Introduction^[1]

This paper is about the lives and work of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt – three members of arguably the most prominent and influential family in American politics. 

The Roosevelt family hailed from New York. Family members have included two United States presidents, a First Lady,^[2] and various merchants, bankers, politicians, inventors, clergymen, artists, and socialites. The progeny of a mid-17^th century Dutch immigrant to New Amsterdam (see below), many family members became famous in New York City political and business circles and intermarried with prominent colonial families. Two distantly related branches of the family from Oyster Bay and Hyde Park, New York, rose to national political prominence with the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) and his fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933–1945), whose wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was Theodore’s niece.^{[3] ­}

Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt (c. 1626 – 1659), the Dutch immigrant ancestor of the Roosevelt family, arrived in New Amsterdam (present-day New York City) sometime between 1638 and 1649. In about 1652, he bought a farm from Lambert van Valckenburgh, comprising 24 morgens (20.44 hectares or 50.51 acres) in what is now Midtown Manhattan, including the present site of the Empire State Building^.[4]

Theodore (Teddy or TR) Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was the second of four children born into a socially prominent family of Dutch and English ancestry; his father, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., was a noted businessman and philanthropist, and his mother, Martha Bulloch of Georgia, came from a wealthy, slave-owning plantation family. 

Before becoming the 26^th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, known to most people as “Teddy” (or by his initials as TR), cut his political teeth in his boisterous home state of New York. He manoeuvred his way from the state assembly to the New York City police department to the governor’s mansion. From the start, he followed his progressive impulses to fight corruption, temper unfettered capitalism and support the less privileged. And he wasn’t afraid of making enemies in the process.^[5]

Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919) was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26^th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. Previously, he had served as the 25^th vice president
under President William McKinley from March to September 1901 and as the 33^rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900. The presidency beckoned for Roosevelt when McKinley was assassinated in 1901 – Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for anti-trust and Progressive policies in the United States, bringing new excitement and power to the Presidency, as he vigorously led Congress and the American public toward progressive reforms and a strong foreign policy. He believed that the President, as a “steward of the people, should take whatever action necessary for the public good unless expressly forbidden by law or the Constitution.”

He overcame childhood health problems and embraced “a strenuous lifestyle. He was home-schooled and began a lifelong naturalist avocation before attending Harvard. His book The Naval War of 1812 (published in 1882) established his reputation as a learned historian and popular writer. Roosevelt’s first wife and mother died the same night, and he was psychologically devastated. He recuperated by buying and operating a cattle ranch in the Dakotas. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley and, in 1898, helped plan the successful naval war against Spain. Returning as a war hero, Roosevelt was elected governor of New York in 1898 and became McKinley’s running mate in the 1900 election. The McKinley–Roosevelt ticket won a landslide victory based on a platform of victory, peace, and prosperity.

Roosevelt became President at age 42 after McKinley was assassinated in September 1901 and remains the youngest person to become president of the United States. Roosevelt was a leader of the progressive movement and:

• Championed his “Square Deal” domestic policies, promising the average citizen fairness, breaking of trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs.
• Prioritised conservation and established national parks, forests, and monuments to preserve the nation’s natural resources.
• In foreign policy, he focused on Central America, where he began work on the construction of the Panama Canal.
• Expanded the Navy and sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to project American naval power.
• Successfully brokered the end of the Russo-Japanese War (which won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize).

Roosevelt was elected to a full term in 1904 (see picture, right, at the 1904 Republican Convention) and continued to promote his progressive policies. He groomed his close friend William Howard Taft to succeed him in the 1908 presidential election but grew frustrated with Taft’s brand of conservatism and belatedly tried to win the 1912 Republican nomination for President but failed. He died in 1919. Polls of historians and political scientists rank him as one of the greatest presidents in American history. Theodore Roosevelt’s brother Elliott was the father of First Lady Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Theodore’s distant cousin, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

Roosevelt was a member of the New York State Assembly^[6] from 1882 to 1884^[7], making his mark in handling corporate corruption issues. As a result, he gained a high and positive political profile in several New York publications.^[8]

