Curriculum

FDR: Fireside Chats, the New Deal, and Eleanor

Photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House in Washington, D.C., delivering a national radio address on September 30, 1934.
Photo caption

Photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House in Washington, D.C., delivering a national radio address on September 30, 1934.

Wikimedia Commons

The 1930s were an era of profound change in America that especially affected the relationship between the American people and the federal government. It was in these tumultuous times that Franklin D. Roosevelt steered the country through economic perils and major social changes.

Guiding Questions

Did the New Deal save the United States from the Great Depression?

How has the New Deal influenced the policies of other Presidents?

What has Eleanor Roosevelt meant for women's rights and civil rights?

How should President Franklin Roosevelt be remembered in history?

Learning Objectives

Analyze the events and circumstances surrounding the onset of the Great Depression and the election of FDR.

Evaluate FDR's policies and the expansion of the role of government in domestic affairs during this period of time. 

Evaluate FDR's policies and the expansion of the role of government in international affairs during this period of time. 

Analyze the short and long term influence of the New Deal on successive Presidential Administrations. 

Evaluate the extent to which progress around civil rights in the U.S. was made during FDR's presidency. 

Analyze the short and long term effects of Eleanor Roosevelt's involvement in social and political issues. 

Evaluate the legacy of FDR's time as President. 

Lesson Plans in Curriculum

Lesson 1: FDR's Fireside Chats: The Power of Words

In this lesson, students gain a sense of the dramatic effect of FDR's voice on his audience, see the scope of what he was proposing in these first two "Fireside Chats," and make an overall analysis of why the series of speeches were so successful.

Lesson 2: The Social Security Act

This lesson engages students in the debate over the Social Security Act that engrossed the nation during the 1930s.

Lesson 3: African-Americans and the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps

The Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal recovery and relief program provided more than a quarter of a million young black men with jobs during the Depression. By examining primary source documents students analyze the impact of this program on race relations in America and assess the role played by the New Deal in changing them.

Lesson 4: FDR and the Lend-Lease Act

This lesson shows students how broadly the Lend-Lease Act of March 1941 empowered the federal government—particularly the President—and asks students to investigate how FDR promoted the program in speeches and then in photographs.

Lesson 5: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Rise of Social Reform in the 1930s

This lesson asks students to explore the various roles that Eleanor Roosevelt a key figure in several of the most important social reform movements of the twentieth century took on, among them: First Lady, political activist for civil rights, newspaper columnist and author, and representative to the United Nations.

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