On Thursday 11 April 2024, at 16:00, Iwan Morgan gives the Roosevelt Lecture “FDR: America’s Greatest President.” This lecture will take place in the Auditorium of the Zeeland Archives, Hofplein 16, Middelburg.
Professor Iwan Morgan’s talk discusses the qualities required to be a great US president and how Franklin D. Roosevelt demonstrated these in leading America through the Great Depression and World War II. It explains how FDR transformed the presidency into the driving force of American politics and government through his activism as chief legislator, party leader, communicator-in-chief, and wartime commander-in-chief. Finally, it examines how FDR strengthened American democracy when it was in peril and sought to build a postwar international order based on the Four Freedoms.
The lecture will be moderated by Dr. Sara Polak from Leiden University. Afterwards, the RIAS will offer a small reception.
To view the full invitation, click here. To attend the lecture, please register by 8 April 2024 at the latest.
Iwan Morgan
Iwan Morgan is emeritus professor of US Studies at University College London. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics. He is a former executive chair of the Historians of the Twentieth Century United States, an Honorary Fellow of the British Association of American Studies, and a Distinguished Fellow of Oxford University’s Rothermere American Institute. A specialist on the American presidency, his books include: Nixon (2002); Reagan: American Icon (2016); and FDR: Transforming the Presidency and Renewing America (2022).
Sara Polak
Sara Polak is assistant professor of American Studies and English Literary Studies at Leiden University. Her research focuses on American Studies, specifically on US presidents and their media, cultural memory, social media, and disability. Her book FDR in American Memory: Roosevelt and the Making of Icon was published in 2021.