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Franklin D. Roosevelt
Historical figureUnited States1882-1945

Franklin D. Roosevelt

32nd President of the United States (1933-1945) · Governor of New York

Democratic president who led America through the Depression and the Second World War, launched the New Deal and helped plan the post-war United Nations.

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Profile on 12 axesAll 12 documented
ECONOMYSTATESOCIETYWORLDOwnershipMarketsWelfareAuthoritySecurityStructureMoralityReligionTechnologyCultureTradeForeign
Where they stood

Franklin D. Roosevelt, axis by axis

  1. 01Ownership-30
    PublicPrivate
  2. 02Markets-55
    PlannedFree
  3. 03Welfare-60
    SharedSelf-reliant
  4. 04Authority+25
    DemocraticStrong leader

    He won four elections under constitutional rules, but his 1937 court-packing plan and wide emergency powers push the score upward.

  5. 05Security+45
    LibertyOrder

    The wartime removal of over 110,000 people of Japanese descent counts heavily here.

  6. 06Structure+60
    LocalCentral
  7. 07Morality+10
    ProgressiveTraditional
  8. 08Religion+15
    SecularReligious
  9. 09Technology-30
    EmbraceCaution

    Drawn from public works like the TVA and wartime research, since he left no clear view on technology.

  10. 10Culture+15
    MulticulturalNational identity

    Mixed: the New Deal coalition was diverse, but he also ordered the internment and kept the 1924 immigration quotas.

  11. 11Trade-40
    GlobalProtected
  12. 12Foreign policy-35
    CooperationStrength

    He built wartime alliances and sketched a world body for the peace, and he also oversaw the biggest American military buildup up to that time.

Who was Franklin D. Roosevelt?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a Democrat from New York who had served as governor of his state. Voters chose him as president in 1932, when the Great Depression was at its worst, and again in 1936, 1940 and 1944. He is the only person ever elected president four times. His New Deal brought in relief jobs, public works, rules for banks and markets, rights for unions and social insurance, and it greatly widened the federal government's part in the economy. After December 1941 he led the nation in World War II beside Britain and the Soviet Union. He died in April 1945, early in his fourth term.

Political views

  • In 1935 he signed the Social Security Act, which set up federal old-age pensions and unemployment insurance.Source: millercenter.org
  • He supported the Wagner Act, which guarded the right of workers to organize and set up the National Labor Relations Board.Source: millercenter.org
  • He founded the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal company that built dams and brought electric power to a very poor part of the South.Source: millercenter.org
  • In 1934 he created the Securities and Exchange Commission to police financial markets.Source: millercenter.org
  • After the Supreme Court struck down New Deal laws, he proposed in 1937 to add more justices. Congress refused.Source: millercenter.org
  • In 1934 he won a law that let him lower tariffs by making deals with other countries one at a time.Source: millercenter.org
  • He aided Britain through Lend-Lease, put his name to the Atlantic Charter and pushed for a United Nations after the war.Source: millercenter.org

Legacy

Admirers say Roosevelt restored trust during the Depression, built the modern American safety net and led the alliance that beat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Many rank him among the best presidents. Critics, mostly conservatives and libertarians, say the New Deal pushed federal power past constitutional limits, slowed recovery and left lasting costs. His four terms led to the two-term limit that came later. Most people now see his government's removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast in 1942 as a grave breach of civil liberties.

In their own words

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
First Inaugural Address, 1933

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Franklin D. Roosevelt: questions

Was FDR a socialist?

No. He was a Democrat who wanted to fix capitalism, not end it. Critics on the right used the word socialist for parts of the New Deal, but actual socialists said it fell short.

What was the New Deal?

It was the group of programs Roosevelt passed to fight the Great Depression. They covered relief and public works, bank and stock market rules, union rights and Social Security.

Was Franklin Roosevelt liberal or conservative?

He is seen as a liberal, in the American sense of backing active government. His New Deal widened federal power over the economy and set up a safety net, though he also held some cautious positions, such as balanced budgets in his early years.

Sources

Portrait: FDR 1944 Color Portrait.jpg by Leon Perskie, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and converted to grayscale by 12axes-test.com.