this a liberal, not a radical, prepared to call roosevelt a liberal, that might be albert beverage's view, i think you see the analogy there. by making urban life cleaner and safer and more organized, the appeal of radicals like anarchists and socialists who were increasingly powerful and popular in this period would be diminished. that was the goal, right? all right. the progressive era contained such a wide range of different moves and causes it would be impossible to discuss even a portion of them. this is one of the most studied eras in american history, precisely because it's so complex and internally contradictory, so today what i want to do is just offer you a couple of examples of what i would call economic and political progressivi

to roosevelt. he said roosevelt was my closest friend. he convulses in tears. it was an incredible drama. they do make up soon before roosevelt dies. they run into each other by accident in a hotel dining room. they come up slowly and they approach each other. they start talking and clasping each others hands. the whole dining room sees them and breaks out in applause. roosevelt dies soon after. taft is always happy that they made up. susan: i love the room applauding because they knew their leaders had come back together again. to the questions from the audience. how has the availability of universal and instant information impacted our -- presidents which would be , different from their predecessors? michael: well, i think -- of course another great question. all leaders care about information. i think almost all presidents want more information. they want to get informed. why not? you will better understand something if you get informed. ding able to gather information more quickly and better an

andrew johnson, fillmore, chester arthur, roosevelt, coolidg arthur, roosevelt, coolidge, trn and johnson very well could have ascended to the role of acting president instead of president. so that's the story of the first accidental president and what happened. >> and to juxtapose of what i think is the biggest success story. i'm almost tempted to say despite the fact weighing presidential succession and that the founding fathers gave us the guide were nothing close to a blueprint, we navigated through pretty well and got pretty luck lucky, it is a remarkable story except for the fact when abraham lincoln dies, we were supposed to get the vision of reconstruction instead john wilkes booth gives us andrew johnson born and raised a racist and i racist the last president to own slaves did not emancipate his own until seven months after the emancipation proclamation and as president resurrecting almost every old element of the confederacy paving the way for the jim crow laws which gave us segregation. if i look post- civil war america, that can be described as the story of two presidential a

the first of 250-268 roosevelt way, the adjacent neighborhood to the west, and 248 roosevelt way, theacent neighbors to the east. the proposed alternate is to create a proposed larger light well to the side windows against her property line and reduce the third level deck to either a juliet balcony or set back. mr. helman and kerr are three things. [inaudible] >> -- the proposed alternative are to remove the height for the parapet for the deck, provide a side set back from the property line to match the adjacent neighbor, reduce the size of the third floor deck, screen the second floor balconies from these two back ended windows, and relocate the side door adjacent to the light well. to date, the project has received five letters in support of the d.r. requester and five letters in support of the project. the project sponsor has answered back. it was deemed that the deck at the third story did present impacts to privacy to adjacent properties due to its size and location. the project has been modified from the design sent in the 31 notification in the following ways. one, there is a o

prefers wilson to roosevelt.and then reporters see him on the campaign trail after he's deannounced roosevelt and says roosevelt is my closest friend and convulss in tears and it's an incredible drama. they do make up before roosevelt dies. they run into each other by accident in a hotel dining room. come up slowly and approach each other and start talk and clasping each other's hands and the whole dining room sees them and breaks out in applause and taft was happy they made up. >> they knew their leaders came back together. to the question from the audience. how that's availability of universal and instant information impacted our presidents which would be different from their predecessors? michael? >> well, i think that, of course, another great question. presidents -- again all leaders care about information. and i think presidents that you get more information almost all presidents want more information. they want to get informed. why not? you'll better understand something if you get informed. so gathering i

he said this about theater roosevelt.he said theater vote roosevelt's brilliance was and differentiating that species of an orchids in which we popularly turnbull chauvinism, so isolating bolsheviks them or radicalism from that form of normal progress called liberalism. i guess in modern terms we would call this a liberal not a radical. i'm not sure i'm prepared to call roosevelt a liberal. that might be -- i think you see the analogy there. by making capitalism safer for the individual if i'm making urban life cleaner, safer, more organized, the appeal of radicals that anarchists, socialists who were increasingly powerful and popular in this period, would be diminished. that was the goal. the progressive era contains such a wide range of different movements and causes, it would be impossible to discuss even a portion of them. this is one of the most studied areas in american history because it is so complex and internally contradictory. today, what i want to do is just offer you a couple of examples of what i would call

