![]() ![]() The crash of the stock market in October 1929 served as a harbinger of tougher times to come and led Governor Roosevelt to focus on combating the state's economic woes. After that I never heard him say he was afraid of anything." Successful Governor and Presidential CandidateįDR's political comeback began in earnest in 1928 when he won the governorship of New York. Eleanor later said of this time: "I know that he had real fear when he was first taken ill, but he learned to surmount it. In later years, the cottage he built there would be called "the Little White House." Though polio devastated FDR physically, his steely will seemed to grow stronger as he fought through his recovery. In the 1920s, he invested a considerable part of his fortune in rehabilitating a spa in Warm Springs, Georgia, whose curative waters aided his own rehabilitation. Only through an arduous rehabilitation process-and with the support of his wife, his children, and his close confidantes-was FDR able to regain some use of his legs. ![]() Roosevelt contracted polio, a terrifying and incurable disease that left him paralyzed in his legs. Although the ticket of James Cox and FDR lost, FDR's future seemed bright. Indeed, in 1920, the party named him its vice-presidential candidate. ![]() FDR was roundly praised for his efforts and the leaders of the Democratic Party tabbed him as a Democrat to watch. 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. He ran successfully for the New York State Senate in 1910 and was re-elected in 1912. Roosevelt had little interest in the law, however, and his attention soon turned to politics. While at Harvard, FDR apparently declared himself a Democrat and began courting his distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt.įranklin and Eleanor were married in New York City in 1905, a few months after FDR began law school at Columbia. FDR went on to Harvard College, where he spent more time on the college newspaper than he did on his studies. At Groton, FDR grew increasingly fond of his distant cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, a rising star in the Republican Party. At age 14, Franklin's parents sent him to the Groton School, a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts. FDR grew up under the watchful eyes of his mother, whose devotion to her only child was considerable, and a host of nannies. James Roosevelt was a landowner and businessman of considerable, but not awesome, wealth. Political Rise and Personal Tragedyįranklin Delano Roosevelt was born in 1882 in Hyde Park, New York, to James and Sara Roosevelt. In governance, FDR's policies, especially those comprising the New Deal, helped redefine and strengthen both the American state and, specifically, the American presidency, expanding the political, administrative, and constitutional powers of the office. In politics, FDR and the Democratic Party built a power base which carried the party to electoral, if not ideological, dominance until the late 1960s. By virtue of its newfound political and economic power, as well as its political and moral leadership, the United States would play a leading role in shaping the remainder of the twentieth century.įranklin Roosevelt also forged a domestic political revolution on several fronts. This triumph dramatically altered America's relationship with the world, guiding the United States to a position of international prominence, if not predominance. In foreign affairs, FDR committed the United States to the defeat of the fascist powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy, and led the nation and its allies to the brink of victory. Roosevelt's combination of confidence, optimism, and political savvy-all of which came together in the experimental economic and social programs of the "New Deal"-helped bring about the beginnings of a national recovery. FDR took office with the country mired in a horrible and debilitating economic depression that not only sapped its material wealth and spiritual strength, but cast a pall over its future. ![]() His presidency-which spanned twelve years-was unparalleled, not only in length but in scope. Roosevelt, nicknamed “FDR,” guided America through its greatest domestic crisis, with the exception of the Civil War, and its greatest foreign crisis. Faced with the Great Depression and World War II, Franklin D. ![]()
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