GCSE Coursework: America Between the Wars

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Lucien West

History Coursework                                                                                  City of London School

GCSE Coursework: America Between the Wars

Use source A and your knowledge of the period to explain why people supported Roosevelt in the 1932 election.

  1. When Roosevelt was elected, he won because the majority of the America supported his promises and the New Deal. Herbert Hoover had believed in what he called ‘rugged individualism’ and that the government should not interfere with people’s problems. This meant that with the Great Depression people said ‘In Hoover we trusted and now we are busted’. When Roosevelt was elected in 1932, he had promised to restore the confidence and economy of America. In source A, he refers to his campaign as a ‘call to arms’ as though America was at war and not just in a depression. Roosevelt’s speech also shows that he cares about the future of America and has ideas for helping America including the New Deal. He reached out to Americans to help them, and they accepted him as the president to America.


How do these two judgements on the New Deal differ?

  1. Source B was written in favour of Roosevelt’s actions and New Deal whereas Source C was written against Roosevelt. Source B explains how there was a ‘restoration of confidence’ whereas source C says that a quarter of people ‘depend on employment by the government’. In source B the text explains how Roosevelt ‘has no greater power’ whereas source C implies that Roosevelt’s power has led to a ‘dictatorial government’. Source B then goes on to describe how Roosevelt has ‘introduced unemployment assistance’ and cut down on unemployment while source C contradicts this saying that there was still ‘11million unemployed’.  
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What message do you think the photographer is trying to give?

  1. This photograph is quite ironic because of the poster in the background showing a family of white Americans having a good time with the caption ‘there’s no way like the American way’ and the black Americans are queuing in poverty with the complete opposite of feelings then the poster. Roosevelt’s alphabet agencies were not targeted to help black people, some of them even aggravating the black Americans by driving them off their land and killing their livestock. The problem of racism was still a ...

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