Tons o' Ethos, Some Logos, and a Smidge of Pathos"First Fireside Chat" has a bit of everything going on in it, rhetoric-wise. (FDR was good like that.) Ethos is the strongest type of rhetoric at pl...

SpeechThere are speeches, and then there are speeches. Some speeches are given in person to great roaring, cheering audiences—peep Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" for a great example. These...

Confident, Calm, ReassuringThe name of the game in "First Fireside Chat" is building confidence. FDR's central goal is to create a sense of trust among the American people, so that the country can...

Clear, Straightforward, Honest, Engaging, PowerfulFDR's message to the public was basically about one thing: creating a calm, rational society. And you don't usually get that by, say, screaming inc...

Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fireside ChatTechnically, FDR's "First Fireside Chat" is named "On The Bank Crisis." But you know, since that name could provoke an epidemic of yawns to rival the epid...

FDR really knew how to hook his listeners—er, friends.Starting off with "my friends" (1) is pretty direct way to establish a personal connection with your audience. It might seem a little cheeseb...

This ending isn't quite as epic as, say, The Usual Suspects or Rocky…but it's up there in terms of drama. FDR knows how to end on a strong note. The theme of his finale is uniting as a people and...

(2) Sea LevelPresident Roosevelt was writing so that anyone listening could fully understand what he was trying to say. Not to say that Americans had poor vocabulary skills (although, the literacy...

In-Text ReferencesGovernment ReferencesWashington D.C. (4, 6)Congress (4, 19, 21)Treasury (4, 27, 42)Federal Reserve (26, 33, 40)Bank Holiday (5, 18, 19, 23)Bank Reopenings (26, 29, 33, 34, 36, 38,...

The Star Spangled Banner was played at the end of each of Roosevelt's Fireside Chats. Because of course it was. (Source) Sorry to break it to you: during this speech FDR was not located next to a f...