Villainification is the process of creating original actors as the faces of systemic harm, with those hyper-individualized villains losing their shared characteristics. Like heroification, there is a simplified portrayal of historical actors, but villainification has particularly harmful consequences. We suggest that villainification obscures the way in which evil operates through everyday actions and unquestioned structures because of the focus on the whim of one person. Although it is unfortunate that we do not often see how we can inadvertently help others and make systemic change, it is disconcerting when we fail to look at our part in the suffering of others. In this paper, I will try to unravel Franklin D. Roosevelt heroism which was the President of the United States where he served through the Great Depression and the Second World War and received the “hero” treatment.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected during the height of the Great Depression in 1932 and remained President until his death in 1945. During this period of the presidency, he oversaw an expansion of the Federal Government and helped America lose its isolationist stance as it joined World War Two and helped formulate the United Nations. He was an influential figure in both American and world politics.
Roosevelt came from a privileged background but was influenced by his headmaster at Groton School in Massachusetts, who taught the importance of Christian duty in helping less fortunate people.
Franklin married a distant cousin Eleanor in 1905. They had six children in quick succession, two of them who went on to be elected to the House of Representatives. FDR has several affairs outside of his marriage including Lucy Mercer, his social secretary. His wife Eleanor offered a divorce at one point, but for a variety of reasons, it was not taken up. She later became a dedicated wife/nurse during Franklin’s moderate disability brought on by polio.
When FDR was elected president in 1930, America was facing an unprecedented economic crisis; unemployment was reaching 25% – Furthermore, government unemployment relief was insufficient at the time. There was real financial desperation, and many classical economists were at a loss as to how to respond.
To some extent, FDR pursued an expansionary fiscal policy as advocated by John M Keynes. The government borrowed, levied a national income tax and spent money on public works (known as the New Deal). This period also marked a shift in power from local governments who could not cope to the national government. Roosevelt also helped introduce legislation protecting worker’s rights. The new deal in no way solved the economic crisis, but it did mitigate some of the worst effects, creating employment and eventually kick-starting the economy. By the end of the 1930s, some sectors of the economy such as construction were booming.
FDR was keen for America to become a good citizen of the world and fight for individual freedoms. However, in the early 1940s, America still retained a powerful isolationist approach, and he campaigned for re-election promising to stay out of World War Two – despite his dislike of Nazi Germany. The bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941, completely changed the outlook of America. F.D.R wasted no time in declaring war on Japan and then Germany as well.
“In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice…, the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
Once America had entered the war, they entered whole-heartedly into both arenas – the Pacific and Europe. In the D Day landings of 1941, America supplied roughly 2/3 of the troops. Roosevelt was an astute Commander in Chief. In particular, he was able to identify generals with genuine talent and promoted them to key roles. As Roosevelt said himself:
“I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.”
In particular, FDR promoted Dwight Eisenhower and George Marshall – both to play critical roles during the Second World War.
Roosevelt’s real political skill lay in his powers of communication and identification with ordinary people. His radio fireside chats were instrumental in building confidence with the American people, both during the Great Depression and during the Second World War.
“This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” – 1933
Roosevelt had a close relationship with Winston Churchill. There was a high mutual admiration. At one point Roosevelt said ‘It is fun being in the same decade as you.’
Together with Churchill and Stalin, the Big Three helped lay the foundations for the post-war period, which included the setting up of the United Nations – a successor to the League of Nations.
Roosevelt died unexpectedly from a massive brain haemorrhage in April 1945, just before the first meeting of the United Nations. His death stunned the world, and he was remembered as a champion of freedom and a man of humanity and optimism.
I’ve never understood the reverence for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He gets points for picking great Generals and led this country to victory in WWII. But he totally mismanaged the economy, during the recession of 1937 unemployment reached 19% (the excellent depression high was 25%), his freedom-sapping policies never did get this country out of the Great Depression, and don’t forget that he tried to circumvent constitutional separation of powers (now who does that remind me of?). And then there is the issue never discussed, he was a bigot, his hatred of Jews caused thousands to be added to the ranks of Hitler’s victims, and his hatred of Asians convinced him to put Japanese Americans into internment camps.
Some point to the fact he didn’t he bomb and destroy the train tracks that were shipping Jews to the concentration camps? But my opinion sides with the people who say that wouldn’t have worked. The real question to be explored was why didn’t allow more Jews into the country and why didn’t he pressure Britain to enable Jews to move from Nazi-controlled areas into what was then called Palestine?
In the book “FDR and the Holocaust: A Breach of Faith,” historian Rafael Medoff suggests that Roosevelt failed to take relatively simple measures that would have saved significant numbers of Jews during the Holocaust because his vision for America was one that had a small amount of Jews. In other words, FDR doomed many Jew to suffer not because he wanted them to die, but because he didn’t want a lot of them living in his neighborhood.
Loewen argues that this heroification is something that enables readers and teachers to overlook the conflicts that will allow a full reading of historical narratives and bring in other points of view. The heroification process is done to make textbooks more appealing to school districts and also to present an artificial exceptionalism view of American History. At the same time, heroification enables students to assume a role of passivity in constructing the next wave of American social and historical dynamics. If all that is read are about heroes, it creates the mentality that there is nothing left to do and this enables those in the position of power to continue doing what they do without any questioning or in-depth analysis.