The Cold War
by blake barneycastle
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Young Franklin was related to his own wife. Eleanor Roosevelt was Theodore Roosevelt’s brother’s daughter. Since her father had passed away, Eleanor was walked down the aisle on her wedding day in 1905 by the president himself, Uncle Teddy.
Young Franklin also reportedly had a hard time adjusting to school. He was taught at home on the family estate until the age of 14, when Franklin was sent to prep school at Groton. He later went to Harvard. At the same time, he rekindled a relationship with Eleanor, and the two became engaged on November 22, 1903.
The college student Roosevelt was average academically, but very, very active socially. He was editor of the college newspaper, graduated in three years, and later passed his bar exam (after attending Columbia) without finishing his law degree.
After a brief law career, Franklin entered politics as a Democrat. His famous relative, Teddy, and many other Roosevelts were Republicans. But Franklin quickly climbed the Democratic ranks to become the assistant secretary of the Navy during World War I.
When Roosevelt ran for president in 1932, it wasn’t his first appearance on a presidential ticket. In 1920, he ran as vice president on the unsuccessful Democratic ticket that featured James Cox as president.
After his vice presidential defeat, Roosevelt contracted what was diagnosed as polio in 1921 while on vacation in Canada. He was paralyzed from the waist down ever since. With Eleanor’s support, Roosevelt didn’t give up his political career, and in 1928 he was elected the governor of New York.
Him and His Life
In his first 100 days, President Franklin Roosevelt proposed sweeping economic reform, calling it the "New Deal." He ordered the temporary closure on all banks to halt the run on deposits. He formed a "Brain Trust" of economic advisers who designed the alphabet agencies such as the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration) to support farm prices, the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) to employ young men, and the NRA (National Recovery Administration), which regulated wages and prices. Other agencies insured bank deposits, regulated the stock market, subsidized mortgages, and provided relief to the unemployed.