Voices of Protest The Politician and the Radio Priest
Alan Brinkley, the author of Voices of Protest, wrote about Huey Long and Father Coughlin who launched attacks on Roosevelt’s administration during the years of 1933 – 1935. ... His life was basically preordained for him to become a priest. ... Father Coughlin’s first parish was in the small town on North Branch, Michigan He first visualized using the radio as a way of advertising. His first goal in the use of the radio was to get people to attend church, but Father Coughlin realized what the radio could do for him and his views. He delived his first radio seron on October 17, 1926 from the pulpit in Royal Oak. With the money from the radio sermons, he was able to start construction of a church which would seat 2, 600 people with a granite tower 111 feet tall. Father Coughlin’s radio sermons during the first three years were generally uncontroversial. ... The “Radio Priest” as he was called attracted six million people who listened to his sermons on Sunday. ... Long & Coughlin both played major roles in the protest movements during the depression era. ... They helped put the radio as a major media source and they hope to their followers that the depression could be ended soon. ... I felt it was though provoking how Roosevelt felt about Long and Coughlin and how Roosevelt was a shrewd and cunning politician. ... Voices of Protest gave me a greater understanding of politics during the depression era.