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programs, passed the Railroad Coordination Act FDR requested to reorganize the nation’s railroads, approved the Glass-Steagall Act divesting investment houses of their banking functions, and voted the largest peacetime appropriation bill in the nation’s history. Of the four, the Glass-Steagall Act had the most far-reaching implications. In addition to decreeing that those who sold securities could no longer handle the bank accounts of those who bought them, the act gave the Federal Reserve Board authority to set interest rates and established a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to guarantee bank deposits up to $2,500—in effect more than 95 percent of all individual accounts in 1933.96 FDR had initially opposed the deposit guarantee because he believed it would encourage bankers to be reckless; the weak banks, as he put it, would bring down the strong.97 But congressional support for deposit insurance was overwhelming. Roosevelt threatened to veto the measure, but when it became clear his veto would be overridden, he gave way. Ironically, federal deposit insurance, a New Deal stepchild, so to speak, became the most successful of the many successful programs launched during the hundred days. The peril of bank failure was almost totally eliminated, and even when a bank did fail—which was rare after 1933—a depositor’s funds remained secure.

When the hundred days ended in the early morning hours of June 16, Congress had shattered all precedent for legislative activity. Roosevelt had sent fifteen messages to the Hill, and Congress had responded with fifteen historic pieces of legislation.* FDR’s mastery of the legislative process was complete. He compromised when compromise was necessary, zigzagged when required, but in the end saw his program through. “It’s more than a New Deal,” said Interior secretary Harold Ickes. “It’s a new world.”98

Franklin H. Delano, 1882, Sara’s “Uncle Frank,” for whom FDR was named.

Sara Delano Roosevelt in Rome, on her honeymoon, in 1881.

Franklin, six years old, with a Campobello playmate, at the wheel of Half Moon, his father’s yacht.

At seven years old, on his pony “Debby.”

Age fifteen, at the Delano estate in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

Franklin and Sara in 1893.

James, Franklin, and Sara in 1899, one year before James’s death.

Springwood, the home of James and Sara in Hyde Park, as it appeared in 1885.

The Roosevelt twin town houses at 47–49 East Sixty-fifth Street in New York City. FDR and Eleanor occupied number 49 (right), Sara number 47. Note the common entry and the Roosevelt family crest between the third and fourth floors.

Algonac, the home of the Delano family in Newburgh, New York, where Sara was raised.

The Roosevelt home in Hyde Park as it appeared after Sara and FDR’s 1916–1917 renovations.

Groton first and second football teams. FDR (without school letter) is seated second from the left in the first row.

Reverend Peabody frowned on too much privacy for his charges.

The Harvard Crimson, 1904. Roosevelt (center) was president of the Crimson during his final year at Harvard—an incredibly important and prestigious position, the significance of which is best appreciated by Harvard grads.

Eleanor, as she appeared in Saint-Moritz in 1898.

Young marrieds at Hyde Park in 1905. In a reversal of roles, Franklin is knitting while Eleanor holds a cocktail glass.

Campobello, 1914, FDR’s thirty-four room “cottage,” given to him by Sara in 1909.

FDR and Eleanor with Elliott, James, and Anna, 1912.

FDR greeting Dutchess County voters during his first political campaign, running for the New York State Senate in 1910.

Flag Day, 1914. Left to right: Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, President Woodrow Wilson, Assistant Secretaries of State Breckinridge Long and William Phillips, and FDR.

Assistant Secretary Roosevelt leads the Washington Senators in a demonstration of patriotic solidarity, May 14, 1917.

FDR and Josephus Daniels standing on the balcony outside their