I-Search Paper

I-Search Paper

With what has likely been one of the most eventful elections in our lives, and my first election where I was old enough to vote, it had me thinking about politics. And with that, my curiosity brought me to thinking about the Great Depression, and how an event like that affected politics going forward. I personally found a lot of comparisons between the current pandemic and the Great Depression when learning about it, and I drew a lot of comparisons when reading about President Hoover versus our current president, Donald Trump. With the most important election of my life so far having just passed, I wondered what it would hold for the future. I decided that I wanted to research how exactly the Great Depression affected American politics going forward. When learning about the past, it is often that history tends to repeat itself, and you can draw many parallels between situations, so I feel like this topic may give some insight on what may happen in the coming years. I also wanted to understand what was being thought at the time, and how the damage caused by the Great Depression affected people’s thoughts on politics and how the country would have to go forward. I thought initially that I would research a much wider timespan than I ultimately did, but that is in part thanks to World War 2, which is an entirely separate event that shaped views further, and ultimately irrelevant to my topic. Instead, the focus ended up on Franklin D. Roosevelt, since he was president from the Great Depression through to World War 2 until he passed while in office. The sources I found helped me to form an idea as to what was needed during this time for the American people, and what Franklin D. Roosevelt provided that convinced people to vote for him for four elections in a row.

The Great Depression was one of the greatest struggles the United States had ever faced. With that said, it was inevitable that politics would come into play in the midst of such a hardship. To start off, learning about the immediate changes that occurred during the Great Depression seemed like the best starting point. That includes the issues that came about with President Hoover at the reins, and how Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected.

Herbert Hoover was elected in 1928, while the economy was primarily focused on consumption. He had declared a war on poverty at the time, and was succeeding. At least, until it all came crashing down in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The government failed to assist the banks, and 800 banks had to close. With all of this, resentment against Hoover grew. He insisted that the economy was sound, while implementing some policies to try and help the economy. However, unemployment skyrocketed and people suffered greatly, leading to a great resentment of Hoover. This was where Franklin D. Roosevelt came in, promising a “New Deal” to the American people. And this promise worked in securing him the election, winning 57% of the popular vote and sweeping the electoral college.

I read through all of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Fireside Discussions” in research for this, since I figured it would give me a look at what the pressing matters were at the time of his presidency. Roosevelt used these fireside chats to give the American people an understanding of politics and what issues were at the time, ranging from the banking crisis when he came into office up to when the war broke out. These helped to keep the people informed, and built a sort of trust between the American people and their president. For the time, it was extremely progressive, pushing forward both technology and this new sort of relationship between the people and the president. These chats helped to convey how FDR planned to solve the concerns the people had, and make sure they knew what was happening within their own country. I believe it helps greatly in understanding the direction American politics followed, showing how important it is to communicate with the people you have been chosen to lead.

I also found it important to look at the State of the Union addresses. I feel like FDR’s second State of the Union address was a particularly pertinent one, given it specifically discusses a plan of action going forward from where the country is. It wasn’t hard to find his state of the union addresses, and a simple google search led me to wikisource, which provided transcripts for all of them. I had a skim through some of Hoover’s and Truman’s as well, but FDR’s once again proved to be the most helpful in what I wanted to understand. While these State of the Union addresses were more formal than the fireside discussions, they also help to shine a light on what politics were like at the time, and the actions that the government were taking in order to resolve issues caused from the Great Depression and to try and ensure it would not happen again.

Through the process of researching my question, my understanding of the Great Depression and the politics at that time deepened too. I found it really interesting to read about the politics of that time, given how embroiled the current day is in our own politics. Understanding how the Great Depression was handled and just exactly coming to understand Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency really shone a light on what it was like back then.

When I started, I had figured I would be looking at a much wider range of time, and more presidents than just FDR. However, with the research I found, the war ended up coming into play much sooner than I had anticipated, and if I wanted to focus solely on the Great Depression’s effects, the focus would inevitably be on FDR. Once I understood that, it had helped to narrow down what I needed to research.

Overall, I found that in researching my question, it really just became a study on why FDR ended up being so overwhelmingly popular. I feel like the answer is communication. Through reading these sources and taking that into consideration, it felt like FDR had understood what troubles had plagued the country, and addressed those concerns at his fireside discussions and brought them up to congress at his State of the Union addresses. It seems like the Great Depression made a push for people to care about the government and wanted to repair the issues that had caused so many to suffer during the Great Depression. With Franklin D. Roosevelt’s guidance, he became the leader the country wanted, communicating the issues and his solutions on how to help the country recover.

Sources

Primary Source: (Fireside Chats Of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/firesi90.html)

Primary Source: (Franklin D. Roosevelt Second State of the Union Address, Wikisource, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt%27s_Second_State_of_the_Union_Address)

Secondary Source: (FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT: CAMPAIGNS AND ELECTIONS, Miller Center, https://millercenter.org/president/fdroosevelt/campaigns-and-elections)