Franklin D.

Roosevelts Early Life and Career

Born on January 30, 1882, on a large estate near the village of Hyde Park, New York, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt was the only child of his wealthy parents, James and Sara Delano Roosevelt. He was educated
by private tutors and elite schools (Groton and Harvard), and early on began to admire and emulate his
fifth cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, elected president in 1900. While in college, Franklin fell in love with
Theodores niece (and his own distant cousin), Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, and they married in 1905. The
couple had a daughter, Anna, followed by five sons, one of whom died in infancy.
Did You Know?
Encouraged by his wife, Eleanor, FDR appointed more women to federal posts than any previous
president; he also included black Americans in federal job programs (though they remained largely
segregated).
Roosevelt attended law school at Columbia University and worked for several years as a clerk in a Wall
Street law firm. In 1910, he entered politics, winning a state senate seat as a Democrat in the heavily
Republican Dutchess County. In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson named Roosevelt assistant secretary
of the U.S. Navy. He would hold that post for the next seven years, traveling to Europe in 1918 to tour
naval bases and battlefields after the U.S. entrance into World War II.
FDRs Personal Struggles and Election as Governor
With the support of his wife and his longtime supporter, the journalist Louis Howe, Roosevelt began to
return to public life, issuing statements on issues of the day and keeping up a correspondence with
Democratic leaders. Eleanor Roosevelt spoke publicly throughout New York State, keeping her
husbands reputation strong despite his illness; she also organized the womens division of the
Democratic Party. In 1924, Franklin made a triumphant public appearance at the Democratic National
Convention to nominate New Yorks Governor Alfred E. Smith for president (though Smith lost the
nomination and the Democrats lost the general election). He nominated Smith again in 1928, this time
successfully, and at Smiths urgings agreed to run for governor of New York. Smith lost to Herbert
Hoover, but Roosevelt won. Governor Roosevelt grew more liberal in his policies as New York (and the
nation) sank deeper into economic depression after the stock market crash of 1929. In particular, he set
up the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA), which aimed at finding jobs for the
unemployed, and by 1932 TERA was helping nearly one out of every 10 families in New York.
Roosevelt Enters the White House
Reelected as governor in 1930, Roosevelt emerged as a front-runner for the Democratic presidential
nomination two years later. He broke tradition and appeared in person in Chicago to accept the
nomination, famously pledging himself to a new deal for the American people. In the general election,
a confident and exuberant Roosevelt triumphed by an overwhelming margin over the incumbent
Hoover, who had become a symbol for many people of the ongoing Great Depression. In addition,
Democrats won sizeable majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. By the time
Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, the Depression had reached desperate levels, including 13
million unemployed. In the first inaugural address to be widely broadcast on the radio, Roosevelt boldly
declared that This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and prosper*T+he only thing
we have to fear is fear itself.
Roosevelt began the momentous first 100 days of his presidency by closing all banks for several days
until Congress could pass reform legislation. He also began holding open press conferences and giving
regular national radio addresses in which he spoke directly to the American people. The first of these
fireside chats, about the banking crisis, was broadcast to a radio audience of some 60 million, and
would go a long way toward restoring public confidence and preventing harmful bank runs. After
passage of the Emergency Banking Relief Act, three out of every four banks were open within a week.
Roosevelt and the New Deal
Other key pieces of legislation during FDRs first Hundred Days created some of the most important
programs and institutions of Roosevelts New Deal, including the Agricultural Adjustment Administration
(AAA), the Public Works Administration (PWA), the Civilian Conservations Corps (CCC) and the
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). In addition to programs aimed at providing economic relief for
workers and farmers and creating jobs for the unemployed, Roosevelt also initiated a slate of reforms of
the financial system, notably the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to protect
depositors accounts and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the stock market
and prevent abuses of the kind that led to the 1929 crash.
In 1935, after the economy had begun to show signs of recovery, Roosevelt asked Congress to pass a
new wave of reforms, known as Second New Deal. These included the Social Security Act (which for
the first time provided Americans with unemployment, disability, and pensions for old age) and the
Works Progress Administration. The Democratic-led Congress also raised taxes on large corporations
and wealthy individuals, a hike that was derisively known as the soak-the-rich tax.
Roosevelts Reelection and Court-Packing
Controversial but extremely popular with voters, Roosevelt won reelection by a huge margin in 1936
over Governor Alfred M. Landon of Kansas. He faced opposition from the Supreme Court over his New
Deal programs, and proposed an expansion of the court that would allow him to appoint one new
justice for every sitting justice 70 or older. After heated debate, Congress rejected this court-packing
scheme, handing FDR the biggest setback of his career. Nonetheless, the Court abruptly changed
direction, upholding both the Social Security Act and the Wagner Act (officially the National Labor
Relations Act).
Labor unrest and another economic downturn in 1937 hurt Roosevelts approval ratings, but the crisis
had largely passed by the following year. Republicans gained ground in the midterm congressional
elections, however, and soon formed an alliance with conservative Democrats that would block further
reform legislation. By the end of 1938, as support for the New Deal was waning, Roosevelt faced a new
looming challenge, this time on the international stage.
FDR and World War II
As early as 1937, FDR warned the American public about the dangers posed by hard-line regimes in
Germany, Italy and Japan, though he stopped short of suggesting America should abandon its
isolationist policy. After World War II broke out in September 1939, however, Roosevelt called a special
session of Congress in order to revise the countrys existing neutrality acts and allow Britain and France
to purchase American arms on a cash-and-carry basis. Germany captured France by the end of June
1940, and Roosevelt persuaded Congress to provide more support for Britain, now left to combat the
Nazi menace on its own. Despite the two-term tradition for presidents in place since the time of George
Washington, Roosevelt decided to run for reelection again in 1940; he defeated Wendell L. Wilkie by
nearly 5 million votes.

Reference:
http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/franklin-d-roosevelt