FDR and the “Real” Deal..

            Having to find specific sources for research can be frustrating and difficult, but it is also a great feeling when you find the perfect ones. My topic for my paper is Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his involvement in the great depression. This was an easy choice for me because growing up, I had noticed that all of my history textbooks ranted and raved about his presidency during the great depression. There is a general misconception that it was FDR who single-handedly recovered America from the depression. As I got older, understood more about the time and developed new ways of thinking, I found myself disagreeing strongly with what my textbooks had been teaching me for years. In my research I have encountered some difficulties, mainly because most articles do just what textbooks do and endlessly praise him.

In writing my paper I have found and hope to continue to find primary sources that are potentially letters, diary entries or songs. I feel that any of these primary sources would be beneficial to my paper because they are very personal pieces of history. They are going to be the most effective in proving my point because knowing they came straight from someone affected gives it credibility and makes it relatable. For example, finding a song about unemployed Americans in the great depression could really help get my reader to feel the way the writers had felt at the time of its origination, and what inspired it.

Perhaps the reason why FDR is glorified is because textbooks (a tertiary source) love to over generalize history. Perhaps it would take too long to explain problems with the new deal, what happened after FDR’s presidency effectively ended, and how long the great depression continued after he was no longer in office. Maybe these details would ruin the story?

I expect to find more letters and diaries than songs, but I am not sure how many of them will be the type I am looking for. Many letters I have already found are letters of praise written to the president. This is because FDR was put on a pedestal and emulated a form of “savior” to those affected by the depression. But contrary to popular opinion, I am confident that I will find letters or diaries expressing dissatisfaction and anger.

Its definitely going to be a challenge to balance my primary and secondary sources with my tertiary sources solely because anyone who reads my argument has already been inherently swayed by the tertiary belief. However, with persistence I can dig deep past the millions of tertiary biased documents and in doing so find many truthful, emotional and intelligent pieces of work. In finding these primary documents, I will have succeeded in debunking the myth that textbooks print year after year.