"Roosevelt was bold. He told people what he was going to do. And he did it. But he was not bold enough. "We will review this statement and in conclusion we will agree or disagree with it. Using the sources to support and justify our argument.

“Roosevelt was bold. He told people what he was going to do. And he did it. But he was not bold enough.”

We will review this statement and in conclusion we will agree or disagree with it. Using the sources to support and justify our argument.

Roosevelt succeeded Hoover as President, on his assassination in 1901. Roosevelt became very popular and became famous for tackling business monopolies, and initiating the conservation of natural resources to cut down on unemployment. He also won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was born to a wealthy, upper class merchant and was well educated and attended Harvard where he developed political interests. There is no doubt and we can immediately agree with the first three points of the title because Roosevelt was certainly a bold man however the last, ‘but he was not bold enough,’ is thoroughly disputable and can be argued with the use of the sources.

When we look at source A we can not extract much useful information in relevance to the title. The letter is an extremely small example of the 5000 to 8000 letters that Roosevelt received every day. The letter is from a citizen euphorically thanking the president for stopping the reposition of their house. This shows that Roosevelt had support and was interested in the community. Also it shows that the Roosevelt US is a good place but it does not show anything about how bold FDR was. The source is a reliable primary source and so is reliable but does not show us anywhere near the whole picture. The source is also not useful because it bears no resemblance to the title but does show some aspects of Roosevelt and his popularity.

Source B is photographic and so is totally reliable although is subtly limited by it’s medium. The picture is also probably a propaganda piece showing the caring president taken the effort to spend time with the poor, working class. It was taken at a time when unemployment was at an all time high and it shows the people the good effect of the new deal employment schemes. It shows that he was bold appearing in public with the working class and mixing classes as he was from an upper class family. Everyone is smiling in the photo, which projects ...

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The graph in source B is the first good example of Roosevelt’s boldness. The unemployment levels peak in 1933 at the time of the Wall Street crash and also around the time that FDR came to power. Roosevelt is bold enough to spend very much state money on employment schemes in his new deal and this works because the levels of unemployment fall, not dramatically but slowly. He keeps up this government spending until 1937 and at this point he cuts the funds and the unemployment figures rise sharply. This completely agrees with the title. It shows that he was bold to spend the money on these schemes and he told everyone what he was doing, but as soon as the situation had improved he was not bold enough to keep up the funding on the employment schemes. This source is reliable because it is totally compiled of facts. It is also useful because it shows each aspect of the title and agrees with it.

The next source, D is an example of the opposition to Roosevelt in the form of unemployment and benefit figures. The company would have published this document to raise an opposition against FDR. The problem that this American company clearly has with the presidency is the fact that acts were passed to disenable companies to employ any form of cheap labour in the form of child labour or pensioners. They are also getting at the fact and are making out that Roosevelt is a lazy public school boy who would prefer to be fishing than running the country. This shows that Roosevelt was bold to bring in these acts to prevent cheap labour but does not show that he was not bold enough. This source is not reliable because it uses fictional figures. It does however have the use of showing us the mood of employers in and around 1936 but this bears little relevance to the question.

Next we can see that source E is clearly reliable and factual clearly from the fact that it is taken from a textbook. Although an American text book there is no market for a non-factual, bias textbook. In this source it speaks of care and confidence, which are both, characterised in boldness. It supports the second phrase in the title by speaking of his ‘fireside chats’ press conferences and endless mail. We can see communication and boldness in this source there appears to be no lack of boldness. This source is extremely useful and because it is so reliable it can almost singularly back up my argument.

It is certain and made even clearer with the use of these few sources that Roosevelt was definitely a bold man. We can also now say though in conclusion that there is no evidence in these sources that there was any limitation to Roosevelt’s boldness and courage. We can safely say therefore that;

“Roosevelt was bold. He told people what he was going to do. And he did it.”