His anti-corruption efforts helped him win re-election in 1882. Winning re-election to the Assembly for a second time, he sought the office of Speaker of the New York State Assembly, only to lose out to Titus Sheard. In his final term at the Assembly, Roosevelt served as Chairman of the Committee on Affairs of Cities, during which he wrote more bills than any other legislator.^[9]  Losing the support of many reformers, Roosevelt decided to retire from politics and move to North Dakota as a cattle rancher. He adjusted his life and began writing about frontier life for national magazines; he also published three books: Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, and The Wilderness Hunter.^[10]  In 1886, Roosevelt returned to the East after the uniquely severe US winter of 1886–87 decimated his herd of cattle. Once back in New York, Republican leaders approached him about running for mayor of the City, but Roosevelt took only third place. Fearing that his political career might never recover, Roosevelt turned his attention to writing The Winning of the West, a historical work tracking the westward movement of Americans; the book was a great success for Roosevelt, earning favourable reviews and selling numerous copies.^[11]

In 1894, a group of reform Republicans approached Roosevelt about running for Mayor of New York again; this time, he declined, mostly due to his wife’s resistance to being removed from the Washington social set. Soon after, he realised he had missed an opportunity to reinvigorate a dormant political career. Roosevelt then became the president of the Board of the New York City Police Commissioners and radically reformed the police force. He made a habit of walking officers’ beats late at night and early in the morning to ensure they were on duty^[12] and made a concerted effort to enforce New York’s Sunday closing law.

In the 1896 presidential election, William McKinley won the nomination as President and appointed Roosevelt as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897.  With the beginning of the Spanish–American War in late April 1898, Roosevelt resigned from his post as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In 2001, Roosevelt was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions;^[13] he had been nominated during the war, but Army officials, annoyed at his grabbing the headlines, blocked it.^[14]  Roosevelt took office as vice president in March 1901, but the vice president’s office was a powerless sinecure and did not suit Roosevelt’s aggressive temperament.^[15]  His six months as vice president were uneventful and boring for a man of action: he had no power; he presided over the Senate for a mere four days before it adjourned. On 2^nd September 1901, Roosevelt first publicised an aphorism that thrilled his supporters: “Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far.”^[16] On 6^th September, President McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. and died eight days later, in consequence of which Roosevelt was sworn in as the nation’s 26^th president. 

Of all Roosevelt’s achievements, he was most proud of his work in conserving natural resources and extending federal protection to land and wildlife.^[17] During his presidency, Roosevelt used executive orders on several occasions to protect forest and wildlife lands.^[18] One of Theodore Roosevelt’s priorities, both during his presidency and afterwards, was the maintenance of friendly relations with Japan.^[19] From 1904 to 1905, Japan and Russia were at war. Roosevelt admired the martial courage of the Japanese and distrusted the reckless German Kaiser Wilhelm II. Both sides asked Roosevelt to mediate a peace conference held successfully in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

In California, anti-Japanese hostility was growing, and Tokyo protested. Roosevelt negotiated a “Gentleman’s Agreement” in 1907. Explicit discrimination against the Japanese was ended, and Japan agreed not to allow unskilled immigrants into the United States.^[20]

Success in the war against Spain and the new empire, plus having the largest economy in the world, meant that the United States had emerged as a world power.^[21] Roosevelt searched for ways to win recognition for the position abroad,^[22] and his presidency saw the strengthening of ties with Britain. The Great Rapprochement had begun with British support of the United States during the Spanish–American War, and it continued as Britain withdrew its fleet from the Caribbean in favour of focusing on the rising German naval threat.^[23] In 1901, Britain and the United States signed the Hay–Pauncefote Treaty, abrogating the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which had prevented the United States from constructing a canal connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean.^[24] The long-standing Alaska boundary dispute was settled on terms favourable to the US, as Britain was unwilling to alienate the United States over what it considered a secondary issue.

Before his inauguration ceremony, Roosevelt declared that he would not serve another term.^[25] Democrats afterwards would continue to charge Roosevelt and the Republicans of being influenced by corporate donations during Roosevelt’s second term.^[26] As his second term progressed, Roosevelt moved to the left of his Republican Party base and called for a series of reforms, most of which Congress failed to pass. Whilst Roosevelt enjoyed being president and was still relatively youthful, he felt that a limited number of terms provided a check against dictatorship. Roosevelt decided to stick to his 1904 pledge not to run for a third term. On 14^th October 1912, while arriving at a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Roosevelt was shot at close range by a delusional saloonkeeper named John Flammang Schrank.^[27] The bullet lodged in Roosevelt’s chest after penetrating his steel eyeglass case and passing through a 50-page-thick single-folded copy of the speech titled “Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual“, which he was carrying in his jacket. Assuring the crowd he was alright, Roosevelt ordered police to take charge of Schrank and ensure no violence would happen to him.  Subsequent probes and an x-ray showed that the bullet had lodged in Roosevelt’s chest muscle but did not penetrate the pleura. Doctors concluded that it would best to leave it in place than to remove it, and Roosevelt carried the bullet with him for the rest of his life.^[28]

