David Beito – The Case against FDR

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Video Links

0:00 Why another biography of FDR?

3:41 David’s dispute with the “heroic” view of FDR

5:56 David: “The main focus of FDR was FDR”

10:05 The surprising continuity between FDR’s and Hoover’s monetary policy

16:01 Canada’s avoidance of the banking crisis

19:50 FDR’s failed attempt to unilaterally set gold prices

26:14 Why did FDR intern Japanese Americans, despite his advisors’ opposition?

30:45 FDR’s apparent indifference to lynching

35:00 David: Roosevelt actively opposed Jewish refugees entering the US

41:42 The “unconditional surrender” policy’s negative consequences

47:31 Stalin’s victory at Yalta

51:28 How David thinks we should teach FDR and WWII history

53:54 David weighs in on Darryl Cooper

Recorded December 30, 2025

Links and Readings

David’s new book, FDR: A New Political Life

David’s book, The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights: The Untold Story of FDR’s Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance

Larry Kotlikoff’s book, Jimmy Stewart Is Dead: Ending the World’s Ongoing Financial Plague with Limited Purpose Banking

David S. Wyman’s book, The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945