Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born to James and Sara Roosevelt. James Roosevelt was a land-owner and
businessman of considerable wealth. FDR grew up
under the watchful eyes of his mother and a host of nannies.
At age 14, Franklin's went to the prestigious Groton boarding school in Massachusetts.
FDR went on to Harvard College, where he worked on the college
newspaper. While at Harvard, FDR declared himself a Democrat and began
courting his distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt. Franklin and Eleanor were
married in New York City in 1905
In 1905 FDR began law school at Columbia but he had little interest in the law.
His attention soon turned to politics. He ran successfully for the New York
State Senate in 1910 and was re-elected in 1912. In 1913, he joined the
Wilson administration as assistant secretary of the Navy and played a
key role in readying the United States for entry into the world war.
FDR was praised for his efforts and the leaders of the Democratic Party tabbed
him as a Democrat to watch. In 1920 the party named him its
vice-presidential candidate. The ticket of James Cox and FDR.
In 1921 Roosevelt contracted polio, a terrifying and incurable disease that
left him paralyzed in his legs. FDR able to regain some use of his legs.
Though polio devastated FDR physically, his strong will seemed to grow
stronger as he fought through his recovery.
FDR's political comeback began in earnest in 1928 when he won the
governorship of New York. The crash of the stock market in October
1929 served as an indicator of tougher times to come and led Governor
Roosevelt to focus on combating the state's economic woes. FDR
implemented a number of innovative relief and recovery initiatives such as
unemployment insurance, pensions for the elderly, limits on work hours,
and massive public works projects. That established him as a liberal
reformer. FDR's efforts also won him reelection as governor in 1930,
By the presidential election season of 1932, the Great Depression had
only worsened and showed no signs of abating. Democrats turned to FDR,
a popular and successful two-term governor with a recognizable last name,
to challenge President Hoover. Promising a "New Deal" for the American
people, FDR was swept into office in a landslide. In his inaugural
address, Roosevelt gave hope to dispirited Americans throughout the
nation, assuring them that they had "nothing to fear but fear itself."
In the First Hundred Days of his presidency,
FDR pushed through legislation that reformed the banking and financial
sectors. To meet the immediate crisis
of starvation and the dire needs of the nation's unemployed, FDR provided
direct cash relief for the poor and jobs programs. Roosevelt's "fireside chats,"
spoke to the nation via radio about the
country's predicament.
In 1935, FDR took the New Deal in a more liberal direction, overseeing
the enactment of some of the most far-reaching social and economic
legislation in American history. The Wagner Act allowed labor unions
to organize and bargain collectively, conferring on them a new legitimacy.
The Social Security Act set up programs designed to provide for the needs
of the aged, the poor, and the unemployed, establishing a social welfare
net that, at least theoretically, covered all Americans. By the end of
his second term, FDR and his advisers insisted that the federal government
should stimulate the national economy through its spending policies, a
strategy that stayed in place and required continually increasing taxes
from that time forward.
All of his actions could not end the Great Depression.
Only American mobilization for war in the early 1940s brought the
United States out of its economic doldrums.
FDR did much to reshape the United States. With Roosevelt as its presidential
candidate, the Democratic Party won again in 1936, signaling the beginning
of 30 years of political dominance that extended
long after FDR's death. With FDR in the White House, the federal
government played a greater role than ever before in managing the
American economy and in protecting the welfare of the American people.
FDR oversaw major changes in American politics
and to the government that would define life in the United States for most of
the twentieth century.
Japan's surprise attack on the American Navy at Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941 officially brought the United States into World
War II. FDR proved a talented war-time leader and, by 1943, the
United States military, along with its allies, had turned the tide
against both Germany and Japan. But Roosevelt did not live to see
the war's end. In April 1945, just weeks before the German surrender,
the president collapsed and died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Under Roosevelt's leadership, the United States emerged from World War
II as the world's foremost economic, political, and military power.
While his "New Deal" could not end the Great Depression,
Roosevelt's leadership gave Americans hope and confidence and fundamentally
reshaped the relationship between the federal government and the American people. His New Deal programs,
marked a turning point in the nation's political, economic, social, and cultural life.
