The lion and the lamb: Demythologizing Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats

Author

Elvin T. LIM, Singapore Management UniversityFollow

Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

2-2003

Abstract

We are accustomed to a characterization of Franklin Roosevelt’s legendary Fireside Chats as intimate exchanges between the president and the people. This essay argues that the Fireside Chats were a harsher, more castigatory rhetorical genre than such a characterization would allow. A content analysis of the 27 Fireside Chats recorded in FDR’s Public Papers suggests that the Fireside Chats were, on a number of indices, far less intimate than have traditionally been supposed, and in fact among the more vitriolic and declamatory utterances of the 32nd president. The essay proceeds with a discussion of how this illusion of intimacy was created and perpetuated, and explores the implications of these findings for the nature of presidential oratory.

Discipline

American Politics | Political Science

Research Areas

Political Science

Publication

Rhetoric & Public Affairs

Volume

6

Issue

3

First Page

438

Last Page

464

ISSN

1094-8392

Identifier

10.1353/rap.2003.0066

Publisher

Project Muse

Citation

LIM, Elvin T..(2003). The lion and the lamb: Demythologizing Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 6(3), 438-464.

Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2815

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1353/rap.2003.0066