Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt grew up in Hyde Park, New York, inspired by his cousin Theodore's mix of adventure and public service. After Harvard and Columbia Law School he entered politics as a New York state senator and assistant secretary of the Navy. In 1921 he contracted polio, losing the use of his legs, but he learned to stand with braces and projected optimism that comforted others facing hardship.

Elected governor of New York in 1928, Roosevelt experimented with relief programs for unemployed workers. When the Great Depression deepened, he won the 1932 presidential election promising a "New Deal" for the American people. His first hundred days created bank holidays, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and rules to stabilize finance. Fireside chats over the radio explained these steps in plain language, rebuilding trust in government.

Throughout the 1930s Roosevelt expanded federal responsibility through Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Works Progress Administration, and rural electrification. These programs aimed to provide relief, spur recovery, and reform capitalism so that future crashes would be less severe. Critics argued the New Deal went too far or not far enough, but Roosevelt insisted that bold experimentation was better than inaction.

When World War II erupted, Roosevelt supported allies through Lend-Lease and strengthened the armed forces. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he declared that the nation must defend the Four Freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. He coordinated Allied strategy with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, oversaw the D-Day invasion plans, and mobilized factories that produced tanks, ships, and aircraft at record speed.

Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in 1944 but grew increasingly ill. He died in April 1945, months before victory. His leadership demonstrated how communication, experimentation, and coalition building could address both economic collapse and global war, even as policies like the internment of Japanese Americans revealed serious civil liberties failures.