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1 Introduction x The world we live in is still Franklin Roosevelt’s world. —Roy Jenkins, Franklin Delano Roosevelt F ranklin Roosevelt still fascinates. Partly this is because he governed for so long; his sheer longevity established him as a key figure in the history of the twentieth century. Partly this is because he governed during such interesting times; the Depression and the Second World War as cataclysms blessedly stand alone in history. Partly it is because history does in fact repeat itself, and we can look to his experience to enlighten and edify our own. And partly it is because he did so much to influence the nature of his times; there are many limits to history as told through the experiences and actions of “great men,” but it is difficult to argue that this particular man lacked influence over 2 Introduction his world. It is no surprise then, that there has been and continues to be a steady stream of books dedicated to bettering our understanding of Roosevelt and his legacy. Despite this multitude of books, however, not one of them directly examines the entire corpus of his political rhetoric. There are books on the rhetorical aspects of his disability,1 on his first hundred days,2 on members of his administration,3 on his relationship with the press,4 on the economics and other aspects of the New Deal,5 on his foreign policy,6 and on other policies of his lengthy administration.7 There are books on his life8 and on his relationships.9 But there are none that take as their starting point the entirety of his political rhetoric. This is that book. Other than George Washington, no president has had more influence on the institution of the presidency than Franklin D. Roosevelt. Politically, he created the New Deal coalition, which still resonates through our electoral politics today.10 He is considered a pivotal figure in the development of the rhetorical presidency,11 and he established precedents with which every succeeding president has had to contend.12 Administratively, he presided over the growth and development of the bureaucracy, establishing theAmerican state.13 His administration, however , largely remains the province of political scientists and historians. Rhetoricians have studied some specific aspects of his presidency and his political rhetoric, but there is no single book that brings rhetorical expertise to bear on his entire time in office.14 The argument of this book is that the Roosevelt administration, in its entirety, can best be understood through the metaphor of the “good neighbor,” which, while usually treated as relevant only to Roosevelt’s foreign policy, actually runs throughout his domestic policy as well. To the extent that FDR had a philosophy, his political principles can usefully be understood as enacting the principles of neighborliness, articulated through the Golden Rule, and directed at ameliorating national problems of social and economic inequality.15 Roosevelt conceived of the nation as one large neighborhood, an understanding that allowed him to unite and mobilize the nation on the basis of shared values, wield certain kinds of argumentation, and define the nation in terms of specific inclusions and exclusions. This understanding also allowed him to authorize the movement of political power from local governments to the federal level, and within the federal government from the legislative to the executive branch. Finally, his use of neighborhood as the governing metaphor for his understanding of democratic government provided Introduction 3 a warrant for his claim that the American version of world order should be preferred to the visions of imperial and dictatorial powers, underwriting the instantiation of democratic global ideological hegemony under the guidance of a strong United States. For Roosevelt, this democratic hegemony was the only way that international good neighbors could live together in global peace. Roosevelt’s vision of a national neighborhood allowed him to accrue power in the federal government and in the office of the presidency. His vision of an international neighborhood allowed him to contend with military dictatorships as well as democratic imperial powers and justify the extension of American power across the globe. Roosevelt’s understanding of political power as neighborly and therefore benign has had and continues to be consequential for American foreign and domestic policy; much of our contemporary politics can be understood as efforts to modify, extend, or replace that understanding of American political, economic, and military power and how that power should best be used. Specifically, scholars continue to reconsider and debate the Roosevelt legacy...

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