History’s ‘FDR’ Miniseries Revisits a Pivotal Presidency

FDR History Channel © 2022 Radical Media LLC./A+E Networks LLC. Credit: Joe Alblas

Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and Bradley Cooper are executive producers of the six-hour docuseries FDR (May 29-31 at 8pm ET/PT), which is the fifth installment of History’s successful series of presidential documentaries, following Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, all of which also involved Goodwin, and Grant.

This production, airing in two-hour installments over three consecutive nights, is based on Goodwin’s bestseller Leadership: In Turbulent Times and explores the political and personal trials that shaped Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his presidency. It charts FDR’s formative years, his marriage to Eleanor Roosevelt, his early political career, his affliction with polio and how he translated his personal struggle with disability to connect to and help the American people navigate the depths of the Depression, and to ultimately be the right person at the right time to confidently lead America and the Allied nations through World War II.

The series uses dramatic narrative sequences, expert interviews, contemporary scholarship, archival footage and never-before-seen documents to chronicle Roosevelt’s growth as a leader at one of the most perilous moments in history, with the immeasurable help of his wife and adviser, Eleanor.

“It’s been a dream of mine to tell the story of Franklin and Eleanor in this way,” Goodwin says, “so audiences can truly know them and understand how they inspired and improved our country with a ‘new deal’ that forever altered the way in which the federal government contributed to the health and well-being of its people.”