Day Two: Sunday, August 4, 1991

AM: The Depression Presidency

(Video Tape: VHS.0261)

Historian Joan Hoff Wilson reviews the life of Herbert Hoover, seeing him in modern and progressive light. She examines the personal qualities and attitudes responsible for his rise to the presidency and defeat in 1932. 

FDR biographer Frank Freidel explores the influences and personal characteristics of the longest-serving president.

Q&A with both Wilson and Freidel.

Journalist Joseph C. Harsch shares some stories behind the headlines and how Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt dealt with the media.

PM: New Deal/New York

Video Tape: VHS.0262

Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger points to the "pathological" hatred of Roosevelt and extreme bitterness of the 1930's as evidence of the discontinuity between the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations. Schlesinger sees Roosevelt as walking a middle road between the self-destructive tendencies of capitalism and the rise of tyrannical regimes in Europe.

Professor Thomas Kessner examines the life and career of New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia.

Tufts University historian Gerald Gill surveys the cultural life of African-Americans in the Depression era.

Artist Ralph Fasanella talks about coming of age during the Depression and how it influenced his depiction of urban life in such paintings as "Reform School," "Dress Shop," "Iceman Crucified," and "Family Supper."