theodore roosevelt in fourth. franklin roosevelt in third. feeling a little mount rushmore coming on, aren't we? george washington in second place. guess who is number one, abraham lincoln. of course. the bottom five. john tyler, tidewater, virginia's favorite son who unfortunately went on to join the confederate congress after he left the white house. a man without a party while he was in the white house. and he also was buried with a confederate flag on his grave. 39th spot. not the bottom interestingly. warren harding, we're learning more about warren harding as the years go and i his active love life. he's in 40th spot. franklin pierce, new hampshire's only president, 41st position. franklin pierce had a very difficult time with sectionalism and came into office with an incredible tragedy which he'll tell you very briefly. he and his wife had three sons. two died before he was elected to the presidency. the third son, 11-year-old benny was riding on a train with his parents in new hampshire as they were making their way to washington. the

dwight eisenhower, theodore roosevelt, franklin roosevelt, we feel a little mount rushmore coming on, don't we? george washington, and guess who is number one? abraham lincoln. of course. the bottom five. [laughter] susan: john tyler, tidewater virginia's favorite son who went on to join the confederate congress after he left the white house. the man without a party in the white house, he was also buried with the confederate flag on his grave. 39th spot, but not the bottom. warren harding. we are learning more about him as the years go by and his active love life. he is in the 40th spot. franklin pierce, new hampshire's only president, 41st position. franklin pierce had a very difficult time with sectionalism and came into office with an incredible tragedy, which i will tell you very briefly. they had three sons. two of them died before he was elected to the presidency. the third son, 11-year-old benny, was riding on the train with his parents in new hampshire as they made their way to washington. the train had a tremendous accident, benny was thrown out of the train and was killed. t

theodore roosevelt in fourth. franklin roosevelt in third. george washington, in second place and in number one place, abraham lincoln. the bottom five. john tyler comes, he went on to join the confederate congress after he left the white house. a man without a party when he was in the white house. and he was buried with the confederate flag on his grave. the warren harding we're learning more about him and his active love. life franklin pierce he had a very difficult time. he had three sons him in his wife, the two sons had died before going into the presidency, the third son was wisdom on the train, to washington there was a tremendous accident, their son was thrown out of the train and he was killed. and the president carried his lifeless body of his son back to the train. of course he had a hard times assembling his cabinet. his wife spent much of the first year, we basically morning tom and sending letters to her departed son. difficult time, and a difficult time in our nation's history. 42nd, andrew johnson, and there is james buchanan.

he said this about theodore roosevelt. he said that theodore roosevelt's brilliance was indifferentiating that species of anarchism which we popularly term bolshevism from that normal progress called liberalism. so i guess in morpd terms we would call this a liberal not a radical, right? i'm not sure i'm prepared to call roosevelt a liberal. that might be albert beverage's view. you see the analogy there. by making capitalism safer for the individual and less m monopolistic, the appeals of radicals like anarchists, socialists, who were increasingly popular in this period would be diminished. that was the goal, right? the progressive era contains such a wide range of different movements and causes, it would be impossible to discuss even a portion of them. this is one of the most studied eras in american history, precisely because it's so complex and internally contradictory. so today what i want to do is just offer you a couple of examples of what i would call economic and political progressivism. and i'm going to emphasize

of course theodore roosevelt junior had a long military lineage in his family. his father stormed up san juan hill in 1898. then a number of years later, theodore roosevelt expected all his sons to serve in world war i. theodore roosevelt said -- junior really lived up to those expectations. he served in world war i. he was a political rival with cousin franklin roosevelt during the great depression. when war started, the two cousins put their differences aside. theodore junior wanted to get into the military once again. initially he served as the first commander in the third infantry division. he served in the big red one, which was one of the few battle-tested divisions to go into normandy. roosevelt did not gain a lot of acclaim or trust in the eyes of omar bradley or george patton. theodore roosevelt jr had very a laid-back command persona that wasn't up to snuff with summary who was spit and polish as george patton was. and omar bradley thought he had gotten too comfortable and too cozy and laid-back with some of the soldiers, and there wasn't that rigid di

