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...of the modern industrial world. It lasted from the end of 1929 until the early 1940’s. Beginning in the United States, the depression spread to most of the world’s industrial countries, which in the 20th century had become economically dependent on one another. The Great Depression had quick declines in the production and sale of goods and a sudden and severe rise in unemployment. In 1933, at the worst point in the depression, more than 15 million Americans were unemployed. Starting the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
Franklin D. Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York on January 30, 1882, the son of James Roosevelt and Sara Delano Roosevelt. He attended Groton, an impressive preparatory school in Massachusetts, and received a BA degree in history from Harvard in only three years. In 1905, he married a distant cousin, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, who was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt next moved to New York City and studied law at New York's Columbia University. He passed the bar examination in 1907 and left school without finishing his law degree. For the next three years he practiced law with a major New York City law firm. He entered politics in 1910 and was elected to the New York State Senate as a Democrat. Roosevelt was reelected to the State Senate in 1912, and supported Woodrow Wilson's candidacy at the Democratic National Convention. Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913 as a reward for his support, a position he held until 1920. Roosevelt's popularity and success in naval affairs resulted in him being nominated for vice-president by the Democratic Party. However,...
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