Enduring Ideals

Franklin Delano Roosevelt closed his 1941 State of the Union address with a vision of a world founded upon four human values: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. By 1943, America had entered World War II, and inspired to do his part, Norman Rockwell painted a series of four paintings based on these Freedoms. Rockwell's innately American interpretations of the Freedoms found a familiar home at The Saturday Evening Post, where they proved overwhelmingly popular. The U.S. government put the works on tour, and they helped raise $133 million for the war effort. Enduring Ideals reveals the complex and sometimes unexpected story behind FDR's Freedoms and the role of Rockwell's paintings-on tour for the first time in a generation-in illuminating them. In doing so, it brings together other works, by Rockwell and his contemporaries-such as Ben Shahn, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks-along with analysis and commentary by art historians and others, including activist Ruby Bridges, artist Daisy Rockwell, and Ambassador William vanden Heuvel.