Franklin D. Roosevelt

Background

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in the Hudson Valley town of Hyde Park, New York, on January 30, 1882. His parents were James Roosevelt I and Sara Ann Delano. He studied at Harvard and Columbia Law Schools and married Eleanor Roosevelt. He joined public life as a Democrat, becoming elected to the New York Senate in 1910. He was named Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President Wilson and the Democratic nominee for vice president in 1920. He was 39 years old when he was diagnosed with poliomyelitis in 1921.

Roosevelt was elected governor of New York in 1928 and he was elected President for the first of four terms in November 1932. By 1935, the country had begun to recover, but merchants and bankers were increasingly hostile to Roosevelt’s New Deal policy. They feared his experiments, were outraged that he had moved the country off the gold standard and withstood fiscal deficits, and despised the labor concessions. Roosevelt replied with a new reform agenda that included Social Security, more taxes on the wealthy, stronger regulations over banks and public utilities, and a massive unemployment relief program.

Roosevelt had committed the U.S. to a “good neighbor” policy, changing the Monroe Doctrine from a unilateral American manifesto into agreements for joint action against aggressors. He also attempted, through neutrality laws, to keep the U.S. out of the European conflict while strengthening nations threatened or attacked. When France surrendered and England was besieged in 1940, he began to provide all conceivable aid to Britain, short of direct military involvement. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt urged mobilizing the nation’s troops and resources in preparation for a global war. Roosevelt devoted much consideration to forming a United Nations in which he sought to adjudicate international disputes. Roosevelt died of a brain hemorrhage on April 12, 1945, at Warm Springs, Georgia.