­­­­After the Democrats nominated Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey, Roosevelt did not expect to win the general election (as it turned out), and while his political profile remained high, Roosevelt’s physical condition continued to deteriorate throughout 1918 due to the long-term effects of jungle diseases. Hospitalised for seven weeks late in the year, he never fully recovered.^[29] On the night of 5^th January 1919, Roosevelt suffered breathing problems, and early the next morning, Roosevelt, at age 60, died in his sleep at Sagamore Hill.^[30]

Theodore Roosevelt was included with Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln at the Mount Rushmore Memorial, designed in 1927 with the approval of Republican President Calvin Coolidge.^[31]

Franklin Delano Roosevelt^[32]

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945), often referred to by his initials “FDR”, was a politician and attorney who served as the 32^nd president of the United States from 1933 until he died in 1945. The US members of the Delano family include US presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant and Calvin Coolidge, astronaut Alan B. Shepard, and writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Its progenitor is Philippe de Lannoy (1602–1681), a Pilgrim
 of Walloon descent who arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the early 1620s. Delano family forebears include the Pilgrims who chartered the Mayflower, seven of its passengers, and three signatories of the Mayflower Compact.^[33] By blood or marriage, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was related to 11 other former Presidents of America^[34]:

• John Adams
• James Madison
• John Quincy Adams
• Martin Van Buren
• William Henry Harrison
• Zachary Taylor
• Andrew Johnson
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Benjamin Harrison, 
• William Howard Taft 
• Theodore Roosevelt (his fifth cousin)

As a member of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20^th century. He directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic plan in response to the worst economic crisis in US history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20^th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, the end of which happened shortly after he died in office.

Roosevelt’s father died in 1900, causing great distress for him.^[35] The following year, Roosevelt’s fifth cousin (Theodore Roosevelt) became President of the United States. Theodore’s vigorous leadership style and reforming zeal made him Franklin’s role model and hero.^[36]

Franklin graduated from Harvard in 1903 and attended Columbia Law School^[37] in 1904 but dropped out in 1907 after passing the New York Bar Examination.^[38] In 1908, he took a job with the prestigious law firm of Carter Ledyard & Milburn, working in the firm’s
admiralty law division.^[39]  In 1905, he married his fifth cousin, once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt. They had six children, five of whom survived into adulthood. He was elected to the New York State Senate in 1910 and served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during World War I.

In 1921, Roosevelt contracted a paralytic illness, believed to be polio, and his legs became permanently paralysed. He returned to public office after he was elected as governor of New York in 1928. He served as governor from 1929 to 1933, promoting programs to combat the economic crisis besetting the United States. In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated the Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover and began his presidency amid the Great Depression. He brought hope to the American People as he promised prompt, vigorous action and asserted in his Inaugural Address, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

During the first 100 days of the 73^rd US Congress, Roosevelt spearheaded unprecedented federal legislative productivity, calling for the creation of programs designed to produce relief, recovery, and reform – within his first year, he began implementing these policies through a series of executive orders and federal legislation collectively called the New Deal^[40].

Roosevelt frequently used radio to speak directly to the American people, giving thirty “fireside chat” radio addresses during his presidency and became the first American president to be televised. The economy improved rapidly during Roosevelt’s first term, and he won re-election in 1936 as one of US history’s most lopsided victories.

During the recession of 1937–1938, Roosevelt launched a rhetorical campaign against big business and monopoly power in the United States. Other major 1930s legislation and agencies implemented under Roosevelt include:

• the Securities and Exchange Commission
• the National Labor Relations Act
• the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• Social Security
• the Fair Labor Standards Act.

By 1939, another World War was on the horizon prompting the US to pass a series of laws affirming neutrality and reject intervention in the hostilities. Despite this, President Roosevelt gave strong diplomatic and financial support to China, the United Kingdom, and eventually the Soviet Union.

