In today’s society, it is hard to comprehend the struggles and hardship Americans suffered during the Great Depression and the unexpected disaster of the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. The Great Depression paralyzed the hard-working Americans leaving one-third of the population living in low poverty. They had minimum sources of food, clothes and health care and the majority lost their jobs, homes, farms, crops, and businesses. During this time, President Roosevelt made a statement during his second inaugural that, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little” (163). In a state of despair thousands of Americans (adults and teenagers) from all …show more content…
Eleanor was the first lady married to president Franklin Roosevelt, she worked tirelessly to understand the effects of the Great Depression. “With boundless energy, she traveled throughout the country, observing conditions firsthand and reporting back to her husband” (166). Eleanor was very important to the people suffering because they counted on her to speak for them and get the word out about their conditions. Eleanor received thousands upon thousands of letters describing their situations and asking for some sort of help. One of the letters coming from Wachapreague, Virginia was from a young girl reaching out for help because she had to miss years of school so she could help support her family. All this young girl wanted was a good education and was willing to work day and night to help pay for it. To get the word out, Eleanor hosted a weekly radio show and even wrote a daily column that could be seen in seventy-five different newspapers. She discussed the everyday issues about the struggling family’s in the mid-west and how she plans to help. “To millions of Americans Eleanor Roosevelt represented the heart of the New Deal” (166). She worked her hardest to make things possible for these families and in the end, the New Deal was a
Eleanor Roosevelt’s Political Impact on FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was one of the most influential presidents and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt was equally influential. She was very active in politics and called the “First Lady of the World” by President Truman for her dedication to making life better for everyone. Eleanor played a critical role in FDR’s presidency and political decisions. Beginning in December 1935, Eleanor began writing a newspaper column about her everyday life and political views called “My Day”.
The people living through the Great Depression’s toughest challenge was finding a job to help provide for their families survive the harsh demands of the business world. Industrial companies were in decline and the stock market crashed. Their struggles only persisted and hope for new opportunities were
Rober 1 Luna Rober Mrs.Rengifo Language Arts February 16, 2023 Women’s History Month Biography Eleanor Roosevelt was known as a controversial first lady. She was a confident, outspoken feminist and humanitarian who made history and inspired many minorities. She advocated for expanded roles for women in their workplace, the civil rights of African Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights of World War II refugees. Yet, Eleanor Roosevelt’s life was not as happy as it seemed. Early Life
In the words of Robert Frost, “Nothing gold can stay.” Such is a true story for the American economy from the height of the roaring 20s, to the depths of the Great Depression. Since the overuse of credit, the farm crisis, and several other factors brought on the Great Depression, the nation was in desperate need of a leader and a way out of their economic crisis. Americans, in their desperation, sought change to end the suffering of the Great Depression in Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and his New Deal. In the 1930’s, FDR enacted a series of laws in the U.S. known as the New Deal which were ineffective in dealing with the Great Depression, since the New Deal wasted deficit dollars into the economy, neglected the suffering of both women and minorities, and
A.Introduction:History of the United States has numerous remarkable ladies who have rolled out critical improvements in women’s life. Two of such ladies were Eleanor Roosevelt Margaret Sanger and they lived roughly in the meantime. They both contributed immensely to change the women’s lives, roles and position them equally with men. Eleanor Roosevelt was born in 1884 in New York. Despite the fact that she was born in a wealthy family, her adolescence was miserable.
In both large cities and small towns working class people were destitute without funds to support their families. New York City reported an “estimated half million workers were left without means” (Sellers 137). In Virginia, farms and slaves were auctioned off to pay debts leaving a “sad spectacle of wasted and deserted field” (Feller 56). Feller’s noted the economic downturn took its toll on Americans as it “belied glib confidence in a better tomorrow” (56). There was an “outpouring of anger from the depression’s innocent victims” (Sellers 162).
This affirms that people trusted Roosevelt and wrote to her about how their civil rights were obstructed. In “My Day” she wrote from the ideas and perspectives of the people. Roosevelt dedicated much of her time to thousands of newspapers to get her point across to the world. She published six books, held speeches, traveled many miles and held her own press conferences. The media finally decided to employ women reporters and to put more of a look into a women's current life and conflicts (“Great Depression and New Deal” 3 ).
