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Jonathan Fortier talks with David Beito about FDR’s rise to the American presidency, and the negative consequences for civil, political and economic liberty.

Guests

David T. Beito is professor emeritus of history at the University of Alabama and a senior research fellow at the Independent Institute. He is the author of several books and scholarly articles, including From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services (2000), T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer (2017), and The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights: The Untold Story of FDR’s Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance (2023). Beito’s most recent book is FDR: A New Political Life, published in 2025.

In this episode, Jonathan Fortier talks with David Beito about FDR’s rise to the American presidency, and the negative consequences for civil, political and economic liberty. The conversation explores the ways in which Roosevelt was influenced by Wilson, who had promulgated a new formulation of freedom, and Teddy Roosevelt, whose nationalism, coupled with the ideas imported from Bismarck’s German thinkers, encouraged a strong movement toward centralization and an increase in federal power.

Buy “FDR: A New Political Life” here.