Did Roosevelt's upbringing, background and character make it easy for him to understand the concerns and fears of ordinary Americans?

As a young man, he was introduced to a distance relation - Eleanor, who later went on to become his wife. It was Eleanor who finally opened his eyes to the harshness of poverty, due to her charity work in New York Slums. He continued to lead a 'playboy' lifestyle and had no real purpose in his career.

In 1921, aged 39 years old, Roosevelt contracted Polio; a crippling disease that proved fatal to 25% of its sufferers. Unable to walk and living in great pain, it seemed that his life and career in politics were over. He never accepted the fact that he was crippled and refused to talk to anyone about it, spending the rest of his life trying out new exercises and techniques. Eleanor refused to give up, despite his deep depression, and entered the field of women's politics talking about equality, housing and poverty to keep the Roosevelt name alive.

After a period of no purpose in his life and feeling sorry for himself, he visited a warm spring in South Georgia, thought to have healing powers. He left there without a healed body, but with a new purpose and direction in life. In 1926 he spent 2/3rds of his fortune ( - $195 000) buying a run-down hotel and doing it up to become a rehabilitation centre, mainly for young victims of polio, calling it 'Warm Springs'. This is the first unselfish, charitable deed he had ever done and it opened his eyes to the fact that so many people were worse off than him.

The polio brought him an understanding of pain and suffering that he had never been able to relate to before, as well as maturing him as a person. The lesson of real poverty was the next to come.

Roosevelt had always loved to drive, and he converted a car that he was able to drive without the use of his legs. Warm Springs had become his second home and he would spend hours driving around the Georgia countryside. Along his travels he met poverty-stricken farmers, telling him of the high-rents and poor wages, and even more shocking to him, the fact that they lived life with no electricity or education. Feeling deeply for them, he wanted to make a difference to their lives struck with all the despair and desperation that he had met due to his battle with polio, and has finally had the chance to understand ordinary civilians. He was finally given the perfect opportunity to practice all that church had taught him as a child many years ago and he discovered that he enjoyed it.

In 1928 he became Governor of New York and sets up a programme of aid for farmers, due to knowledge he gained in Georgia of their hardships. When the Wall Street Crash came in October 1929, he provided unemployment benefit and opened soup kitchens for the hungry along with handing out free coffee and sandwiches to anyone who knocked on his door.

The factors around his charitable work and his understanding of what ordinary Americans needed had nothing to do with his background and the way he had been brought up. Until he personally experienced suffering due to the polio, he had been ignorant of the reality of hardship, and had never realised that he enjoyed meeting, talking and caring for others in need. Through his polio and times in Georgia at Warm Springs, he learnt the most valuable lessons he would ever learn - the hopes and fears of the average civilian.