Letters: Sources for my Second Paper

For my second paper, I chose to analyze letters from the Great Depression. I chose letters because they displayed the rawest emotion from the time. For example, I used two letters from average citizens. One was addressed to Eleanor Roosevelt, and the other to President Franklin Roosevelt. Both letters were asking for assistance because they couldn’t afford their homes or new clothing anymore. Using these letters to showcase the Great Depression had its pro’s and con’s. They were effective to use because they represented the struggle across the nation. However, they could have been ineffective because not everyone was struggling, in that here were still wealthier people who were able to not lose everything. While those people may have been far a few between, it is not appropriate to count them out of history. Their presence in the great depression was just as important. It could have been these people who created various jobs, helped familes survive, or were just plain greedy in such a time of need. Now that I think about it, I think it would have been beneficial to find a letter written by one of these wealthier type citizens. Just to compare and contrast the different sides of the depression. I believe that every type of source will provide someone with different and helpful research material about a topic. For example, If I had used maps, I may have been able to show the parts of the country most affected or least affected. I could have used quantitative history to show percentages of people in cities that were poor and unemployed etc. The neatest part about history is that we have so many sources to choose from, and you can always use them in different ways.