Roosevelt & His Promises PDF
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This article from the National Geographic Kids website explores the life and presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, focusing on his early life, political career, and his response to the Great Depression. It highlights his promises to improve the country and his New Deal.
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rticle title:“Roosevelt & His Promises” A National Geographic Kids website No author given White House Historical Association EARLY LIFE (Paragraph 1) Franklin Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, at his family’s estate in Hyde...
rticle title:“Roosevelt & His Promises” A National Geographic Kids website No author given White House Historical Association EARLY LIFE (Paragraph 1) Franklin Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, at his family’s estate in Hyde Park,New York. Roosevelt’s parents took theironly child on trips to different countries and had him tutored at home until he was a teenager. After graduating from Harvard University in 1904, Roosevelt attended Columbia Law School and became a lawyer. Roosevelt married his wife, Eleanor, in 1905. BATTLING ILLNESS (Paragraph 2) In 1910 Roosevelt was elected to the New York State Senate. A few years later, President Woodrow Wilson named him assistant secretary of the Navy. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1914 before leaving the Navy in 1920 to campaign as the running mate of presidential nominee James M. Cox. (They lost.) (Paragraph 3) Illness stalled his political career in 1921 when he contracted polio, a virus that attacks the nervous system and can cause paralysis. Roosevelt went from being healthy and active one day to being unable to walk two days later. Although he never regained use of his legs, Roosevelt learned how to stand on leg braces and take limited rticle title:“Roosevelt & His Promises” A National Geographic Kids website No author given steps with the help of others. Within three years he was practicing law again. Before the decade was over, he had become governor of New York. PRESIDENTIAL PROMISES (Paragraph 4) When Roosevelt ran for president in 1932, the nation was in the middle of the greatest economic crisis in its history: the Great Depression. One-fourth of all workers were unemployed. Homeless people roamed the country looking for food and work. Families who had lost their homes lived in shacks in temporary settlements known as "Hoovervilles," named after the current president, Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt promised to improve the country with a "new deal for the American people." He easily won the election. (Paragraph 5) As soon as Roosevelt took office, he began working to keep his promise. In his first hundred days, he signed 14 laws to help the country recover. These laws were part of a bigger plan—called the New Deal—that Roosevelt hoped would help the country. Among other things, the laws created jobs for people who needed work.
