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America entered the 1930s mired in a miserable economic depression and reeling from the inept presidency of Herbert Hoover. At a time when the country was desperate for new and effective leadership, Franklin D. Roosevelt came forward and turned the country's fortunes around.
Roosevelt, whose promising political career was nearly ended by a serious case of polio, won the first of his four presidential elections in a landslide, beating Hoover by seven million votes. When he took office, there were 13 million unemployed and only a handful of banks still open. In his inaugural speech, Roosevelt said the immortal words "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
With such key "New Deal" programs as the Public Works Administration, the Tennessee Valley Administration, and the National Recovery Act, Roosevelt helped to reduce the rampant unemployment and begin to ease the country's economic woes.
Roosevelt tried his hardest to remain neutral as war raged in Europe, but as England and France came under siege, the United States provided substantial economic and munitions support to the Allied cause. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor followed closely by the declaration of war against America by Germany and Italy, Roosevelt mobilized the American war effort.
Roosevelt would live to see the United States turn the tide of the war, but would die shortly before the conflicts would come to an end.
To this day, Roosevelt remains one of the most beloved presidents in history.
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