Roosevelts Research Project Step 1

“This nation asks for action, and action now. Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.”

Discussion: Following the Great War, as the only major western nation not devastated by that conflict, Americans felt pretty good about themselves. The continued economic growth, political conservatism and general absence of concerns over foreign affairs led Americans to think of themselves as "having it made." In the 1920s there were deep divisions in the country despite the "roaring" atmosphere brought about by bathtub gin, speakeasies, flappers, women voting, jazz, sports and all the rest. Then at the end of that self-satisfied, raucous and somewhat grumpy decade, when the expectations of many people knew no bounds, the market crashed and the Depression hit. Some Americans never got over the shock.

Imagine what it was like to go from the consumer-oriented, free spirited "roaring twenties" to the depths of the Great Depression. Review Caroline Bird’s essay on poverty and try to imagine what it must have been like to live during the Depression. Look carefully at FDR’s inaugu-ral and think how you would have viewed him. This is an era your grandparents and perhaps even parents may remember. If you're in touch, ask them about what it was like being alive during the Depression.
Following the Gilded Age, America’s economy continued to boom and prosper off and on until the Depression hit in the early 1930s. Was our economy really that good, or were we just riding a wave of good fortune based on our virtually unlimited resources of gold, silver, land, timber, etc.? Was America's contribution to world economic progress more than just an accident? Were Americans able to "make things happen" in economic terms?
How about government? Did the American government control business well? Did it help? Hurt? Do political decisions really affect the economy? How about the New Deal? Did it do much good that wouldn't have occurred anyway if the government had stayed out?
FDR learned about government during World War I as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He saw the national economy mobilized for war in 1918-19. What parallels did he see between that experience and fighting depression? Where can you find evidence of that?
Evaluate the American political system with reference to the economic conditions for the average American. How well has our government succeeded in securing economic benefits for all Americans? How has government failed to give people what they need to get ahead? Is it really the business of govern-ment to see to it that people succeed economically? To what degree or level? Do we really have a laissez faire system? Do we really want one? Wouldn't we all be better off if the government simply kept its nose out of business? What evidence is there in our past that we can't afford to do that?
How should we deal with the very wealthy? How much is enough for any person? Can capitalism work when a very few have enormous wealth and others struggle just to get along?
How about Huey Long and his Share-Our-Wealth program—should we rethink that idea? Does it relate to current economic thinking?
When Alistair Cooke got to the end of his "America" series on PBS a few years ago, he summed up American society in one quota-tion from a someone who had "seen it all"—a man who had shined shoes in New York’s grand Central Station for many years. He said: "There is no free lunch!" What do you think? Is that the way it is with us?

SOURCES ON THE GREAT DEPRESSION & THE NEW DEAL