The Hill School welcomed David M. Kennedy, Ph.D., Stanford University's Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History Emeritus, to campus as the 2012 Dougherty Fellow from January 31 through February 2. While on campus, Professor Kennedy immersed himself in our academic day by meeting with students in our history, economics, and journalism classes.

A “main event” during Dr. Kennedy’s stay at The Hill as the Dougherty Fellow was his talk to all U.S. history students, faculty, and other students on Thursday, February 7, in the Memorial Room.

David Wolter, Hill history instructor, introduced Dr. Kennedy, saying that in addition to speaking with students in 15 classes during his stay on campus his guest also enjoyed lunch in the dining hall and even utilized Hill’s fitness center

Dr. Kennedy speaks with a student following his talk

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Dr. Kennedy’s evening talk focused primarily on Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency, and, in particular, our 32nd president’s efforts to address the Great Depression.

Striking parallels exist between Roosevelt and another historic figure of that time: Adolf Hitler. Both men rose to power in their respective countries within a few weeks of each other; both had to address huge economic “meltdowns” and each asked their nation to judge them by how they dealt with those depressions; and both men died within the same close time frame, before witnessing the end of World War II.

And yet, as the world now knows, both of these leaders had “two entirely different political responses” to similar circumstances in their nations. While Roosevelt, for example, was forming the Social Security Act in 1935, Hitler was codifying policies against Jews, stripping them of all rights and protection.

Dr. Kennedy asserted that much of Roosevelt’s success – a success that would place him “up in the pantheon of great U.S. leaders” – related to what former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes referred to as Roosevelt’s “second-class intellect in a first class temperament.”

The four words that best capture this extraordinary temperament, Dr. Kennedy believes, are “absorptive, sunny, self-confident, and responsible.”

The professor went on to elaborate upon these qualities, providing anecdotal evidence of Roosevelt’s “boundless appetite for knowledge...and insatiable curiosity”; his “infectious” and calming optimism; a self-confidence born, in part, out of a belief that he was long-destined to become President; and his sense of “patrician obligation” and duty toward othe

Dr. Kennedy meets with Mr. Wolter's history class

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Dr. Kennedy spoke in particular about how Roosevelt’s “sunny” and “avuncular” communication style – so evident in his radio “fireside chats” – served to calm and unite a frightened nation. In the week that followed his first chat, 450,000 people wrote to Roosevelt, many scrawling their admiration on scraps of butcher paper or receipts, a trend that continued and required the addition of 70 Oval Office staff people to handle the ongoing correspondence.

“His personality was employed as an instrument of government,” Dr. Kennedy said, adding that it was Roosevelt who started having regular press conferences, often inviting the press into the Oval Office and, brilliantly, making the press feel like they were his allies.

Although Dr. Kennedy ran short on time, he also touched on Roosevelt’s role in World War II, noting that the United States was “deeply isolationist” as the war was beginning in Europe, and most Americans believed Great Britain would not survive Germany’s attacks. General George Marshall advised Roosevelt not to get involved, but Roosevelt – virtually alone – insisted that the U.S. provide Britain with support.

“He had a vision of the terrible consequences that would occur if he did nothing,” Dr. Kennedy said.
The U.S. also became the only society that actually saw its civilian standard of living rise during the war. Clearly, in many ways, “Roosevelt and Hitler left vastly different legacies to their people and to the world,” Dr. Kennedy said.

Despite his flaws (including an extended affair with Lucy Mercer, First Lady Eleanor’s social secretary), Roosevelt was elected to four terms and built a legacy that Dr. Kennedy summarized in one word: “security.” The United States has “had nothing remotely resembling the Great Depression” since Roosevelt’s implementation of the Social Security Act and other initiatives, “not even in the current financial climate,” Dr. Kennedy said. Roosevelt “said we are going to make a country in which no one is left out,” the professor continued, adding that Roosevelt “shaped a society where millions of Americans could have some level of security.”

“He was not revolutionary,” Dr. Kennedy said, “he was a reformer.”