Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Much has been written about the life, times, and presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). We know much about how he brought the country out of the depths of the Great Depression and led the United States through World War I. Unfortunately, such scholarship has been relatively silent regarding Roosevelt and his administration's dealings with minorities. That said, this essay is not meant to be limited by a focus on a singular minority group. Rather, it is designed to examine the gaps in historiography as they pertain to African-Americans, Japanese Americans, Women, Native Americans, Jews, and Hispanics. Such a study will lend itself to a greater understanding of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's and his administration's engagement with, or in some cases their failure to acknowledge, marginalized groups during his tenure as a president. It will further highlight the impact of policies on various minority groups as the Roosevelt administration sought to bring the country out of the seemingly endless abyss of economic despair of the Great Depression. Of the works done on Roosevelt and minorities, most tend to focus on his successes and failures confronting the obstacles facing Americans of African descent during the New Deal and World War II. It is fairly well known that as the scion of the New York patricians, Roosevelt had had little interaction with African-Americans and even less ... log in or subscribe to read full text