History HW - Write 2 page paper,answer 13 questions, create complex thesis per instructions

Nevertheless, the New Deal enjoyed widespread popularity, and President Roosevelt launched a second burst of activity, often called the Second New Deal or the Second Hundred Days. During this phase, the pres- ident called on Congress to provide more extensive relief for both farmers and workers.

The president was prodded in this direction by his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, a social reformer who com- bined her deep humanitarian impulses with great politi- cal skills. Eleanor Roosevelt traveled the country, observ- ing social conditions and reminding the president about the suffering of the nation’s people. She also urged him to appoint women to government positions.

REELECTING FDR The Second New Deal was under way by the time of the 1936 presidential election. The Republicans nominated Alfred Landon, the governor of Kansas, while the Democrats, of course, nominated President Roosevelt for a second term. The election resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Democrats, who won the presidency and large majorities in both houses. The election marked the first time that most

African Americans had voted Democratic rather than Republican, and the first time that labor unions gave united support to a presidential candidate. The 1936 election was a vote of confidence in FDR and the New Deal.

Helping Farmers In the mid-1930s, two of every five farms in the United States were mortgaged, and thousands of small farmers lost their farms. The novelist John Steinbeck described the experience of one tenant farmer and his family.

A PERSONAL VOICE JOHN STEINBECK “ Across the dooryard the tractor cut, and the hard, foot-beaten ground was seeded field, and the tractor cut through again; the uncut space was ten feet wide. And back he came. The iron guard bit into the house-corner, crumbled the wall, and wrenched the little house from its foun- dation so that it fell sideways, crushed like a bug. . . . The tractor cut a straight line on, and the air and the ground vibrated with its thunder. The ten- ant man stared after it, his rifle in his hand. His wife was beside him, and the quiet children behind. And all of them stared after the tractor.”

—The Grapes of Wrath

FOCUSING ON FARMS When the Supreme Court struck down the AAA early in 1936, Congress passed another law to replace it: the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act. This act paid farmers for cutting production of soil- depleting crops and rewarded farmers for practicing good soil conservation meth- ods. Two years later, in 1938, Congress approved a second Agricultural Adjustment Act that brought back many features of the first AAA. The second AAA did not include a processing tax to pay for farm subsidies, a provision of the first AAA that the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional.

702 CHAPTER 23

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Eleanor Roosevelt visits a children’s hospital in 1937.

A

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A Summarizing

Why did Roosevelt launch the Second Hundred Days?

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A poster promotes the movie adaption of John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath.