Was the medium of the fireside chat effective in reflecting and communicating Roosevelts new definition of freedom?
These questions provide a nice introduction to the idea of competing definitions of freedom. In order to set the scene for the “Four Freedoms” speech, first remind students of the date of the speech: January 6, 1941. You may want to note that the speech was delivered almost exactly 11 months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, at a time when the United States was officially neutral in World War II. If desired, distribute copies of the World War II timeline from the FDR page of the PBS American Experience: The Presidents website. Now tell students that what they are about to hear was addressed to Congress as part of FDR’s 1941 State of the Union speech. Make sure the class has a general idea of the significance of the State of the Union address. If desired, you can familiarize the class with the Constitutional basis of the State of the Union address by reading to them from Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution, which states: He [the President] shall from time to time give to
