Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, laid the foundation for 20th century American optimism with his statement that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, made during his first inaugural address in 1933. FDR meant that the challenges facing the nation at that time - the economic and social crises arising from the Great Depression - were not “failures of substance”, in his words, but concerned “only material things”; the inequitable distribution of wealth, the malfeasance of the financial sector, the “withered leaves of industrial enterprise” - all problems which could be overcome through the rejection of fear and the application of human effort and will.
Beyond the Edge of the Known World
Beyond the Edge of the Known World
Beyond the Edge of the Known World
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, laid the foundation for 20th century American optimism with his statement that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, made during his first inaugural address in 1933. FDR meant that the challenges facing the nation at that time - the economic and social crises arising from the Great Depression - were not “failures of substance”, in his words, but concerned “only material things”; the inequitable distribution of wealth, the malfeasance of the financial sector, the “withered leaves of industrial enterprise” - all problems which could be overcome through the rejection of fear and the application of human effort and will.