ABSTRACT
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a key figure in the critical years of the twentieth century who acted on the world stage with Hitler, Stalin and Churchill. In what was popularly called the American century or the century of the common man FDR became champion of the common people not just of America but the world. Yet not the least of the many paradoxes about his life was that, from the very start, aristocratic birth set him apart from the American people he came to lead. The political power he won and used with such zest and effect must be first examined within this context.
