"The Financial house of cards collapses, a financial panic grips the world. Practically overnight an economic blizzard swept the world. It is always the unemployed, the soup kitchens, the grinding poverty, and the despair” (Unidentified Man). This quote perfectly explains the hardships America had to trouble through during the 1920s. America was hit with it’s worst economy ever known to United States history. The author of “The Great Depression America 1929-1941," Robert S. McElvaine, gives readers a guide into a world literally turned inside out by the huge and routine economic disorganization that suddenly sprouted in the late 1920s. McElvaine stresses less on the history of what led to the Great Depression and more on the effect the Great
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McElvaine is more than just a narrator of facts, he gives readers an interpretation of what was going on in the late 1920s. Numerous statements or opinions expressed by McElvaine lack facts or quotes to support him. Although he wrote this text in the 1980s, McElvaine gives us the sense that he was actually living during the Great Depression. He draws connections throughout the book, and also in articles, between the 1920s and the late twentieth century. An example of these would be regarding things to consumption and also to a stock market index that seemed during the 1920s to reach unpredicted heights. I found McElvaine 's consistent use of letters from affected Americans to the President to be interesting and a very valuable attachment to the argument that McElvaine was making; that FDR was a source of hope & inspiration to so many, even though he wasn 't the world 's best economic brainiac. Overall this text falls under the primary source category because all these sources offer information during the time period of the 20th century. Robert McElvaine did show a clear bias against wealthy citizens and entrepreneurs instead of the working poor. McElvaine also shows an affection towards Roosevelt 's policies, though he doesn’t admit they were failures. McElvaine excuses these failures because the president 's intensions were for the better good. Roosevelt is only evaluated by the author on his intensions, not by the success of his programs. This text is clearly structured in a manner that is very easy to comprehend and McElvaine 's descriptions of America 's times before the depression was easily compared with old-fashioned ideals of the 1920s
McElvaine is more than just a narrator of facts, he gives readers an interpretation of what was going on in the late 1920s. Numerous statements or opinions expressed by McElvaine lack facts or quotes to support him. Although he wrote this text in the 1980s, McElvaine gives us the sense that he was actually living during the Great Depression. He draws connections throughout the book, and also in articles, between the 1920s and the late twentieth century. An example of these would be regarding things to consumption and also to a stock market index that seemed during the 1920s to reach unpredicted heights. I found McElvaine 's consistent use of letters from affected Americans to the President to be interesting and a very valuable attachment to the argument that McElvaine was making; that FDR was a source of hope & inspiration to so many, even though he wasn 't the world 's best economic brainiac. Overall this text falls under the primary source category because all these sources offer information during the time period of the 20th century. Robert McElvaine did show a clear bias against wealthy citizens and entrepreneurs instead of the working poor. McElvaine also shows an affection towards Roosevelt 's policies, though he doesn’t admit they were failures. McElvaine excuses these failures because the president 's intensions were for the better good. Roosevelt is only evaluated by the author on his intensions, not by the success of his programs. This text is clearly structured in a manner that is very easy to comprehend and McElvaine 's descriptions of America 's times before the depression was easily compared with old-fashioned ideals of the 1920s