Roosevelt was re-elected in 1940 for a third term, making him the only US president to serve for more than two terms.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7^th December 1941, an event he called “a date which will live in infamy“, Roosevelt obtained a congressional declaration of war against Japan. Only four days later, Japan’s allies (Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy)
declared war on the US. In response, the US formally joined the Allies and entered the
European theatre of war. Assisted by his top aide Harry Hopkins and with strong national support, he worked closely with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin, and Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in leading the Allied Powers against the Axis Powers.

Roosevelt supervised the mobilisation of the US economy to support the war effort and implemented a Europe-first strategy, initiating the Lend-Lease program and making the defeat of Germany first a priority over that of Japan. His administration oversaw the construction of The Pentagon, began the development of the world’s first atomic bomb, and worked with other Allied leaders to lay the groundwork for the United Nations and other post-war institutions. It was under his wartime leadership that the United States became a superpower on the world stage.

Roosevelt won re-election in the 1944 presidential election on his post-war recovery platform, but his health began declining during the later war years (he had been a heavy smoker for most of his adult life), and less than three months into his fourth term, Roosevelt died on 12^th April 1945, age 63. Vice President Harry S. Truman assumed office as president and oversaw the acceptance of surrender by the Axis powers.

Criticisms

Before, during and after his presidential terms and continuing even today, there has been a great deal of criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Critics have questioned his policies and positions and charged him with centralising power in his own hands by controlling both the US government and the Democratic Party. Many denounced his breaking of a long-standing tradition by running for a third term as president in 1940.^[41] By the middle of his second term, much criticism of Roosevelt centred on fears that he was heading toward a dictatorship by attempting to seize control of the Supreme Court in the court-packing incident of 1937, trying to eliminate dissent within the Democratic Party in the South during the 1938 mid-term elections and by breaking the tradition established by George Washington of not seeking a third term when he again ran for re-election in 1940. As two historians explain: “In 1940, with the two-term issue as a weapon, anti-New Dealers […] argued that the time had come to disarm the ‘dictator’ and to dismantle the machinery”.^[42]  Long after Roosevelt’s death, new lines of attack criticised his policies regarding helping the Jews of Europe,^[43] incarcerating Japanese Americans on the West Coast in concentration camps,^[44] and opposing anti-lynching legislation.^[45]

Winston Churchill tried to persuade President Roosevelt to ask Joseph Stalin to allow Allied planes carrying arms for the insurgents in the 1944 Warsaw uprising to refuel on Soviet air bases. After Stalin rejected their first appeal, Churchill told Roosevelt they should try again and send the planes anyway if Stalin refused and “see what happens.” But Roosevelt egregiously replied, “I do not consider it advantageous to the long-range general war prospect for me to join you in the proposed message to Uncle Joe.” Churchill decided to send planes anyway, and an estimated 360 British, Polish and South African airmen died in the skies over Warsaw. Eventually, the US sent one air mission, but it was too little too late. When the Poles finally surrendered, Hitler ordered Warsaw razed.^[46]

Personal Life

After being turned down for marriage to Boston heiress Alice Sohier,^[47] Franklin began courting his child-acquaintance and fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt, a niece of Theodore Roosevelt.^[48] In 1903, Franklin proposed to Eleanor, and after resistance from his mother, they were married on 17^th March 1905 (St. Patrick’s day). As Eleanor’s father was deceased, and her uncle Theodore, then the president, gave away the bride.^[49]

Roosevelt had several extra-marital affairs, including with Eleanor’s social secretary Lucy Mercer, soon after she was employed in 1914 but not discovered by Eleanor until 1918.^[50] Nevertheless, Franklin and Eleanor remained married, and Roosevelt promised never to see Lucy again. It was a promise he didn’t honour.

Eleanor never forgave him, and their marriage became more of a political partnership.^[51] Franklin broke his promise to Eleanor and began seeing Lucy again in 1941 or earlier.^[52] Roosevelt’s son Elliott claimed that his father also had a 20-year affair with his private secretary, Marguerite “Missy” LeHand.^[53] Another of Franklin’s sons (James) said that “there was 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. Aides began to refer to her at the time as “the president’s girlfriend”, and gossip linking the two romantically appeared in the newspapers.^[54]

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt^[55]

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 –1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist.^[56] She grew up in a wealthy family that attached great value to community service. Both her parents died before she was ten.

She served as the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during the four terms of office of her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt – making her the longest-serving first lady of the United States.^[57] She served as US Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952.^[58] 

Her husband’s successor, President Harry S. Truman, later called her the “First Lady of the World” in tribute to her human rights achievements.^[59]

Eleanor was a member of the prominent American Roosevelt and Livingston families and a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt.^[60] She had an unhappy childhood, having suffered the deaths of both parents and one of her brothers at a young age.