germany first, then japan had always been president roosevelt's strategy from just before pearl harborso, this, for me, was certainly the most exciting of the books to write because this is the combination of the president's strategy for fighting the nazis in world war ii. and i wish we had slides and i could show you photographs i have of the president returning from tehran through cairo and a pointing this great moment of success, having gotten the british to back off and agreed. the president surprises everybody by not appointing them and everybody assumed would command the d-day invasion, george marshall, general george marshall. but the points down the general dwight eisenhower. and in retrospect, what a fantastic appointment that was, because the president, unlike some other presidents we could name, believed in coalition, believed that you couldn't just when a modern war on your own. not even hitler could do that. so, the remarkable thing about the president is that he not only saved d-day, but he appoints the man who commanded. the supreme commander. and it doesn't just send hi

every president since roosevelt has adopted this including president reagan who admired roosevelt all his life but he hired roosevelt and then to convey to the country this is the picture of roosevelt giving a fireside chat the basically everyone had access to with neighbors or whatever in scheduled fireside chats talking directly to the country about the depression. this is a particular example talking about the banks with a very clever way to do what he was doing having the federal government back into the economy instead of talking about shutting down banks to make sure they were solvent , he called it a bank holiday. but he was closing banks and gave the fireside chats and you can walk to a city or town or hamlet if people had the windows open you can hear roosevelt's words he had such an incredible market penetration where people wanted to listen to the president and you could hear him wherever he went. a tremendously effective thing with these fireside chats with that presence that so many people remember. i cannot talk too long about each one but they are all in the book. so wh

theodore roosevelt jr. had a very laid back command persona and that wasn't up to snuff with somebody who was spitting polish as george patton was and omar bradley thought he got a little bit too comfortable and cozy and laid back with some of the soldiers. there wasn't that sort of rigid discipline that makes a good soldier a good soldier. he was removed from command in the first infantry division, that he wasn't down and out and he landed a spot as the assistant division commander in the fourth infantry division in the months immediately prior to the normandy invasion. and roosevelt pleaded with his commander general raymond tub by barton, that was his name, his nickname, and he was unceasing and he wanted to go ashore with his men. and barton finally acquiesced and barton realized at that moment that this is probably going to be the end of this general. his health was failing. he was suffering from chest pains and he wasn't telling anybody about it. he had very bad arthritis. his mobility in some cases w

roosevelt was the brainchild of this. he had no military experience, so he got his friend leonard would to serve as the -- leonard wood to serve the regimental dr.. he had earned a medal of honor fighting geronimo. there is a picture of teddy roosevelt with some of the rough riders. it is a really unusual mixture of individuals. his volunteer unit, some regular army officers, he's got some cowboys. can you imagine the campfires in those situations? he's got some really tough folks in their. a strange, strange mixture of people. organization was called the astor battery. astor paid for an artillery battery. he recruited some harvard grads, and he got ou men to serve for them too. you have strange commands here in the spanish-american war. when we began mobilizing manpower, we had absolutely no mobilization planned whatsoever. no manpower mobilization plans, no industrial mobilization plans. so the army was completely unprepared for this situation. the quartermaster department only had 57 officers and had enough supplies fo

something the president understood because he had suffered, says susan dunn, a roosevelt scholar at rooseveltings, georgia. >> reporter: he was stricken with polio, and he never walked again. >> it helped him to relate to all kinds of people. this living a life of kindness, of respect, of responsibility for the people we know, as well as for the people we don't know. that's what a real democracy requires. that's the moral basis of democracy. >> reporter: with the country's support for his spirit of experimentation, roosevelt unleashed a flock of programs. >> they went to work building the infrastructure of this country in ways that are almost unimaginable now. they built 39,000 schools, 2500 hospitals, more than 300 airports, 800 state parks. >> reporter: the hoover dam, the lincoln tunnel, the tennessee valley many major projects created with a congress willing to work with the president. that doesn't mean roosevelt was without enemies. >> i think there is an assumption that everything for him worked. but he had very, very strong opposition. there was plenty of partisanship, and there were p

