Roosevelt's Heritage

History Coursework – Depth Study C: The USA, 1919-1941

Assignment A: Question 1
Did Roosevelt’s upbringing, background and character make it easy for him to understand the concerns and fears of ordinary Americans? Explain your answer.
To understand if Roosevelt knew and understood the problems fears and concerns we have to take a look at him and his upbringing.
Roosevelt was born in 1882 to a rich family of land owners, who were privileged, had good connections and were financially secured. He grew up in a rich environment were friends and other families had a lot of money as well. It is said that his mother was quiet protective and fact is that Roosevelt was teached at home meaning he had no connection to ordinary Americans. Ordianary
FDR revealed his plans for the new deal which aimed to bring three things. Relief, Relieve the poor, feed the starving and stop people losing their homes or farms. Recovery, reviving the economy, getting people to work again and helping the industry. Reform by making America a better place for ordinary people to live.
The first New Deal was an emergency act made by Roosevelt during his Hundred Day phase in which the congress gave him emergency powers, the same powers he would have received if the country had been invaded. This New Deal was temporary to quickly stop or slow down the crisis so that long term plans could be made. So called alphabet agencies were set up which included organizations like the FCA, the AAA, the CCC and many more. These created emergency relief for the once who had been hit worst and created desperately needed jobs.
The FCA and AAA (Farm Credit Administration, Agricultural Adjustment Agency) were aimed to primarily help the farmers who had been hit by the dust blows or by sinking prices for farm goods. The lower the prices sunk, the more farmers produced, making the prices sink even lower. Especially the AAA helped the second problem by buying lots of farm goods and farm animals and destroying them to reduce the amount of food on the market. They also paid farmers to use only part of their fields so that the amount of food on the market
He didn’t actually know how or how much it would costs. When he was elected he had to then take action. The economy was in such a terrible state that there was no other solution than supporting the economy with government money. Otherwise there would have probably been a famine as people would have run out of food. Roosevelt worked together with a set of experts called brain trust. This brain trust was meant to work out the best solution for the problem. Later people said there were surely other actions, but since the senate and the House of Representatives were prepared to give Roosevelt extreme power we can assume that no other solution was known or at least no solution that was in any way better than the New Deal as we know it. These powers were only given in extreme situations. It was important to provide food and shelter for people in the first place, otherwise there would have been a famine and maybe even a revolution. The agencies which were set up did consume a lot of money but they gave work, food, shelter and money to the people. People started hoping again. Only people with hope will work at their full potential, if there is no hope why should they work hard. The result shows us that it did work out since a lot of people had work again and the economy wasn’t doing too bad anymore. As we have seen in other sources before, there were downsides to