At age 15, Eleanor attended Allenswood Boarding Academy, a private finishing school in Wimbledon and was deeply influenced by its French headmistress Marie Souvestre. Returning to the US, she married her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on St. Patrick’s Day 1905.

The Roosevelts’ marriage was complicated from the beginning by Franklin’s controlling mother, Sara, and after Eleanor discovered her husband’s affair with Lucy Mercer in 1918, she resolved to seek fulfilment by leading a public life of her own. She persuaded Franklin to stay in politics after he was stricken with a paralytic illness in 1921, which cost him the normal use of his legs, and began giving speeches and appearing at campaign events in his stead.

Following Franklin’s election as Governor of New York in 1928, and throughout the remainder of Franklin’s public career in government, Eleanor Roosevelt regularly made public appearances on his behalf; and as First Lady, while her husband served as president, she significantly reshaped and redefined the role.

Though widely respected in her later years, Roosevelt was a controversial first lady at the time for her outspokenness, particularly on civil rights for African-Americans. She was the first presidential spouse to

• hold regular press conferences
• write a daily newspaper column (“My Day”)
• write a monthly magazine column
• host a weekly radio show, and
• speak at a national party convention

On a few occasions, she publicly disagreed with her husband’s policies. She launched an experimental community at Arthurdale, West Virginia, for the families of unemployed miners, later widely regarded as a failure. She advocated for expanded roles for women in the workplace, the civil rights of African Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights of World War II refugees.

Following her husband’s death in 1945, Roosevelt remained active in politics for the remaining 17 years of her life. She pressed the United States to join and support the United Nations and became its first delegate. She served as the first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights and oversaw the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Later, she chaired the John F. Kennedy administration’s Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. At the time of her death, Roosevelt was regarded as “one of the most esteemed women in the world“; The New York Times called her “the object of almost universal respect” in her obituary.^[61]

In 1961 President John F. Kennedy appointed her as chair of his Commission on the Status of Women, and she continued with that work until shortly before her death, age 78, on 7^th November 1962. Although initially, she had not favoured the Equal Rights Amendment^[62] (ERA), saying it would take from women the valuable protective legislation they had fought to win and still needed, she gradually embraced it.^[63]

The White House website^[64] describes her as:

“… A shy, awkward child, starved for recognition and love, Eleanor Roosevelt grew into a woman with great sensitivity to the underprivileged of all creeds, races, and nations. Her constant work to improve their lot made her one of the most loved–and for some years one of the most revered–women of her generation.”

In 1999, she was ranked ninth in the top ten of Gallup’s List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20^th Century and was found to rank as the most admired woman in thirteen different years between 1948 and 1961 in the Gallup’s annual most admired woman poll.

The Roosevelts: “An Intimate
History”

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History – the seven-part, 14-hour documentary series directed by Ken Burns – is the third highest-rated Ken Burns film behind The Civil War and Lewis and Clark. The series is available on Amazon in the UK at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ken-Burns-Roosevelts-Intimate-History/dp/B0752VX47R

The National Endowment for the Humanities website^[65] says that The Roosevelts: An Intimate History premiered in the US on 14^th September 2014 and:

“Over 33 million US viewers tuned in to watch the series on PBS. According to Variety, “the week that the second through seventh episodes of The Roosevelts were broadcast represents the most-watched week on PBS in twenty years.”

“The series takes an innovative approach to historical documentary and chronicles the lives, struggles and accomplishments of three pivotal figures in twentieth-century American history: Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Rather than treating the three Roosevelts as separate subjects, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History connects their stories to present the first group biography of these important figures. It follows the Roosevelt family’s story from Theodore’s birth in 1858 to Eleanor’s death in 1962.”

You can follow a timeline to chart the lives and accomplishments of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt on the PBS website^[66].

Theodore Roosevelt was one of the first presidents whose voice was recorded for posterity. Several of his recorded speeches survive.^[67] A 4.6-minute voice recording,^[68] which preserves Roosevelt’s lower timbre ranges particularly well for its time, is among those available from the Michigan State University libraries (this is the 1912 recording of The Right of People to Rule, recorded by Thomas Edison at Carnegie Hall). The audio clip sponsored by the Authentic History Center includes his defence^[69] of the Progressive Party in 1912, wherein he proclaims it the “party of the people” – in contrast with the other major parties. For more information about President Roosevelt, it is worth visiting the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum. You can also learn more about Franklin D. Roosevelt’s spouse, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

[1] Source: Mainly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_family, plus others where indicated.

