"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."
Biography
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882 in Hyde Park, New York. He was born into a very wealthy family, and he was surrounded by privilege and sense of self-importance in his adolescence. He received an education from Harvard University and Columbia University Law School. In 1910, FDR was invited to run for NY state Senate. His campaigning of the New Deal and a concrete plan for combating the economic crisis led to his popularity and election. In 1921, the President fell ill with polio, and was stricken to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He was elected the 32nd President of the United States in 1933, and was the only president to be elected 4 times ever. He led the US through both the Great Depression and World War II. As President he was widely popular. Not only was he able to restore the economic prosperity to the nation, but he was able to restore culture and relief in the US. He was loved by the press. The press respected him; there are very few of him in his wheelchair. He was also loved for his "fireside chats", which were weekly radio addresses to inform and soothe the American public that reeling from the pain of unemployment and poverty. Not only that, but he notably expanded the powers of the federal government (and even the executive branch) through his New Deal programs and reforms. After his long period in office, Roosevelt died in Georgia, USA in 1945.
Contributions
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was strategic and cunning about the financial crisis during his first years in the White House. His package of legislative reforms permanently and dramatically transformed politics and the economy of the US. He promised America relief, recovery, and reform, and he successfully gave it to them. As far as relief went, the New Deal was very successful. Through agencies like the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration, FDR successfully created opportunities for jobs to get the money flowing back into the economy and to relieve families. To reform the nation, Roosevelt's program altered the relationship between the capitalist market, the people, and their government. While some disagreed with his "big-government" approach, it did reform how the government acted immensely. His recovery attempts were successful short term, but the New Deal did not end the Great Depression. Unemployment remained high even in the late 1930s. World War II brought about the change that destroyed the economic troubles, even though technically FDR was president during WWII as well. Nonetheless, Franklin Delano Roosevelt permanently changed the American expectation of the presidency and of the government, from laissez-faire to action.
Primary Source Links
President Franklin D. Roosevelt Inaugural Address
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm3Bntsp2ck
Transcript: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=14473
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt Draft of Fireside Chat on the First Hundred Days (pg. 1 only), July 24, 1933
Photocopy: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/_resources/images/sign/fdr_10.pdf
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt Draft of Speech Accepting Renomination for the Presidency (Rendezvous with Destiny Speech) (pg. 10 only), June 27, 1936
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/_resources/images/sign/fdr_16.pdf
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm3Bntsp2ck
Transcript: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=14473
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt Draft of Fireside Chat on the First Hundred Days (pg. 1 only), July 24, 1933
Photocopy: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/_resources/images/sign/fdr_10.pdf
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt Draft of Speech Accepting Renomination for the Presidency (Rendezvous with Destiny Speech) (pg. 10 only), June 27, 1936
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/_resources/images/sign/fdr_16.pdf