BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:Dr. Jeffrey Engel - "FDR and the Four Freedoms" X-WR-TIMEZONE:Mountain Time (US & Canada) BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260719T162006Z UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_47191070261652 DTSTART:20240919T173000Z DTEND:20240919T183000Z DESCRIPTION:Jeffrey A. Engel is founding director of the Center for Preside ntial History at Southern Methodist University and Professor in the Clemen ts Department of History. A Senior Fellow of the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies and formerly a Senior Fellow of the Norwegian Nobel Institute\, he graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University. He addi tionally studied at St. Catherine's College\, Oxford University\, and rece ived his M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from the University of Wiscons in-Madison\, before holding a John M. Olin Postdoctoral Fellow in Internat ional Security Studies at Yale University.\n\nHaving taught American histo ry\, international relations\, and grand strategy at the University of Wis consin\, Yale University\, the University of Pennsylvania\, and Haverford College\, he served until 2012 at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government & Public Service as the Howard and Verlin Kruse ’52 Professor and Director of Programming for the Scowcroft Institute for International Affairs\, receiving during that a Silver Star Award for Teaching and Ment orship\, a Distinguished Teaching Award from A&M’s Association of Former Students\, and a Texas A&M University System Chancellor’s Teaching Exce llence Award. In 2012 the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relati ons named him their Bernath Prize lecturer\, while in 2019 SMU’s Residen ce Life students voted him their campus-wide Hope Professor of the Year.\n \nEngel has authored or edited thirteen books on American foreign policy\, including Cold War at 30\, Feet: The Anglo-American Fight for Aviation Su premacy\, Local Consequences of the Global Cold War\, The China Diary of G eorge H.W. Bush: The Making of a Global President\, The Fall of the Berlin Wall: The Revolutionary Legacy of 1989\, Into the Desert: Reflections on the Gulf War\, America in the World: A History in Documents\, The Four Fre edoms: FDR’s Legacy of Liberty for the United States and the World\, Whe n Life Strikes the White House: Presidents and their Personal Crises\, Whe n the World Seemed New: George H.W. Bush and the End of the Cold War\, Fou rteen Points for the 21st Century\, The Last Card: Inside George W. Bush ’s Decision to Surge in Iraq (Cornell University Press\, 2019)\, and wit h Jon Meacham\, Peter Baker\, and Timothy Naftali\, Impeachment: An Americ an History. \n\nA frequent media contributor on international and politica l affairs on venues including MSNBC\, Fox News\, CNN\, National Public Rad io\, and the BBC\, his scholarly and popular articles have appeared in suc h journals as Diplomatic History\; Diplomacy & Statecraft\; American Inter est\; USAToday\; The Los Angeles Times\; International Journal\; The Dalla s Morning News\; Foreign Policy\; The Houston Chronicle\; Air & Space Maga zine\; The New York Times and The Washington Post.\n \n\nSynopsis\n\nThe f irst SUU Eccles APEX presentation of the 2024/2025 season on September 19 was with Dr. Jeffrey Engel\, Director of the Center for Presidential Histo ry and Professor of History at Southern Methodist University. His presenta tion was titled “FDR and the Four Freedoms”.\n\nDr. Engel is the autho r of multiple books covering foreign policy\, including When the World See med New: George H.W. Bush and the End of the Cold War\, Impeachment: An Am erican History\, and Rethinking Leadership and “Whole of Government” N ational Security Reform.\n\nDr. Engel began asking the audience a question \, “Raise your hand if you think America is headed in the right directio n right now”\, and one person raised their hand. He continued with two m ore questions\, “Raise your hand if you think we’re in a state of cris is”\, and “Raise your hand if you think that we are in a moment of exi stential crisis”. He builds this up to the focus of his presentation\, t he last time America was in an existential crisis—The Great Depression.\ n\nWith the existential crisis of the Great Depression\, Dr. Engel argued\ , Americans were questioning “whether or not frankly this whole Democrac y thing is still working”. Dr. Engel suggested that perhaps the world ha d gotten too fast\, communications had gotten too fast\, transportation go t too fast\, military operations got too fast\, which he said has been a r ecurring theme in American history. \n\nThis was the tone in America when Franklin D. Roosevelt took office. Understanding Roosevelt’s background —being born into wealth and privilege—is particularly important to und erstand how he dealt with the existential crisis America was facing. In ad dition to his background\, Dr. Engel presents his relationship with Eleano r Roosevelt\, his progressive stances in an otherwise conservative politic al party\, his unfortunate catching of Polio which caused Franklin Rooseve lt to be paralyzed from the waist down\, and his subsequent ambition to sh ow he was strong and well. \n\nIn handling the Great Depression\, Dr. Enge l said FDR's goal was to “create a new sense of society to make us more secure”\, referring to Social Security. Dr. Engel presented a slide that called FDR “The Juggler”. In FDR’s goal to reform and create a new sense of society\, he tried almost every idea proposed to him. It proved s uccessful\, so in 1937\, FDR cut spending\, to balance the budget. \n\nThe second World War tested FDR\, but he understood that\, “the world needs the United States”. Dr. Engel introduced “the Four Freedoms that make us fundamentally Americans”\; freedom of speech\, freedom of worship\, freedom from want\, and freedom from fear. Dr. Engel finished saying that “the brilliant thing I want you to take away from this lecture that what Roosevelt did to get his agenda through is not make an esoteric argument about security\, is not make a philosophical argument about social securit y\, is not talk in big numbers about how many things we’re going to buil d and how much we’re going to do. He instead basically pointed his finge r at every American and said ‘you and your children will lose these free doms if you do not pass this bill.” GEO:37.676662;-113.068718 LOCATION:R. Haze Hunter Alumni Center (CC)\, Great Hall SUMMARY:Dr. Jeffrey Engel - "FDR and the Four Freedoms" URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.suu.edu/event/dr-jeffrey-engel-apex CATEGORIES:Lectures CATEGORIES:sutvlive END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR