“Two months ago, in a lively referendum from ocean to ocean, the people of the U. S. chose their own Man of the Year, and clearly the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the Presidency was without equal elsewhere in the world as an individual accomplishment.”
—From the January 2, 1933 issue of TIME magazine
“Two years ago a hundred million people looked to this cheerful, charming gentleman to do something in the greatest industrial crisis on record. This year they used their ballots again, not as a desperate hope but as a grateful reward for services rendered.”
—From the January 7, 1935 issue of TIME magazine
“The relief and release that U.S. citizens felt in 1933, when the President broke the paralysis that had gripped them, was nothing compared to the lifting of heads all over the world when the power and might of the U.S. was thrown into the war. Once he told the people of the U.S.: “This generation has a rendezvous with destiny.” Now there could be no mistaking the fact. He was the man of 1941 because the country he leads stands for the hope of the world.”
—From the January 5, 1942 issue of TIME magazine