Source Analysis OCR: Was the New Deal a Success?

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Source Analysis

Was the New Deal a success?

1)

Source A is from a speech by Roosevelt during his election campaign in 1932. Roosevelt is not yet president so is on his campaign to gain votes. This speech has one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to secure the votes of the American people for Franklin Roosevelt. This speech is a form of propaganda for FDR’s campaign, as it is very persuasive and highly emotive. He uses an extended metaphor, as he compares the depression to a war showing the depression as his and the American peoples enemy. He creates lots of war imagery by saying ‘call to arms’ and ‘destruction’. He uses this metaphor and imagery to call upon the American people’s spirit and patriotism, to come to the aid of their country, in order to wage war, successfully, on the depression. Roosevelt is trying to get the American people to believe that he is the only one who can get them through the depression, and ward off this danger. The use of alliteration, ‘destruction, delay, deceit and despair’ gives the speech a poetic feel. Delay being a criticism of Hoover’s government, who planned to sit back and wait. Deceit, also another criticism of Hoover, and aimed at big businesses and stock brokers for lying. Despair, showing how the majority of Americans were caught in a state of despair because of the depression because of the lack of help from Hoover’s government. Finally, destruction, meaning that the depression had caused a huge collapse in America’s economy.  Roosevelt’s speech starts and ends with his pledge and promise of a ‘New Deal’ highlighting his commitment to it. However Roosevelt cannot lead America out of the depression without becoming president first, so he asks the American public to ‘give me your help’. This is ironic because he then follows with ‘not to win votes’, but how can he help the American people without being elected first? Roosevelt uses this political tactic to make him seem heroic and that the American people and their own welfare, is more important than his election campaign.

2)

Source B and C’s content differs enormously in terms of their judgement on the New Deal, however, they do have their similarities, as both were written post New Deal, and both were written by American historians. Source B begins with asking what were ‘the major achievements of the New Deal?’, showing how it is going to be pro New Deal but also it is therefore going to ‘cherry pick’ evidence in order to show just the achievements of the New Deal. Source B then writes about the achievements of the New Deal, being the ‘restoration of self-confidence’, the ‘physical rebuilding of the country’ and how Roosevelt ‘introduced unemployment assistance, and old-age pensions, and he banned child labour’. This historian particularly focuses on the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC); he clearly felt that this agency was a success of the New Deal as it employed ‘three million young men’. Those quotes show how the American Historian ‘cherry picked’ his evidence, as all of the points shown above are all positive towards Roosevelt and his New Deal, and none are negative. The Historian then goes on to defend Roosevelt by saying, ‘The charge that Roosevelt has been a dictator is not true’ showing the historians view and also showing that he is clearly pro-democrat.

Source C has an extremely differed opinion than that of Source B.  This is first shown obviously, because the source is from a book called ‘The Roosevelt Myth’ which shows that without even reading the text of the source, one can tell it is going to be anti-Roosevelt. Source C begins with a strong criticism of the New Deal, saying ‘one in every four people depends on employment by the government’, and stating that ‘There is a national debt of $250 billion, compared to a pre-Roosevelt debt of $19 billion.’ Yes, Roosevelt did increase government spending by employing all these people under government schemes, but this source was written in 1945, after World War Two, which would have been accountable for most of the ‘$250 billion’ debt. This source is all anti-Roosevelt and his New Deal, showing how the author of this Source was clearly pro-republican, as throughout the source he criticises Roosevelt’s government. He condemns Roosevelt’s actions as ruthless, in particular his spending, and the money and power that Congress had given him and saying that the only result of this would be a ‘dictatorial government’.

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3)

Source D shows a photograph taken in 1937 of black people queuing for government relief. It is important to notice that the people in the photo are not queuing for charity but purposefully set up government aid. All the people queuing are black Americans, showing how the depression has greatly affected Black Americans, and that they now have to rely on government aid. This is completely juxtaposed with the billboard behind, which shows a seemingly wealthy white family, driving their car, next to the slogan ‘There’s no way like the American Way’ and under the ...

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