In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a series of Fireside Chats over the radio in which he shared his hopes and plans with the American people and invited them to "tell me your troubles." The invitation was unprecedented and the response tremendous. Millions of letters flooded the White House mailroom from farmers, workers, businessmen, salesmen, housewives, the retired, the unemployed, and people of all races and ethnicities in big cities and small towns throughout the country. Grateful, infuriated, proud, admiring, scolding, the letters printed in this volume, combined with vivid historical commentary, give testimony to the feelings and experiences of ordinary Americans in the extraordinary periodf sustained national crisis. Spanning the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II, the conversation between FDR and the American people tells the story of one of our nation's toughest times and the leadership that brought us through it. - Jacket flap.