The Democracy Test: 'Created Equal'

Neal Conan and historian Heather Cox Richardson discuss what we can learn from history, in a program titled, "Created Equal." How did democracy survive the crisis of economic inequality during the Great Depression and resist communism and fascism?

Accepting the nomination for president in 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt acknowledged a fundamental challenge of American democracy: "For too many of us, the political equality we once had won, was meaningless in the face of economic inequality."

In the depths of the Great Depression, how did America's democracy survive that crisis? And, with inequality now at the highest rate since the depression, is our democracy ready to answer the challenge again?

Guests:

Robert Dallek, author of "Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life."

Lawrence Jacobs of the University of Minnesota. Editor of "Inequality and American Democracy."

Distributed by APM, American Public Media.

To listen to the program, click the audio player above.