by Tom Ontis

Created on: June 16, 2008

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Thus spoke Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the nation on his first inaguration as President of the United States. It came as the country was in the middle of the Great Depression, which by most accounts lasted from the Stock Market Crash on October 29th 1929, to the US's unofficial entry into World War II about 10 years later.

He was known as FDR. He had served the government as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a post also held by distant cousin Theodore Roosevelt. (They were quite a few years apart in age and really did not know each other that well.) He was also Governor of New York, another trait he shared with his cousin. They were of opposite poltical parties, FDR being a Democrat, while Theodore (he didn't like to be called 'Teddy,') was a Republican, albeit from a branch of the party that really did look out for the 'average Joe' of the country.

FDR was educated at private schools his entire life. He went to Harvard, then to law school. He practiced law briefly before entering Democratic Party politics. Near the end of World War I, FDR sought a naval commission obviously to help him in his bid for national office. He was too late though.

In 1920, he ran as the vice-presidential candiate with James Cox. They were defeated by Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. When Harding died, Coolidge became president, one of many 'accidental presidents' in the history of our nation.
The Republicans ran on a platform of 'return to normalcy,' after nearly two decades of a progressive agenda.

FDR became Governor of New York. The Great Depression hit just a few months after that. With his name now associated with the nation's largest state, he had a national forum and ran for president in 1932, handily defeating President Herbert Hoover, who had done little to help the 'average Joe' during th Depression. Hoover did however champion some programs that would reward business for hiring the out of work.

FDR will forever be associted with the 'New Deal,' of which there were two in a short amount of time. His first action was to close the banks for a holiday. Non-regulation, or self regulation was one of the culprits in the Depression. With virtually no controls, when a run on the banks began, banks paid off their largest depositers with what they had and the little people, who maybe had a couple of hundred dolars, were hung out to dry. The banks were closed, some reopening 9 days later, some dissolved. The Federal Government required

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