The Great Depression was far-reaching, and impartial. It affected people of all race, gender, status, and nationality. Men and women of almost all social classes felt the hard effects of unemployment and poverty. The Great Depression had devastating economic and political effects on the country during the 1930’s; however, the effects ran much deeper. Social inequality was boundless during this time period: the nation’s wealth was unbalanced, racial disparity was more prominent than ever, and gender still determined who was considered a first-rate citizen (Kennedy 70-73).
Elizabeth Warren, Senator of Massachusetts, described America’s economy as a boom an and bust economy leading up to the Great Depression. She explained because of the economy’s sporadic growth and decline that kept repeating, the outcomes of it were, “fortunes were wiped out, ordinary families were crushed under it.” The unfortunate event in U.S History caused many families across the country, particularly to the working class, to live in poverty due to the declining economy and employment instabilities. Franklin Roosevelt, the 32nd U.S President, created a series of programs called the “New Deal” that helped those who were in poverty in these dire times.
When Roosevelt came along he help pick up peoples spirits (“The New Deal”). Franklin D. Roosevelt had come into office promising a New Deal for the American people, This was used to help address the effects of the Great Depression. Roosevelt had and many others had made many new and successful programs that helped people get back on their feet such as the Emergency Banking Bill, which stabilized the banking system and restored the faith back into the public. With all of these new programs Roosevelt had given the people their hope and their jobs back (“The New
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams" ("Eleanor Roosevelt"). Eleanor Roosevelt believed the beauty of her dreams, followed through with them and became an outstanding First Lady who fought to change women's and civil rights. Eleanor Roosevelt has positively changed modern society by changing the role of the First Lady and by fighting for political and social change for women's and civil right. Eleanor Roosevelt has significantly benefited modern society by changing the role of being a first lady. As first lady, Eleanor used her job as tool a for change (Marsico 64).
Eleanor was one of the first First ladies to take advantage of her husband 's career and make one of her own. Despite following in the footsteps of Lady Wilson, Eleanor was the first wife to publicly stand by her husband 's side and show her interest in politics and activism and expanded the role of First Lady even more. “Eleanor Roosevelt raised the bar of expectations into the stratosphere for future first ladies by completely transforming the role into a position focused on communication, social activism, and political partnership. As a woman with a vision and an independent mind, Eleanor dedicated herself to ambitious campaigns aimed at expanding basic human rights not only at home, but also abroad"(Eddins, 2016). Although Lady Roosevelt preferred to be involved in activism, she tended to some aspects of the traditional hostess role.
Eleanor Roosevelt Eleanor Roosevelt had many wonderful personality traits that I admired. She was a caring lady. Eleanor worked in the charity kitchens, ladling out soup. She also helped in the work of the League of Women Voters, the Consumer’s League, and the Foreign Policy Association. After, she became interested in the problems of working women.
Even though there were some “violent protests and strikes… across the country”, most people claimed that “in spite of hard times, the president had given them hope,” and this hope had come through the relief from the New Deal (Grubin). The people felt like they had a strong connection or relationship with the president through the Fire Side Chats, which was Mr. President speaking to them through the radio every Sunday. They also gained this hope during President Roosevelt’s inaugural address, in which he told the country that the only thing they had to fear was fear itself (Grubin). This hope had given the Washington boys, and much of the country, hope to create a determination to push through the Great Depression’s touch challenges. By pushing through these challenges, they became stronger mentally from training their minds, socially from learning to get along with different people, emotionally from learning to control their emotions, and physically from conditioning and working hard at rowing.
The great depression made a major impact on the lives of the people that lived through it. One group of people that is often overlooked are children that lived during that time period. When the parents lost their jobs the responsibility the parent once held was put on the children of the families to contribute to the income of the home. Because of this in the great depression “two-fifths of children were employed in part time jobs” (Elder 65). In Glen Elder’s book Children of the Great Depression: Social Change in Life Experience he discusses how the depression affected those children in their later lives.