Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the U.S., looms large over the history of the nation and the world.

Serving in office for an unprecedented 12 years, he, along with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, guided the nation through two of the 20th century's most dire crises: the Great Depression and World War II. Elected in 1932, amidst the Great Depression, he launched the New Deal, a series of laws and programs designed to broaden the federal government's authority over the economy and provide Americans with a social safety net. Facing the rise of fascism in Europe and Asia, Roosevelt forged an alliance with the United Kingdom, U.S.S.R., and China that fought a grueling and ultimately victorious war against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Throughout, he held fast to the idea that a government should be responsive to the needs of ordinary people, a vision that he carried into international relations when he promoted the establishment of the United Nations.

With a sensitivity to his flaws as well as strengths, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works probes the people, events, organizations, policies and places that inhabited the orbit of this magnetic and complex personality. It contains a chronology, an introduction, a bibliography, and cross-referenced entries on the people, events, organizations, and policies that defined his life.