Facts about Franklin D Roosevelt

Below are some useful facts about Franklin D Roosevelt.

Franklin D Roosevelt and passion for the sea

Franklin D Roosevelt was very passionate about the sea. When he was 16 Franklin D Roosevelt came up with a plan to run away and enlist in the navy. When that plan had to be abandoned because of a case of measles, Franklin D Roosevelt decided instead to enroll at Annapolis after graduating from Groton College. It was a plan that didn't stand a chance - long ago his parents had decided Franklin D Roosevelt would attend Harvard, just as all the Roosevelt's before him had.

Franklin D Roosevelt attending Harvard

Franklin D Roosevelt started at Harvard in 1900, as a new century was beginning. When Franklin D Roosevelt was still a freshman, his father died, and his mother now pinned all her hopes and ambitions on her only son. Those hopes were simple and typically aristocratic. Like his father, Franklin D Roosevelt would spend most of his time running the family estate, and would perhaps serve on a few boards of directors, and might serve as the head of a local hospital committee. Franklin D Roosevelt' s mother, Sara Roosevelt, was in for a few surprises.

What was Franklin D Roosevelt like? 

At college, Franklin Roosevelt was far more extroverted and involved than he'd been at Groton. Franklin Roosevelt served on an oaring team, edited the college newspaper, and was a cheerleader for the football team. But mostly Franklin Roosevelt was known on campus for the fact that he shared the same last name as the new President of the United States - Theodore Roosevelt, his fifth cousin, had risen to the office when William McKinley was assassinated. The success of his cousin had a profound influence on Franklin Roosevelt; it was in these years that he began to consider the idea of following in his cousin's footsteps.

After President Franklin Roosevelt died

For all the years since President Franklin Roosevelt died, President Franklin Roosevelt has remained as controversial as he was in life. President Franklin Roosevelt has been called the worst president in history; he has been called the best. He was both idolized and despised, viewed by some as a dedicated reformer, by others as a power-hungry tyrant. Like Julius Caesar two thousand years before him, he was a crusader for the people, who some felt would sacrifice anything - even the constitution - to achieve his goals.

President Franklin Roosevelt was accused of giving the Federal Government too much power, at cost to the state governments. President Franklin Roosevelt was criticized, and still is, for the fact that during his office the national debt rose higher than ever before. His own class, the upper class saw him as a traitor. Yet he may instead have saved them. For the wealthy class cannot exist without the consumer, and when Franklin Roosevelt took office there were millions of people who couldn't afford to consume anything.

One thing is certain about President Franklin Roosevelt: He made changes. Many changes.  Faced with the collapse of the capitalist system, he pioneered the idea of government intervention, in which the economy was consciously managed to achieve certain desirable ends. Under President Franklin Roosevelt, the government became an active instrument of social transformation. President Franklin Roosevelt also made the Democratic party the majority party, through his appeal to the working class and minority groups. It continued to be a vehicle for liberal reform, as he had created it, through the 20th century. 

Perhaps most notable of all, President Franklin Roosevelt was born an aristocrat, with all the privileges the American upper class has to offer, and yet President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated his life to the common people. President Franklin Roosevelt reached out in a way he never had to, at a time when most of his class were fighting only to protect their own interests. In doing so, President Franklin Roosevelt risked much. Yet this man, this crippled man, led America through its worst Depression and its worst war. The people loved him for it. President Franklin Roosevelt had his critics, but Americans made him the first president to win a third term, and then a fourth. In the end, as always in America, the people had the last word.