Showing results by narrator "Jeffrey Engel" in All Categories

The Cold War's end was supposed to bring about a new era of East-West cooperation. But the promised post-Cold War peace did not endure. The West's triumph brought the average citizen in the former Soviet Union a shorter life-span, a lower standard of living, and a long list of new grudges. As Boris Yeltsin gave way to Vladimir Putin by the 20th century's end, the stage was set for what some are now terming a new Cold War, replete with hacking, election influence, annexations, and new East-West tensions.

The United States stands for freedom. No politician dares say otherwise, lest they seek an early retirement. But what kind of freedom, precisely, and for whom? Franklin Roosevelt offered an answer in 1941. Believing the United States had a role to play in the battle against Nazi and fascist aggression already underway in Europe, he called Americans to arms to preserve their very freedoms. Four freedoms, to be exact: freedom of speech, freedom from want, freedom of religion, and freedom from fear.

He was our longest-serving president and also our best. Washington set precedents. Lincoln preserved the union. But only Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to the nation's highest office four times. Only Roosevelt faced an economic crisis so severe it remains our benchmark today for calamity. The solutions he made public forged the country, and in large part the world, we live in today.

The United States is a nation of immigrants, a beacon of hope and liberty peoples around the world have struggled to reach. Yet Americans have not always welcomed new arrivals with open arms. From colonial days to the present, debates over immigration help define who Americans are, what they believe their country has and should be, and reveal most of all each generation's politics and priorities.