American Experience: FDR

The longest-serving president in U.S. history, and leader through the Great Depression and World War II -- two of the nation's worst crises -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt is considered by many to be our greatest president. In his early years, as a pampered, sheltered scion of a wealthy family, FDR exhibited no outward signs of greatness. With his cousin Theodore as a role model, however, FDR purposely forged a successful political career for himself, until his devastating paralysis from polio seemed to crush his dreams. With the support of his wife, Eleanor, FDR not only recovered, but remade himself into a strong, optimistic national leader. An aristocrat beloved by "ordinary" citizens and despised by many of his own class as a traitor, FDR, for better or worse, forever changed the American people's relationship with their government. The governmental "safety net" he created would be his greatest legacy -- and the source of ongoing controversy today.