Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1882–1945)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) served as the nation's 32nd president. He was the only president to be elected to more than two terms, serving from 1933 until his death in April 1945. During that lengthy tenure, FDR guided a generation of Americans through the depths of the Great Depression and nearly through the entire duration of World War II.

Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, the only child of James and Sarah Roosevelt, wealthy patricians in Hyde Park, New York. In 1896, he attended Groton, an elite preparatory school for boys in Massachusetts. Four years later, he pursued his studies at Harvard College. By the time that he had graduated from Harvard, in 1904, he had become engaged to his fifth cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt. The two were married on St. Patrick's Day, 1905. Eleanor's uncle and then-president of the United States Theodore Roosevelt gave away the bride. The couple would eventually have six children, one of whom died in infancy.

FDR studied law at Columbia University. He passed the state bar examination, but he never completed his law degree. State Democratic Party officials recruited Roosevelt to run for the state senate in 1910. His early political career was patterned after that of his fifth cousin, Theodore, who also served in the state legislature. Before completing his second term, in 1913, FDR joined Woodrow Wilson's administration, serving as assistant secretary of the navy. He worked on preparedness measures for the navy and supported Wilson's decision to declare war against Germany in 1917.

FDR's 7-year service in Wilson's cabinet marked him as a rising star in the Democratic Party. In 1920, [Page 1238]he accepted his party's nomination as the vice presidential running mate of Ohio Governor James M. Cox. They ran unsuccessfully on a platform that endorsed U.S. membership in the League of Nations.

In 1921, FDR faced the greatest personal challenge of his life when he was diagnosed with polio. He lost the use of his legs, and for the rest of his life he was physically incapacitated. Throughout the 1920s, he tirelessly sought out a cure for himself and others who were afflicted. Drawn to the natural springs in Warm Springs, Georgia, he created a center for polio patients.

With Eleanor's assistance, FDR kept abreast of New York politics. He supported New York Governor Al Smith's bid to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 1924. Four years later, when Smith secured the nomination and lost the election, FDR won election as New York's governor. When the stock market collapse in 1929 triggered the onset of the Great Depression, record levels of unemployment, factory closings, and bank closures resulted. FDR's response, although not immediate, outpaced that of all other governors and President Herbert Hoover. By 1931, he created the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration, a state agency that extended relief to unemployed workers. Roosevelt had easily won reelection in 1930 and positioned himself for a run at the Democratic presidential nomination in 1932. He defeated Hoover, capturing more than 57% of the popular vote.

By the time FDR entered the White House in March 1933, the nation had been in an economic freefall for more than 3 years. During the first several months of his presidency, FDR and his advisors worked feverishly to arrest the slumping economy and to restore the public's confidence in the federal government and in capitalism, in general. FDR's New Deal, which was less a program, and more a series of experimental initiatives, worked to reverse high rates of unemployment and get Americans back to work. With the assistance of a Democratic-friendly Congress, FDR passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act in 1933, which paid farmers to grow less in an attempt to drive up prices of crops and livestock. Equally significant was the National Recovery Administration, which worked with trade associations to set minimum wages and hours and sanction collective bargaining for workers. FDR's willingness to employ deficit spending allowed him to finance massive public works projects for unemployed Americans. Between 1935 and 1943, the Works Progress Administration (later renamed the Works Projects Administration) received more than $10 billion in appropriations for a wide variety of public works projects, including the construction of roads, parks, airports, and federally sponsored theater and arts projects.

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