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Printer-Friendly ModeH.W. Brands brings times of crisis lecture to SVSU
October 26, 2009 —
Historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist H.W. Brands visited SVSU Thursday to talk about presidencies in times of crisis.
Brands, a University of Texas professor and the author of the best-selling book “Traitor to His Class,” delivered a presentation that explored the parallels between the presidencies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Barack Obama. Brands had been one of nine scholars Obama invited for dinner at the White House to discuss previous commanders in chief the president could model himself on.
At SVSU, the Malcolm Field Theatre was filled with the students, citizens, faculty and administrators who gathered to listen.
The historian’s lecture, the fifth in this year’s Fall Focus speaker series, offered a detailed look at the life of Roosevelt, who served as president during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Brands called him the greatest president of the 20th century, and said he has had the biggest impact on the lives of Americans past and present. An animated and engaging speaker, Brands brought the audience into his talk, and joked about how much he enjoys speaking to a group who came to see him of their own will versus lecturing to a classroom.
Stephanie Fraley, an elementary education freshmen who attended the lecture, said she liked the historian’s approach. “Dr. Brands made it very easy for someone with little political interest to follow his talk,” she said. “I appreciated his sense of humor.”
Brands said Roosevelt was ready for day one of his presidency well before he took the office. He followed precisely in the footsteps of his uncle Theodore Roosevelt, and in FDR’s mind, this was something he knew he could do, even after developing polio.
The disease probably helped FDR’s politics more than it hurt them. Polio caused Roosevelt to become more real to the American public, Brands said, which aided him in gaining public support for his New Deal programs and in stopping the bank crisis that was happening at the time.
History professor John Baesler said, “Dr. Brands caught Franklin Roosevelt right on. He summed up his character of a privileged person to someone the average guy could relate to very well.”
In the other half of the lecture, Brands spoke of the similarities between FDR’s presidency and Obama’s first nine months in office.
The key contrast Brands drew between the two presidents was how they have handled anger. Franklin Roosevelt could get mad effectively to get things done, but the historian said he has not seen this side of President Obama yet. Brands thinks the approach could help him pass some of the legislation he is trying to push through.
Jamie Wendorf, a literature and Spanish junior who also attended the lecture, said, “This lecture was very insightful as to the historical approach to current events.”
Brands’ talk was the sixth James E. O’Neill Jr. Memorial Lecture, an annual presentation established in 2003 to honor the late Saginaw educator, public servant and SVSU supporter.