theodore roosevelt uses the bully pulpit. he creates these relationships with journalists and uses public opinion to launch and advocate for very specific policies. franklin roosevelt takes this a step further. he capitalizes on radio and uses that to create an intimate connection with the american public. and i am going to play you a quick clip, just to give you a sense of what this sounded like. again, thinking about if you were a listener. you were tuning into your radio during the 1930s to listen to your president. this would have been what you heard. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> my friends, i want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the united states about banking. to start with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of banking, but more particularly with the overwhelming majority of you who use banks for the making of deposits and withdrawing of checks. >> what did he do, just in that very simple opening? >> he definitely personalizes the chat. he uses i, you, we,

in another, roosevelt dies. when japanese internment comes along, there is a lot of enthusiasm for the fbi to manage japanese internment, and hoover pushes back against that. the department of justice and fbi both opposed the policy of japanese internment, so what happens in large part through other channels. at the moment that roosevelt dies, he was actually considering taking up hoover's idea that when the war came to an end, it ought to be the fbi in charge of global surveillance, sort of making the fbi into a proto-cia. so in the 1930's, the point to take away is that the fbi is not operating on its own. it is operating in conversation with congress, in conversation with the presidency, and in many ways is being empowered by the president's own agenda. hoover is certainly pushing some of this, but he's not the engine of his own empowerment, in many ways. in closing, i want to jump quickly to the 1960's, and offer a few last thoughts. if roosevelt is really the president responsible for creating the fbi in ma

- franklin roosevelt to do this. personalities, all are selling the president for him. so, again, a different kind of production team inllin terms of selling a particular erpolicy. seam excellent. adam? >> it kind of creates the sound bite. >> yes. >> so if you can take diffent snippets of what the guy was saying, it's like give back to the president, give the man a job. those are easy-to-remember jingles. you could put those in some sort of radio crtakeadvertisemr that just appeals to a more gi audience. they're gonna remember thatat message, whether or notji they heard the whole song or not or whether or not they heard all about the different ways they can help. they're gonna remember "give a man a job." >> absolutely. whetthe slogan. so, again, bringing some ofar these features,d advertising at this time and hollywood, bringing them into politics, to sell particular policies. and the only reason you will not be humming "give a an man a job" later this day is because you're going to hum the "i like ike" one because

and roosevelt did things for j.gar hoov edgar hoover that formed the architecture for the fbi and gave him his own personal power. many were done with the full consent of congress and went through congressional processes. others were done through scuff processes and the accrual of executive power. first of these was an enormous expansion in the 1930s and the fbi's jurisdiction in terms of domestic law enforcement. so in the 30s, largely in response to concerns about bank robbery, kidnapping, other forms of crime, the fbi began to get a much larger menu of federal crimes that it was responsible for. this is organized around john dillinger, the storied figures of that age. but really in that moment that the fbi becomes the dominant federal law enforcement agency, particularly having to do with bank robbery, kidnapping, the federal government is expanding, other things are becoming federal crimes. so as you're beginning to get greater regulation of banking, the fbi also comes in and begins to be responsible for bank ro

eleanor roosevelt was not directing war policy either before or after franklin roosevelt stout death.roosevelt was keenly interested in the manhattan project which was the construction of the atomic bomb. he saw it as a way to shorten the war and save lives. american and an other american allies and to save japanese lives also. franklin roosevelt lived beyond well into 12 1945 i have no doubts he would've made the same decisions that harry truman did which go ahead and use this terrible thing in hopes that bringing the war a total war to a complete and final and which happens of course with the japanese on tokyo bay and uss missouri on september 2nd 1935. >> we touched on those briefly at the beginning of the program. bob from missouri asked this. who were the germans signing for the german country? i guess he is really freeing to the v-e day, he allied signing, not the russian signing. >> it was generally -- the operation chief for the german military, he had been designated to be given the authority by the residual german government. yodel had an appointment after that signing. he w

president roosevelt died in 189a lot to prove. a lot of people did not think he was up to the job and people felt we had present roosevelt for four terms and he was elected to just before he died so hot will be survive without drinking roosevelt but during the truman time we had the korean war and this is a little example of what those soldiers had to go through during the korean war, terrible, difficult conditions in initially the war to not go well and then the war started to get better and partly because we had general that so many americans admired from world war ii in the pacific, douglas macarthur. what i suggested to illustrate harry truman was firing general macarthur. obviously, a lot of historians will do defining moments of presidents in terms of military conflicts of war and peace but presidents have to deal with so many things now that i've chosen to illustrate this book with examples that are not just war and peace but other things that would defining moments for the president did this was firing macarthur. this was

