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Review
| Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: Letters from Children of the Great Depression, ed. Robert Cohen. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002. 266 pp. $16.95 paper.
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| In this volume containing nearly two hundred letters mined from the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers housed in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Robert Cohen puts a human face on the Great Depression. He found that the first lady's files entitled "material assistance requested" and "donations requested," for each year from 1934 to 1940, filled somewhere between eight (1937) and eighteen (1934) containers (p. 245). The sheer volume of letters testifies not only to the severity of the Depression, but also the affinity so many Americans felt for the first lady. By focusing on letters written by children, Cohen accents the effect of the depression on some of society's most vulnerable members, and the letters are sure to tug at the heartstrings of even the most stoic readers. The book reminds readers of the personal anguish experienced by the nation's children, it highlights their dashed hopes and dreams for the future, and it demonstrates their affection for the first lady and the president. But perhaps more importantly, the book provides readers with a glimpse of how history is practiced. As Cohen's introduction reveals, the letters offer more than an ongoing tale of pain and suffering; they also present an opportunity to teach students how historians use primary sources to construct a textured portrait of the past. |
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Divided into four chapters and framed by an excellent introduction and brief epilogue, the book presents letters from children requesting assistance in four categories: basic necessities such as housing, clothing and food; aid for education, including money for graduation and prom clothes, as well as tuition and books; help in obtaining items related to social life, such as Christmas gifts, Easter clothes, radios and cars (often needed for work or schooling); and, as a final category, letters from minorities. A short essay highlighting and analyzing significant themes in the letters introduces each chapter. The letters touch upon the history of consumerism, youth culture, economic and social inequality, family relations, and education, among other topics, each with its own rich historiographical traditions. The letters themselves are presented without annotation, although an occasional footnote explains a term. |
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Although this book is highly recommended for scholars, students from high school through graduate school, and a general public interested in the 1930s, it is especially recommended for secondary school teachers and college instructors who may choose to assign it for units on the Great Depression or in courses on methodology and historiography. Cohen's finely crafted introduction, for example, allows instructors to teach students about historiography and the art of historical research. In one section, Cohen investigates the usefulness and problematic nature of autobiographical sources. In another place, he illustrates the ways in which the letters help us assess the relative success of New Deal programs. And, in yet another part, he addresses the significance of the largely female authorship. All of these pointers stress the way in which historians apply critical reading skills in their quest for an accurate rendering of the past. Historians, of course, continually argue over the accuracy of secondary literature, and Cohen's introduction will enable instructors to discuss a wide variety of historiographical debates about the Great Depression. His introduction reveals the ways in which the letters both challenge and confirm existing interpretations of politics and social life during the 1930s. For instance, Cohen argues that, in contrast to a conclusion drawn by many gender and family historians, the Great Depression did not necessarily undermine the role of the father in the family. Many of the letter writers clearly continue to respect and admire their unemployed fathers, recognizing that their inability to find work was due to economic forces beyond their control. Endnotes referencing the secondary literature should give instructors and students ample occasion to further investigate the issues highlighted in the introduction and in the letters themselves. |
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As director of the Social Studies Program in the School of Education at New York University, Cohen was clearly interested in creating a book teachers could use in the classroom. Because his work offers not only an in depth and accessible discussion about how historians do their work but also a wealth of primary sources that will allow budding and seasoned historians to create new work, he has provided us with a valuable historical source as well as a teaching tool. We should be thankful for this recent contribution to the growing body of exciting work on the Great Depression. |
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| Roosevelt University |
Margaret Rung |
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