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The most famous image of Thanksgiving was inspired by the idealism of a truly great American president.
Suppose we can agree on anything this Thanksgiving, in these divided times. In that case, it is that we have much to be grateful for—living in the most prosperous country in history, in a still-republic, within a beautiful, expansive nation that is the envy of much of the world and remains unscathed by war.
Reflect on what it must have been like to stand on the verge of World War II in 1941. Consider the dilemmas and immense pressures faced by the Twentieth Century’s most tested leader, Franklin D. Roosevelt. In a speech on January 6, 1941, nearly a year before America entered the most devastating war in human history, he outlined what was at stake and what Americans might be asked to fight for.
Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Speech aimed to inspire Americans, many of whom were strongly isolationist, to imagine a much better world after fascism was defeated.
“No realistic American can expect from a dictator's peace international generosity,” said Roosevelt, “or return of true independence, or world disarmament, or freedom of expression, or freedom of religion–or even good business. Such a peace would bring no security for us or for our neighbors. Those, who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Roosevelt was about to push through the Lend-Lease Act, turning the U.S. into the “arsenal of democracy," providing a lifeline to Britain and other imperiled democracies. But he was also laying out a framework of essential freedoms that were worth enormous sacrifice.
“In the future days,” said Roosevelt, “which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech, and expression -everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way - everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants, everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.
That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.”
Pause as you reach for another dollop of cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving and consider the following—the core goals of an American president more than eighty years ago:
Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.
Jobs for those who can work.
Security for those who need it.
The ending of special privilege for the few.
The preservation of civil liberties for all.
The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.
With democratic socialism gaining support again in the US, especially in New York, it's worth reflecting on Roosevelt’s vision for the country and the world. Free buses are a minor distraction compared to the importance of creating good jobs and ending the privileges of the few, like today’s billionaire tax dodges.
How was Roosevelt’s idealism, his Four Freedoms, supposed to be effectively communicated? How was it meant to resonate within the national consciousness—strengthening patriotic Americans through a reaffirmation of liberty and the words of the Declaration of Independence—at the very heart of what it means to be American?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Today, it’s hard not to question the idealism behind “all men are created equal”. What about women, Native Americans, let alone the slaves of the Founding Fathers in 1776? But just as Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday, so too is wishful thinking—undeniably, the pursuit of happiness, mainly American.
No American did more to popularize the Four Freedoms than Norman Rockwell, one of the great American artists of the 20th century, who has gained increasing recognition as such in recent decades. I also admit a personal bias—as a Brit who sought refuge from the exhausting, neurotic “pursuit of happiness”—the materialism, status competition, and busyness of American daily life—by retreating to the woods of Vermont. I have a particular fondness for Rockwell’s unapologetically sentimental art. He lived not far from where I wrote several books in my garage, in the bucolic village of Arlington, from 1939 to 1953, when he moved to the more upscale Stockbridge, MA. Massive shrink bills for him and his often-depressed wife, Mary, duly followed after abandoning the Green Mountain State.
It was Rockwell’s illustration, actually titled “Freedom from Want," also often called “The Thanksgiving Picture” or “I'll Be Home for Christmas," that did most to remind Americans to count their blessings and thank the Lord they were not hiding in a tube station in London from Hitler’s firebombs or worse. Today, it is the most iconic depiction of Thanksgiving you can find, still wonderfully evocative. No self-respecting, red-blooded American boy would hesitate to storm the beaches of Normandy or Iwo Jima if there were the vaguest threat to such a scene.
Rockwell created this work in November 1942. It was first published in the March 6, 1943, issue of The Saturday Evening Post, which often featured his best covers. The painting portrays Rockwell’s actual family and friends in Arlington. He photographed them and then integrated their likenesses into the scene, producing a masterwork – a prime example of working mainly with shades of white.
The Thanksgiving meal takes place in Rockwell’s own living room, and it is his personal cook delivering the turkey, which he painted that very same day – Thanksgiving 1942, November 26, the first of WWII. The Macy’s Parade was canceled, and Roosevelt, in one of his fireside chats, encouraged Americans to be thankful for the “greatest harvest in the history of our Nation.”
If you look closely at the painting, you’ll see Mrs. Thaddeus Wheaton placing the turkey in front of her husband, who is standing just behind her in a dark suit. Two of the people gathered are children, including Shirley Hoisington at the end of the table, who was only six years old. “Our cook cooked it,” said Rockwell of the lovingly braised bird. “I painted it and we ate it. That was one of the few times I've ever eaten the model.”
Many in the publishing world had dismissed the idea that the Four Freedoms would attract a large audience. Still, when The Saturday Evening Post offered reproduction sets of Rockwell’s four images, there were an astonishing 25,000 orders. The Office of Wartime Information more than doubled down, requesting 2.5 million poster sets depicting the Four Freedoms as part of a war-bond campaign.
What did Rockwell think of his Thanksgiving painting? He wasn't quite sure about the size of the turkey, which Mrs. Theaton, with Yankee strength, seemed to have no trouble lifting. Surely, it was in poor taste, so American, to display such a big turkey when much of Europe was “starving, overrun [and] displaced.” And he was right. “The Europeans sort of resented it because it wasn't freedom from want,” he later recalled, “it was overabundance, the table was so loaded down with food.”
That same American privilege and excess should still trouble everyone in a world filled with poverty and waste. Still, the ability to produce an overabundance of democracy-saving weapons and supplies was crucial to defeating evil. As we enjoy our turkeys this Thanksgiving, we should recall Roosevelt's words during the darkest days of WWII. The fight for his four freedoms continues. His words should motivate us all.
