Fellows' Forum - A Shadow Over the World: Roosevelt, the Fascist Threat, and America's Road to World War II

26 October 12:30
Rothermere American Institute, 1a South Parks Road, OX1 3UB

William Hitchcock, University of Virginia

Franklin Delano Roosevelt looking at a globe

Between 1922 and 1941, Americans engaged in a heated argument about the meaning of fascism, Nazism, and dictatorship. In those years, American intellectuals, journalists, religious leaders, and politicians evolved from seeing fascism as an attractive political system to considering fascism as a direct threat to the survival of American democracy. What role did President Roosevelt play in this national debate and how did he persuade Americans to face the fascist threat?

All welcome.