Noted Historian, FDR Expert Speaks at Groton

Dr. Leuchtenburg is professor emeritus at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and also has taught at Columbia, Harvard, and Oxford universities. In 1963, he won American History's top award, the Bancroft Prize, for his book, Franklin D. Roosevelt and The New Deal, 1932–1940, and he is only one of two American historians to have served as president of each of the following: the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society of American Historians.  

 

For decades, Dr. Leuchtenburg has shared his insights on American politics through countless news media, and he has been featured on many documentaries, including several of Ken Burns', such as The Roosevelts: An Intimate History and, most recently, Jackie Robinson. American history students at Groton School read sections of his book, The Perils of Prosperity. 

 

During the lecture, the professor discussed FDR’s significance as a president, beginning with the attempt on his life in February 1933 by Giuseppe Zangara. Throughout his talk, Dr. Leuchtenburg included personal anecdotes from his own life during FDR’s presidency—FDR led from 1933 until 1945, from when Dr. Leuchtenburg was 10 until he was 22. 

 

Dr. Leuchtenburg illustrated the extent of the devastation caused by the Great Depression by asking audience members to imagine they were graduates of the Form of 1929, the peak of the 1920s prosperity until the October financial crash. Graduates faced a scarcity of jobs, as full employment was not restored for thirteen years. 

 

He also discussed the New Deal, prompting a story about his trip to Moscow a few years ago. He was among a group expecting to outline the effects of the New Deal to Russians, who were considering a similar plan. At the last moment, Dr. Leuchtenburg was asked to give the keynote address. Stranded without notes in a December snowstorm, he was forced to improvise. His solution? To take the Russians on a figurative tour of America to visit New Deal-era public works projects that created jobs for Americans, from LaGuardia Airport to the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Zoo. 

 

Dr. Leuchtenburg also described the guidebooks created for each state during the New Deal, then pulled his Massachusetts copy from beneath the podium and read the passage about Groton School. He added another personal touch to his lecture when he spoke about the National Youth Administration. That very program allowed Dr. Leuchtenburg to afford his undergraduate degree at Cornell, where his family could send him only $15 a month. He subsidized the small amount of money by working various jobs at the college, including cleaning test tubes. 

  

Dr. Leuchtenburg was available throughout the morning for students who wanted to chat with him. Conversation ranged from Calvin Coolidge to the Red Sox. He and his wife, Jean Anne, ate lunch with History Department faculty members before his lecture.—Hadley Callaway ’16