craig: teddy roosevelt. i don't know that i ever crunched the numbers specifically, but it can't imagine anybody other than teddy roosevelt did it. it was well over 30. you have to define whether a pamphlet is a book or a collection of speeches. i feel confident it was teddy roosevelt. if he were here, he would be announcing that fact. host: who was the most gifted presidential writer? craig: it was probably lincoln. just in his style of his speeches and books. there are also some surprising presidents. calvin coolidge, maybe even history fans don't have his presidency at the front of their mind. he was such a talented writer. i found a new york times article where they said that calvin coolidge, and this was during his presidency, calvin coolidge is the best literary president since lincoln. he wrote a thank you letter to that author because it mattered o him. host: you talk about presidential reading as well. which among the presidents were the most voracious readers? craig: for a lot of them, books helped

teddy roosevelt for his direct and no non-sense manner.n 1924 for radio invaded the convention hall, john w. was the opponent. >> today president cooliage is remembered for his frequent fishing trips. >> alfred e smith was one of the most colorful and controversial candidates to ever hold a position on the party ticket. >> a happy warrior albert e smith. >> yet at election time the iowa smile and herbert hoover won the white house for four more years. luck ran out for the next 20 years when candidates proved to be no match for the brilliant democratic president franklin roosevelt. over the years, republicans and democrats alike have run their conventions in basically the basic same manner. >> i give you the mab from libertyville. the next president of the united states in the 1952 and '56 campaigns, the style of addla stevenson was a more personal style compared to his opponent. when the demonstrations for each candidate are completed, a roll call vote is taken. >> by all means, the majority for senator kennedy. in 1936, franklin d rooseve

so starting out with roosevelt, again, i think we tend to roosevelt and hoover in rather different ideological categories, tend to think of franklin roosevelt as really the architect of a liberal state and of j. edgar hoover as operating in some very different sphere, but it really is roosevelt more than any other president who built the architecture of the fbi and, in fact, willingly for his own purposes gave hoover many of the areas of jurisdiction and power that he came to have. the bureau itself had been created in 1908, again, as a rather small investigative body within the justice department during world war i it had expanded out from that to perform some of the first rather widespread efforts in political surveillance in the united states, but when hoover took on the job of fbi director in 1924, there will behad been a real ba against those kinds of political operations, and many of the powers that the bureau had had in the teens and '20s, particularly in surveillance of political radicals and other political groups in the united states, had been curtailed. and so hoover spent much of t

roosevelt had lived to see this day. generalizen hour informs me that the forces of germany have surrendered to the united nations. the flags of freedom fly all over europe. for this victory we join in offering our thanks to the providence which has guided and sustained us through the dark days of adversity and into light. much remains to be done. the victory won in the west must now be won in the east. the whole world must be cleansed of the evil from which half of the world has been freed. united, the peace-loving nations have demonstrated in the west that their arms are stronger by far and the might of dictators are the tyranny of military clicks that once called us soft and weak. the power of our people to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the pacific war as it was proved in europe. >> historic pictures last days of the war in europe show american and russian troops as they join to split german armys in two. the united states general reinhart meets a certain german defeat. inside germany itself,

teddy roosevelt for his vigorous, direct and no-nonsense manner. [applause] when radio invaded the convention hall and the campaign trail, john w davis was the democratic candidate. the record 103 ballots required to nominate him for president left the party divided. in the end of a his republican opponent calvin coolidge won easily. what today, president coolidge is remembered for his cool manner and frequent fishing trips. (music) in 1928, alfred e smith was one of the most colorful and controversial candidates to hold the number one positions on a party ticket. >> the happy warrior, alfred e smith. >> yet and at election time, the iowa smile and pleasant voice of herbert hoover won the white house for his party for four more years. (music) in 1932, republican luck ran out for the next 20 years, when candidates like wendell wilkie proved to be no match for the president franklin delano roosevelt. >> over the years consent democrat alike have run their conventions in the same manner. a chairman is chosen, delegates are certified, a party platform

