The shocks of the current economic crises have confused the country. Historically like all such confusion, it can give rise to fear and allow demagogues of both the left and the right to exploit those fears. Back in 1932 we were in a similar situation. At the depths of the Great Depression, FDR came to office with a basket full of ideas to try and solve the nation’s problems. Not unlike today, many of those ideas infuriated both the left and the right. Today, Wall Street bankers have become public enemy number one, while gun ownership is at an all time high. In the 1930s, the results of a similar crises resulted in similar dangers. Historian and journalist Sally Denton looks back at a time that all to closely parallels our current situation.
My conversation with Sally about her new work The Plots Against the President: FDR, A Nation in Crisis, and the Rise of the American Right
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