[2] Referenced at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_family  Source: Moore, Frazier (10^th September 2014). “PBS’ ‘The Roosevelts’ portrays an epic threesome”. AP News.

[3] Paragraph source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_family

[4] Source:  “Lambert Jochemse van Valckenburch of New Amsterdam”. VanValkenburg.org.

[5] Source: https://www.history.com/news/theodore-roosevelt-new-york-politics-governor-police-commissioner

[6] Explanation: The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Assembly

[7] Source:  Edward P. Kohn, “Theodore Roosevelt’s Early Political Career: The Making of an Independent Republican and Urban Progressive” in Ricard, A Companion to Theodore Roosevelt (2011) pp: 27–44.

[8] Source: Brands, Henry William (1997), TR: The Last Romantic (full biography), pp. 133-140. New York: Basic Books, ISBN 978-0-465-06958-3, referenced at:https://nyassembly.gov/

[9] Source: “Mr Sheard to be Speaker” (PDF), The New York Times, 1^st January 1884

[10] Source: Brands, Henry William (1997), TR: The Last Romantic (full biography), pp. 164-190. New York: Basic Books, ISBN 978-0-465-06958-3

[11] Source: Miller, Nathan (1992),Theodore Roosevelt: A Life, pp. 197-200, William Morrow & Co, ISBN 9780688067847

[12] Source: Brands, Henry William (1997), TR: The Last Romantic (full biography), p. 277.  New York: Basic Books, ISBN 978-0-465-06958-3, referenced at:https://nyassembly.gov/  

[13] Source: Woodall, James R. (2010). Williams-Ford Texas A and M University Military History: Texas Aggie Medals of Honor: Seven Heroes of World War Ii. Texas A&M University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-60344-253-4. 

[14] Source: Samuels, Peggy (1997), Teddy Roosevelt at San Juan: The Making of a President, Texas A&M UP, ISBN 978-0-89096-771-3

[15] Source: Chessman, G Wallace (1952), “Theodore Roosevelt’s Campaign Against the Vice-Presidency”, Historian, 14 (2): 173–190

[16] Source: Woltman, Nick (August 31, 2015). “Roosevelt’s ‘big stick’ line at State Fair stuck…later” (Twin Cities Pioneer Press)

[17] Source: Bakari, Mohamed El-Kamel. “Mapping the ‘Anthropocentric-ecocentric’ Dualism in the History of American Presidency: The Good, the Bad, and the Ambivalent.” Journal of Studies in Social Sciences 14, no. 2 (2016).

[18] Source:  Executing the Constitution: Putting the President Back Into the Constitution. State University of New York Press. 2006. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-7914-8190-5. 

[19] Sources: (1)  Michael J. Green, By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783 (2019) pp. 78–113, and (2) Charles E. Neu, An Uncertain Friendship: Theodore Roosevelt and Japan, 1906–1909 (1967) pp. 310–319.

[20] Source: Neu, pp. 263–280

[21] Source: Walter LaFeber, “The ‘Lion in the Path’: The US Emergence as a World Power.” Political Science Quarterly 101.5 (1986): 705-718, online.

[22] Source: Miller, Nathan (1992), Theodore Roosevelt: A Life, William Morrow & Co, ISBN 9780688067847.

[23] Source:  Miller 1992 (as above), pp. 387-388.

[24] Source:  Miller 1992 (as above), pp. 399-400.

[25] Source: Brands, Henry William (1997), TR: The Last Romantic (full biography), pp. 513-514. New York: Basic Books, ISBN 978-0-465-06958-3

[26] Source: Chambers, John W. (1974), Woodward, C. Vann (ed.), Responses of the Presidents to Charges of Misconduct, New York, New York: Delacorte Press, pp. 207–237, ISBN 0-440-05923-2

[27] Source:  Stan Gores, “The attempted assassination of Teddy Roosevelt.” Wisconsin Magazine of History (1970) 53#4: 269–277 online.

[28] Sources: (1) “Roosevelt Timeline”. Theodore Roosevelt, and (2) Gerard Helferich, Theodore Roosevelt and the Assassin: Madness, Vengeance, and the Campaign of 1912 (2013)

[29] Miller 1992 (as above), pp. 564-566.