franklin de roosevelt!in 1940, a strong third and fourth party movement significantly affected the outcome of the elections. with thomas eat do we, the heavily favored republican candidate competing with thurman, the chief spokesman for the conservative states right party and henry wallace the choice of the small but enthusiastic liberal progressive party, harry truman on the democratic ticket walked away from the election as the victor. this was one of the greatest electoral upsets in american history. (applause) national conventions are then a political process that is uniquely american. face has changed but there are always the crowds, the speeches, music and suspense. after the candidates are chosen and the campaign has ended, the people speak. through the ballot box determine who will assume the burden and power of the american presidency. >> steve, and looking at a film like this, i suppose there are some who would say well, this is all just tweeted dumb and tweet will be and really is not that import

roosevelt. >> i accept the commission you have handed me. i join with you.sted -- ♪ >> in 1948, strong third and fourth party movements significantly affected if outcome of the elections with thomas e. dewey, the heavily favored republican candidate speeding with strom thurman the chief spokesman for the conservative states rights party and george wallace. harry truman walked away as the victor. it was one of the greatest electoral upsets in american history. ♪ national conventions are then a political process that is uniquely american. faces change, but there are always the crowds, the speeches, music, and suspense. after the candidates are chosen and the campaign has ended, the people speak. and through the ballot box determine which candidate will assume the burden and power of the american presidency. ♪ >> steve, in looking at a film like this, i suppose there are some who would say, well, isn't it all just tweedle dumb and tweedle deand really isn't that important, elections don't really decide anything? what do you think? >> well, that passing parade o

he breaks with franklin roosevelt in 1936 over roosevelt's new deal policies to restimulate the american economy, to get the country back on its feet after the depression. hearst breaks with roosevelt, supports a republican, the governor of of kansas, for the presidency. this was an ugly break. hearst called roosevelt an agent of moscow because of his policies, because of his new deal. roosevelt's supporters punish hearst for his apostasy. one way they did this was to revive furnish the war, to dust off this old anecdote that first appeared in creelman's book in 1901 and used it to damage hearst and his reputation. it appears in a number of books and articles at that time, in the mid-1930's. it appears notably in this truculent, polemic biography of hearst. thin but hostile to hearst would this is one of the places where furnish the war is resurrected, and brought back into the public domain. what sealed this anecdote, what firmly planted it into the popular consciousness, was a 1941 motion picture loosely based on the times and life of william randolph hearst. this anecdote was sealed b

president roosevelt came along, he created a law that fostered minimum wages everywhere. he also signed the wegner -- wagoner act. the labor law signed in 35 -- 1935 and beginning to be felt in 1937. all of those things and a few other measures drove wages up. and therefore, unemployment was higher than it might have been otherwise. phrase from the great depression, nice work if you can get it. that is exactly what the 1930's were. those who were paid felt like they had pretty good money often. a lot of people were not paid. you think of the stories involving people. in my family, i had a member of the family that went to work and never told anyone that there was no work. he just pretended to be at work all day and be at home with his lunchbox and be -- and be -- empty for years because he did not want to share the dignity of having lost his job with his wife. this enduring unemployment, that is what made the great depression great. i will add one last thing about wages being higher than they ought to be. they were higher than that were -- we had different wages. highabor

the japanese or right in their calculations, to the extent that roosevelt and churchill, would agree that to defeat hitler, most powerful of our enemies, must have priority in an offensive over japan. they followed sound principles of warfare. and concentrated the greatest mass of power, against the major objective. but it would be nearly a year, before we could muster, train and move an army overseas to attack the strongest of the aggressors. the first american troops to go into action, and engage the enemy, or those already in the philippines under douglas mcarthur. after more than three long years of combat, the final land battle against the last of the aggressors. >> three days after pearl harbor, japanese -- landed on the coast. the following days, still another japanese landing was on the east coast. on the 21st of december, the main japanese force hit on the gulf. troops came pouring ashore from 80 transports. >> the japanese onslaught gave mcarthur only one choice, delay action, try to regroup the forces. it was a monumental task. the japanese had fought and pressed forward u