130 Years After His Birth, We Still Live in FDR’s World

January 30 marks the 130th birthday of Franklin D. Roosevelt. For most of today’s generation, FDR has become a somewhat distant figure, far removed from the day-to-day struggle to make ends meet at a time of slow growth and high unemployment. They know from their history books that FDR launched the New Deal in the midst of the Great Depression, and that he led the nation to victory in the Second World War. But aside from these basic facts, the average American knows very little about the extent to which the government — and America’s role in the world — was transformed in the critical years between 1933 and 1945. Yet, if these same individuals were to pause for a moment to consider just how much Franklin Roosevelt’s leadership continues to influence their lives, they might soon conclude, as the late Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. once observed, “that the world we live in today is Franklin Roosevelt’s world.”