ABSTRACT
Despite a debilitating illness, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became one of the most popular presidents of all time, successfully leading the United States through the trials of the Great Depression and World War II. Roosevelt used his reputation as the basis of his run for the presidency in 1932, which he won in a landslide against the detested incumbent, Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt also improved the lives of rural Americans through land reclamation and electrification projects, and reformed banking to the benefit of average citizens. Roosevelt's political tendencies gradually evolved from the time he served as a New York state senator in 1910 to his death in office as president in 1945. Roosevelt's influence in the arena of international cooperation extended long after his death in such institutions as the United Nations, which he believed to be superior to punitive measures for solving the world's problems.
