SOURCE: "President Franklin Delano Roosevelt," in Personal Impressions, edited by Henry Hardy, The Hogarth Press, 1980, pp. 23-31.

In the following essay, Berlin gives his impressions of Roosevelt and his influence, characterizing him as "the greatest leader of democracy, the greatest champion of social progress in the twentieth century. "

I never met Roosevelt, and although I spent more than three years in Washington during the war, I never even saw him. I regret this, for it seems to me that to see and, in particular, to hear the voice of someone who has occupied one's imagination for many years, must modify one's impression in some profound way, and make it somehow more concrete and three-dimensional. However, I never did see him, and I heard him only over the wireless. Consequently, I must try to convey my impression without the benefit of personal acquaintance, and without, I ought to add...