This episode covers President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s decision to move the date of Thanksgiving with the hope of helping businesses that were trying to recover from the Great Depression – and the controversy that caused.

Research:

Associated Press. “’Omnipotence of Hitler.’” Decatur Daily Review. 8/17/1939.
Associated Press. “Roosevelt to Move Thanksgiving; Retailers For It, Plymouth is Not.” New York Times. 8/15/1939. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/08/15/93946606.html
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Proclamation 2373—Thanksgiving Day Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/210189
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Proclamation 2571—Thanksgiving Day Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/210254
Franklin D. Roosvelt Library and Museum. “The Year We Had Two Thanksgivings.” http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/thanksg.html
George Washington’s Mount Vernon. “Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789.” https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/thanksgiving-proclamation-of-1789
Greninger, Edwin T. “Thanksgiving: An American Holiday.” Social Science , WINTER 1979, Vol. 54, No. 1 (WINTER 1979). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41886345
History, Art and Archives: U.S. House of Representatives. “The Thanksgiving Holiday.” https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/The-Thanksgiving-holiday/
Isbell, Matthew. “’Franksgiving’ – The Period from 1939 through 1941 when Thanksgiving was Partisan.” MCIMaps. 11/22/2017. https://mcimaps.com/franksgiving-the-period-from-1939-through-1941-where-thanksgiving-was-a-partisan-issue/
Kratz, Jessie. “Thanksgiving as a Federal Holiday.” U.S. National Archives. 11/20/2023. https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2023/11/20/thanksgiving-as-a-federal-holiday/ Notre Dame Magazine. “From the Archives: Franksgiving.” https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/from-the-archives-franksgiving/
Pilgrim Hall Museum. “Continental Congress Proclamations 1778-1784.” https://pilgrimhall.org/pdf/TG_Continental_Congress_Proclamations_1778_1784.pdf
Pilgrim Hall Museum. “Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations.” https://pilgrimhall.org/pdf/TG_Presidential_Thanksgiving_Proclamations_1789_1815.pdf.
Public Opinion News Service. “Public Sees Thanksgiving Issue Through Party Glasses.” Gallup. 8/25/1939.
“Protests Against Advance Date for Thanksgiving Day Pour In.” The Bulletin. 8/15/1939. https://www.newspapers.com/image/101168276/
Shafer, Ronald G. “Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up a week to goose the economy. Chaos ensued..” Washington Post. 11/24/2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/11/24/franskgiving-fdr-moved-thanksgiving/
Soodalter, Ron. "'For all the great and various favors': George Washington happily obliged Congress' request for a national day of thanksgiving. Opponents worried it was an overreach of executive privilege." American History, vol. 49, no. 5, Dec. 2014, pp. 44+. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A383327692/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=64a53d59. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
The Center for Legislative Archives. “Congress Establishes Thanksgiving.” https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/thanksgiving
Thomas, Heather. “A Presidential History of Thanksgiving.” 11/24/2021. Library of Congress Blog. https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2021/11/a-presidential-history-of-thanksgiving/
Washington Papers. “Thanksgiving Proclamation.” https://washingtonpapers.org/documents/thanksgiving-proclamation/

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Thanksgiving Reconsidered