Accepting the nomination for president in 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt acknowledged a fundamental challenge of American democracy: “For too many of us, the political equality we once had won, was meaningless in the face of economic inequality.” In the depths of the Great Depression, how did America’s democracy survive that crisis? How did the US resist the appeal of communism and fascism, which seemed like more vibrant systems? And, with inequality now at the highest rate since the depression, is our democracy ready to answer the challenge again?
Guests: Robert Dallek,author of Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life; Lawrence Jacobs,editor of Inequality and American Democracy.