William Edward Leuchtenburg was born on September 28, 1922 in New York City, New York. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University in 1943 and his Ph.D from Columbia University in 1951. Luechtenburg was previously president of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society of American Historians. William devoted his career educating himself and other about the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The significance of Roosevelt’s policies sparked William Leuchtenburg’s desire to educate others about one of the United States of America’s greatest presidents and how they are influence today’s society. William Leuchtenburg’s Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal consists of a comprehensive history of events during Roosevelt’s first two presidential terms from 1932-1940. Franklin Roosevelt became the president at a time when the Great Depression began and the stock market had crashed, millions were out of work, and banks everywhere were failing. The Great Depression was a production consisting of humungous hardships, thus developed a national atmosphere of melancholy. The American people and government employees expected Roosevelt to establish contemporary economic dogma, which promoted balanced budgets and economy in the government. Upon taking office, Roosevelt moved quickly to cut $400,000,000 from veterans’ pensions and $100,000,000 from federal employees’ pay. Roosevelt introduced a host of new programs that had positive effects within the first 100 days of being in office. Franklin Roosevelt introduced The …show more content…
William Luchetenburg proclaimed, “As a “patron” of labor, Roosevelt had far more interest in developing social legislation to help the worker than in seeing those gains secured through unions.”