[Abridged] Presidential Histories

32.B.) FDR's death & the history of presidential mourning, an interview with Lindsay Chervinsky & Matthew Costello

Kenny Ryan

"Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them," - FDR on Bill of Rights Day, 1941.

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Every president's death is mourned differently. What do those differences tell us about the evolving culture of our nation? Historians Lindsay Chervinsky and Matthew Costello join me to discuss their new book Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture, with a deeper dive on the death of FDR 82 days into the start of his fourth term. Did anyone know how sick he was? Did his health impact the change at VP? And how did his death impact the nation?

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