His parents, who were sixth cousins,[3] came from wealthy, established New York families—the Roosevelts, the Aspinwalls and the Delanos, respectively—and resided at Springwood, a large estate south of Hyde Park's historic center.

[42] Another son, James, stated that "there is a real possibility that a romantic relationship existed" between his father and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, who resided in the White House during part of World War II.

[50] Due to his aggressive campaign,[51] his name gained recognition in the Hudson Valley, and in the Democratic landslide in the 1910 United States elections, Roosevelt won a surprising victory.

In the 1911 U.S. Senate election, which was determined in a joint session of the New York state legislature,[c] Roosevelt and nineteen other Democrats caused a prolonged deadlock by opposing a series of Tammany-backed candidates.

[102] Intrigued by the potential benefits of hydrotherapy, he established a rehabilitation center at Warm Springs, Georgia, in 1926, assembling a staff of physical therapists and using most of his inheritance to purchase the Merriweather Inn.

The chief opposition to Roosevelt's candidacy came from Northeastern conservatives, Speaker of the House John Nance Garner of Texas and Al Smith, the 1928 Democratic presidential nominee.

[133] After the convention, Roosevelt won endorsements from several progressive Republicans, including George W. Norris, Hiram Johnson, and Robert La Follette Jr.[138] He also reconciled with the party's conservative wing, and even Al Smith was persuaded to support the Democratic ticket.

Analyzing the president's administrative style, Burns concludes: The president stayed in charge of his administration...by drawing fully on his formal and informal powers as Chief Executive; by raising goals, creating momentum, inspiring a personal loyalty, getting the best out of people...by deliberately fostering among his aides a sense of competition and a clash of wills that led to disarray, heartbreak, and anger but also set off pulses of executive energy and sparks of creativity...by handing out one job to several men and several jobs to one man, thus strengthening his own position as a court of appeals, as a depository of information, and as a tool of co-ordination; by ignoring or bypassing collective decision-making agencies, such as the Cabinet...and always by persuading, flattering, juggling, improvising, reshuffling, harmonizing, conciliating, manipulating.

The FLSA outlawed child labor, established a federal minimum wage, and required overtime pay for certain employees who work in excess of forty hours per week.

[197] When the economy began to deteriorate again in mid-1937, Roosevelt launched a rhetorical campaign against big business and monopoly power, alleging that the recession was the result of a capital strike and even ordering the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look for a criminal conspiracy (they found none).

When Congress reconvened in 1939, Republicans under Senator Robert Taft formed a Conservative coalition with Southern Democrats, virtually ending Roosevelt's ability to enact his domestic proposals.

[218] In the interim, Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini proceeded to overcome Ethiopia, and the Italians joined Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler in supporting General Francisco Franco and the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War.

[233] In July 1940, a group of Congressmen introduced a bill that would authorize the nation's first peacetime draft, and with the support of the Roosevelt administration, the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 passed in September.

[238] To replace Garner on the ticket, Roosevelt turned to Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace of Iowa, a former Republican who strongly supported the New Deal and was popular in farm states.

In military affairs, Roosevelt worked most closely with Secretary Henry L. Stimson at the War Department, Army Chief of Staff George Marshall, and Admiral William D.

Roosevelt called for war in his "Infamy Speech" to Congress, in which he said: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

[l] After Pearl Harbor, the Roosevelt administration secured funding to continue research and selected General Leslie Groves to oversee the Manhattan Project, which was charged with developing the first nuclear weapons.

Roosevelt did not push for the immediate evacuation of Soviet soldiers from Poland, but he won the issuance of the Declaration on Liberated Europe, which promised free elections in countries that had been occupied by Germany.

[290] At the January 1943 Casablanca Conference, the Allies agreed to defeat Axis forces in North Africa and then launch an invasion of Sicily, with an attack on France to take place in 1944.

[302] In 1944, Roosevelt requested that Congress enact legislation to tax all "unreasonable" profits, both corporate and individual, and thereby support his declared need for over $10 billion in revenue for the war and other government measures.

One particular battle royale occurred between Vice President Wallace, who headed the Board of Economic Warfare, and Jesse H. Jones, in charge of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; both agencies assumed responsibility for the acquisition of rubber supplies and came to loggerheads over funding.

In March 1944, shortly after his 62nd birthday, he underwent testing at Bethesda Hospital and was found to have hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease causing angina pectoris, and congestive heart failure.

Roosevelt preferred Byrnes as Wallace's replacement but was convinced to support Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri, who had earned renown for his investigation of war production inefficiency and was acceptable to the various factions of the party.

When Stalin accused the Western Allies of plotting behind his back a separate peace with Hitler, Roosevelt replied: "I cannot avoid a feeling of bitter resentment towards your informers, whoever they are, for such vile misrepresentations of my actions or those of my trusted subordinates.

[344] First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt vocally supported efforts designed to aid the African American community, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, which helped boost wages for nonwhite workers in the South.

Against the objections of the State Department, Roosevelt convinced the other Allied leaders to issue the Joint Declaration by Members of the United Nations, which condemned the ongoing Holocaust and warned to try its perpetrators as war criminals.

"[363] His commitment to the working class and unemployed in need of relief in the nation's longest recession made him a favorite of blue-collar workers, labor unions, and ethnic minorities.

[310] After his death, Eleanor continued to be a forceful presence in U.S. and world politics, serving as delegate to the conference which established the United Nations and championing civil rights and liberalism generally.

Critics have questioned not only his policies, positions, and the consolidation of power that occurred due to his responses to the Depression and World War II but also his breaking with tradition by running for a third term as president.

[371] Long after his death, new lines of attack criticized Roosevelt's policies regarding helping the Jews of Europe,[372] incarcerating the Japanese on the West Coast,[373] and opposing anti-lynching legislation.