"I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United 
States. . . ."

    Thus began not only the first of Franklin Roosevelt's celebrated 
radio addresses, collectively called Fireside Chats, but also the birth 
of the media era of the rhetorical presidency.
 
    Humorist Will Rogers later said that the president took "such a dry 
subject as banking and made everyone understand it, even the 
bankers." Roosevelt also took a giant step toward restoring 
confidence in the nation's banks and, eventually, in its economy. 
Amos Kiewe tells the story of the First Fireside Chat, the context in 
which it was constructed, the events leading to the radio address, and 
the impact it had on the American people and the nation's economy.

    Roosevelt told America, "The success of our whole national 
program depends, of course, on the cooperation of the public—on its 
intelligent support and its use of a reliable system." Kiewe succinctly 
demonstrates how the rhetoric of the soon-to-be-famous First Fireside 
Chat laid the groundwork for that support and the recovery of 
American capitalism.

_________________________________________________________

AMOS KIEWE is professor and chair of the Department of 
Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University. He 
is coauthor of a previous publication by Texas A&M University 
Press, FDR's Body Politics: The Rhetoric of Disability (2003), as 
well as three other books and a number of articles and book chapters 
on presidential rhetoric. His Ph.D. is from Ohio University.


Library of Presidential Rhetoric