A Brief Biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR, was born in 1882 and attended both Harvard University and Columbia Law School (White House). Serving from March 1933-April 1945, FDR became America’s longest serving president (Miller Center). He entered office in the midst of the Great Depression, America’s major financial crisis. Everyone was investing in the stock market, and when it crashed, America came close to bankruptcy. The crash of the stock market left people without money, jobs, homes, food, and hope. The previous president, Herbert Hoover, made quite a mess out of the Depression. Hoover simply ignored the fact that the country was in depression because he did not know how to deal with it. Hoover left FDR with a big task of cleaning up the mess he left of America. FDR took the bull by the horns; he came up with many new policies through his plan called the “New Deal”, a series of economic and social reforms (Time). For the citizens of the United States he was easy relate to. He referenced to the people as “my friends” and acted as if he was talking directly to them. (History). Roosevelt also had a disability; he was paralyzed from the waist down due to Polio that he caught earlier in his lifetime. He tried not to show this to the people, as there are no pictures of him in a wheel chair. It may be argued that FDR’s policies hurt some of the business people, however; his policies got the country of depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an effective leader because he helped the United States recover from the Great Depression by relating to its citizens, had a different mindset while making policies, and by creating the “New Deal”.

To begin, Franklin Roosevelt was an easy president to relate to. Starting in M...

... middle of paper ...

... due to his disability and his famous “fireside chats”. Through his disability people sympathized with him and viewed him more as a normal person rather than a political figure. Unlike many of the other presidents, what made him so successful while making his policies is he thought about many things such as the future and if it was even important to our country. His policies that resulted from the “New Deal” helped the country dig out of the Great Depression.

Works Cited

FDR Library. n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.

Franklin D. Roosevelt - American Heritage Center, Inc. n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.

History. n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.

History. n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Kennedy, David M. Time. 24 June 2009. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Miller Center. n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.

PBS. n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

The White House. n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.

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