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. This period of time was during the great depression. The book described in great length and detail about Huey Long and Father Coughlin, who were extremely influential politicians, and their opposition to the new society of big business and high technology. They felt that the owners of large companies such as Rockefeller, Carnegie and Pullman were to blame for the financial woes of the United States. Long and Coughlin were successful in taking their arguments and beliefs to the American people in the
He made a lifetime friendship with Bishop Gallagher. 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. Help to religious themes. However, on January 12, 1930, his sermons started to denounce communism. The "Radio Priest" as he was called attracted six million people who listened to his sermons on Sunday. His speeches caught the attention of the American people. Like Huey long, Father Coughlin was against big business and talked about such people as Rockefeller and Carnegie. He was against greed, corruption and the wealth of the people in the hands of the few. Father Coughlin also taught about the plight of the farmers and he spread his ideas for the rebirth of the nation under Roosevelt. Long and Coughlin had taken the same view as Jefferson and Jackson. They believed in the common man. Both believed that a few should not have the majority of the