U.S. Presidents / Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

1882 - 1945

Franklin D. Roosevelt

I call for effort, courage, sacrifice, devotion. Granting the love of freedom, all of these are possible. And the love of freedom is still fierce and steady in the nation today. “Stab in the Back” Speech

Overview

Faced with the Great Depression and World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt, nicknamed “FDR,” guided America through its greatest domestic crisis, with the exception of the Civil War, and its greatest foreign crisis. His presidency—which spanned twelve years—was unparalleled, not only in length but in scope. 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. 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.

Fast Facts

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Hyde Park, New York
Harvard College (graduated 1903), Columbia Law School
Episcopalian
Public Official, Lawyer
Democrat
“FDR”
March 17, 1905, to Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
Anna Eleanor (1906–1975), James (1907–1991), Franklin Delano Jr. (1909), Elliott (1910–1990), Franklin Delano Jr. (1914–1988), John Aspinwall (1916–1981)
32
Hyde Park, New York
William E. Leuchtenburg

Chicago Style

Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. “Franklin D. Roosevelt.” Accessed December 03, 2024. https://millercenter.org/president/fdroosevelt.

Professor Emeritus of History

William E. Leuchtenburg

Professor Leuchtenburg is the William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.