America and the Great Depression

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America and the Great Depression

1. Compare the ideas behind the protest movements of Huey Long and Upton Sinclair.

The Era of the Great Depression was one of both desperation and hope. Americans were desperate for a change, desperate for anything to come along that may improve their situation, yet hopeful that the light at the end of the tunnel was near. For many of those living in poverty during the 1930s, the “radical” leftist movements seen throughout the country appeared to be alternatives to the sometimes ineffective programs of FDR’s New Deal. Two such programs, Huey Long’s “Share Our Wealth” plan and Upton Sinclair’s End Poverty in California (EPIC) were fairly popular, mainly for their appealing alternatives to the current New Deal programs and ideals. Though the two movements were similar in some sense, both had different visions for the recovery of the American people.

Huey Long, two-time Senator of Louisiana, was founder of the “Share Our Wealth” plan. A redistribution of the nation’s wealth, the plan called for one third of the country’s money to be divided among all the people. In the early 1930s, 4% of the American population held 87% of the wealth. (Polenberg 127) Long’s plan called for an end to this imbalance. “None too poor, none too rich” was his slogan. (Polenberg 126)

The “Share Our Wealth” movement was made up of eight parts. A homestead allowance granted by the government to all families (and a limit on how large a family’s fortune could be), minimum family yearly incomes (and limits on excessive ones), better regulation of work hours (to prevent overproduction), an old-age pension, a balance between agricultural production and consumption, a pension for veterans and their disabled, ...

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...me president. Their programs however, did have lasting effects on the government at the time, causing it to shift towards the left in order to appease their supporters. The fact that two men with very different visions for the future of Americans could both be so popular while endorsing such radical changes only shows the true atmosphere of America in the Depression. Americans in poverty were willing to cling to any hope they could find, and though each did it in their own way, these men gave Americans that hope.

Bibliography

1. Biles, Roger. A New Deal for the American People. Northern Illinois

University Press. DeKalb, 1991.

2. Polenberg, Richard. The Era of Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933-1945. Bedford/St.

Martin’s. Boston, 2000.

3. Terkel, Studs. Boston, 2000.

4. Terkel, Studs. Hard Times. The New Press. New York, 1970

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