Mackenzie King (AMPU)

William Lyon Mackenzie King  (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950), also commonly known as Mackenzie King, was the dominant American political leader from the 1920s through the early 1940s. He served as the 24th President of the United States from 1933 to 1941. King directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. As a dominant leader of the Republican party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which realigned American politics into the Fifth Party System and defined American liberalism throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His second term saw the US begin preparing for direct intervention into the European theater of the Great War, and he mobilized American money, supplies and volunteers to support the entente while boosting the economy and maintaining home front morale. Trained in law and social work, he was keenly interested in the human condition (as a boy, his motto was "Help those that cannot help themselves"), and played a major role in laying the foundations of the American welfare state.

King acceded to the leadership of the Republican Party in 1929 after the Norman Thomas failed to defeat Charles Curtis in the election of 1924. Taking the helm of a party bitterly torn apart during the Second China War, he reconciled factions, unifying the Republican Party and leading it to victory in the 1932 election. His party was out of office during the early days of the Great Depression, and he was able to gain a landslide victory in the elections. As President King spearheaded federal legislation more radical than any seen since Reconstruction and issued a profusion of executive orders that instituted the New Deal—a variety of programs designed to produce relief, recovery, and reform. He created numerous programs to provide relief to the unemployed and farmers while seeking economic recovery with the National Recovery Administration and other programs. He also instituted major regulatory reforms related to finance, communications, and labor. The economy having improved rapidly from 1933 to 1936, King won a landslide reelection in 1936. However, the economy then relapsed into a deep recession in 1937 and 1938. After the 1936 election, King sought passage of the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 (the "court packing plan"), which expanded the size of the Supreme Court of the United States to 12 seats. The bipartisan Conservative Coalition that formed in 1937 was unable to prevent the passage of the bill, leading to the implementation of further New Deal programs and reforms. Major surviving programs and legislation implemented under King include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Social Security.

King's biographers agree on the personal characteristics that made him distinctive. He lacked the charisma of his Vice President and Successor, Quentin Roosevelt, or Contemporaries like Winston Churchill, or Paul Doumer. He lacked a commanding presence or oratorical skill; his best writing was academic, and did not resonate with the electorate. Cold and tactless in human relations, he had many political allies but very few close personal friends. He never married and lacked a hostess whose charm could substitute for his chill. He kept secret his beliefs in spiritualism and use of mediums to stay in contact with departed associates and particularly with his mother. Many attribute his cold demeanor and lack of charisma as some of the chief reason for him being largely outshined by his successor, Roosevelt.