[30] Source: “Theodore Roosevelt Dies Suddenly at Oyster Bay Home; Nation Shocked, Pays Tribute to Former President; Our Flag on All Seas and in All Lands at Half Mast”. The New York Times. January 1919.

[31] Sources: (1) Domek, Tom; Hayes, Robert E. (2006). Mt. Rushmore and Keystone. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, and (2)Fite, Gibert C. (2003). Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore History Association. ISBN 0-9646798-5-X.

[32] Source: Mostly from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt, plus others where indicated.

[33] Source:  Smith, Jean Edward FDR, p. 10, Random House, 2007 ISBN 978-1-4000-6121-1

[34] Source: History.com at: https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-roosevelts

[35] Source:  Dallek 2017, pp. 28–29.

[36] Source: Burns, James MacGregor (1956). Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox. Easton Press. ISBN 978-0-15-678870-0.

[37] In 2008, Columbia awarded Roosevelt a posthumous Juris Doctor degree

[38] Source: Burns, as above.

[39] Source: Dallek 2017, pp. 38–39.

[40] Comment: “New Deal”  was ‘copied’ by Tony Blair’s government: The New Deal (renamed Flexible New Deal from October 2009) was a workfare programme introduced in the United Kingdom by the first New Labour government in 1998, initially funded by a one-off £5 billion windfall tax on privatised utility companies.

[41] Source: George Wolfskill and John Allen Hudson. All But the People: Franklin D. Roosevelt and His Critics, 1933–39 (1969). Macmillan.

[42] Ibid

[43] Source: Richard Breitman and Allan J. Lichtman. FDR and the Jews (2013).

[44] Source: Greg Robinson. A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America (2009).

^[45] Source: Ira Katznelson. Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (2014).

[46] Source and Acknowledgement: https://www.aei.org/articles/trump-was-right-to-embrace-the-1944-warsaw-uprising/

[47] Source: Leuchtenburg, William E. (September 26, 2016). “FDR: Life Before the Presidency”. Univ. of Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs

[48] Source: Rowley, Hazel (2010). Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage, pp.3-6. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-15857-6.

[49] Source: Dallek 2017, pp. 35–36

[50] Source: Smith, Jean Edward (2007). FDR. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6121-1.

[51] Source: Winkler, Allan M. (2006). Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Making of Modern America. pp. 28, 38, 48-49.Longman. ISBN 978-0-321-41285-0.

[52] Sources: (1) McGrath, Charles (April 20, 2008). “No End of the Affair”. The New York Times, and (2) “Lucy Page Mercer Rutherfurd”. Eleanor Roosevelt Papers.

[53] Source: Tully, Grace (2005). Franklin Delano Roosevelt, My Boss. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4179-8926-3.

[54] Sources: (1) Goodwin, Doris Kearns (1995). No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. p.153. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-80448-4. p.153, and (2) Rowley, Hazel (2010). Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage. p.254. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-15857-6.

[55] Source: Mainly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt, plus others where indicated.

[56] Source: Moore, Frazier (September 10, 2014). “PBS’ ‘The Roosevelts’ portrays an epic threesome”. Associated Press.

[57] Ibid.

[58] Sources: (1) Rowley, Hazel (2010). Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage, p.294. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-15857-6 and(2) “Eleanor Roosevelt Biography”. The Biography.com website. A&E Television Networks. 22^nd August 2019. 

[59] Source: “First Lady of the World: Eleanor Roosevelt at Val-Kill”. National Park Service.

[60] Source: “Eleanor Roosevelt Biography”. The Biography.com website. A&E Television Networks. 22^nd August 2019. 

[61] Source: “Mrs Roosevelt, First Lady 12 Years, Often Called ‘World’s Most Admired Woman’”. The New York Times. 8^th November 1962.

[62] Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Equal-Rights-Amendment

[63] Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eleanor-Roosevelt

[64] See:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/first-families/anna-eleanor-roosevelt/

[65] At: https://www.neh.gov/divisions/public/featured-project/teddy-franklin-and-eleanor-more-just-politics

[66] At: https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-roosevelts/timeline/

[67] Source: Vincent Voice Library, Michigan State University

[68] At: https://archive.lib.msu.edu/VVL/dbnumbers/DB512.mp3

[69] Source:  Roosevelt, Theodore (1913a). Youngman, Elmer H (ed.). Progressive Principles. New York: Progressive National Service. p. 215.