7.2: Franklin D. Roosevelt: Four Freedoms Message to Congress (1941)

A Guided Journey through Key Documents, 1865-present
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7.2 Franklin D. Roosevelt: Four Freedoms Message to Congress (1941)
Historical Context
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Abstract

U.S. presidents typically deliver the State of the Union address in January. In January 1941, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt (known as FDR) delivered his State of the Union speech, he gave it during a period of intense international anxiety. (Domestic tensions were also quite high, since the Great Depression was still well underway.) In the mid-to-late 1930s, Italy, Germany, and Japan had begun hostile expansions into neighboring countries, taking them over directly or setting up puppet regimes under their control. Collectively, Germany, Italy, and Japan came to be known as the Axis Powers during World War II.

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