The USA 1918 – 41 Great Depression and Wall Street crash

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The USA 1918 - 41 Great Depression and Wall Street crash

Assessing the impact of the New Deal Source Question

. Does this mean that source A is unreliable as evidence about the effects of the new deal on the American people?

Source A is a letter written to President Roosevelt. It describes how the new deal sorted out his mortgage problem and returned all his furniture. Some of Roosevelt priorities included in the new deal are;

Getting Americans back to work and protecting their savings and property. This source shows the effects of the new deal on the American people. It shows the amount of help Roosevelt was willing to offer to the American people to get them out of depression. Two of Roosevelt's policies in the new deal co-inside and offers the type of help described in source A. source A is also unreliable because it contains limited information about how far the new deal was willing to go. The new deal was also helping unemployed people, sick people and old people by giving them food and relief. Between 5000 and 8000 letters received by President Roosevelt we are only looking at one as evidence to show us the positive effects the new deal has on the American people. This letter might have been picked by the President because of its attitude to the new deal and it's pro Roosevelt campaign. This letter might be fake evidence made by Roosevelt to boost his popularity and show Americans how much he is doing for them. This is because Roosevelt was a democrat and is hated by the powerful and wealthy. He would face a hard challenge from the powerful republicans, who had always the support of rich business because of their policies on the economy and (laze e fair) don't get involved in the US economy policy.

2. Which of the two sources B and C is more useful to an historian studying the new deal?

Source B is an extract from "The Roosevelt I knew" document by Francis Perkins in 1947. In source B it talks about how Roosevelt was going to make things better for the average working American. He said that the new deal would help them, it would target all parts of society the poor as well as the rich and the important forces that make up the community like the policemen and councillors should help the ordinary man through these difficult times of the depression.

Source C however is a statistical figures from the US government about the percentage of workers unemployed in the USA between 1929 - 39. It shows an increase of unemployed people from 1929 the unemployed going from just under 5% to 1933 reaching at 25% then slowly decreasing by 1939 unemployment standing at just under 15%. The decrease of unemployment might be due to the effects of the new deal.
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Well both sources are useful to historians. They both offer different types of information about the effects of the new deal on the American people. One source is a written text, a speech from President Roosevelt commenting about the effects of the new deal on ordinary American people. The other source is some statistics showing the performance of the new deal and it's positive effects on the unemployed. Both sources show the vast improvements made by Roosevelt's new deal. Both sources show different into the new deal. One source gives you a figure of unemployed Americans during 1929 ...

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