Freedom from Want

This picture of a family at the dinner table, painted by Norman Rockwell for the Saturday Evening Post, is probably the most well-known image of a modern Thanksgiving. Not many people remember, though, that Norman Rockwell painted this picture to illustrate Franklin Delano Roosevelt's idea that "Freedom from Want" is one of the "four essential human freedoms" that all humanity deserves to enjoy.

In a 1941 speech, President Roosevelt explained his vision of the Four 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 -- ... 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 -- ... [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.

All four of Norman Rockwell's "Four Freedoms" pictures were made into posters by the War Bonds office during World War II. The original paintings were shown all over the US and raised over $100 million dollars to support the war effort.