Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born to a wealthy family in Hyde Park, New York, and was a distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt; he married Theodore's niece Eleanor. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the First World War. In 1921 he was struck by polio and lost the use of his legs, but he returned to politics, became governor of New York, and was elected president in 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression. In his first inaugural address he declared that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. His New Deal programs created jobs, banking rules, Social Security and public works, though critics argued they expanded government too far. He spoke to the nation in radio fireside chats. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he led the United States into the Second World War alongside Britain and the Soviet Union. In 1942 he authorized the forced removal of Japanese Americans to camps. He won four elections, more than any other president, and died in April 1945.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: An Episcopalian who attended church from a young age. Source: Wikipedia