Gerald Ford Early Life

The Great Depression was a very influential era in American history, affecting many future generations. One of the most prevalent impacts it had on society was the extreme poverty that swept across the nation, affecting both people in cities and in the country. The main cause for this poverty was the mass loss of jobs among the middle class. Millions lost their jobs and consequently their homes. Families lived out of tents and cars in shanty towns or Hoovervilles. In these camps, many people didn’t have their basic human needs met, children and adults alike starved. They lived in clothes that were caked in dirt and tattered, too small for growing children and too cold for the frail elderly. Government relief programs attempted to help but offered little support to the now impoverished families of the millions that lost everything.

President Richard Nixon’s Watergate incident and resignation in August of 1974 left the nation feeling skeptic toward the national government. Gerald Ford, who was not elected by the public, took the oath of office and became the 38th president of the United States. President Ford, coined with a repugnant image in both the eyes of the public and the media, was defeated by 56 electoral votes in the election of 1976. Jimmy Carter managed to receive similar distasteful images by the end of his single term as well. Although there were similarities between Ford and Carter, the two presidents were different in terms of previous experience, domestic policies, and foreign affairs.

For the case of discussing Gerald Ford, one of the most important events of his time as president is how he became one. After going into Republican politics at law school, he served in the House of Representatives for decades being re-elected twelve times. Even though he has never achieved his main goal of becoming speaker of the House, he was still supported by many, even including President Richard Nixon. In 1973, Spiro Agnew resigned the office of Vice President of the United States. When there was no Vice President left,“after pleading no contest to a change of income tax evasion, President Richard Nixon was empowered by the 25th Amendment to appoint a new Vice President” (Library 2). To explain,

The Depression changed social structure in America forever. “The real story of the 1930’s is how individual families endured and survived, whether battling the despair of hunger and unemployment in the city of the fear of unending drought and forced migration in the dust bowl of the Great plains.” (Press, Petra pg 6)

After the Hoover years, however, a man portrayed as a father figure became some of the nation’s citizens’ only hope, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The middle-class, sometimes seen as hit the hardest by the Depression, pleaded with the Roosevelt administration for any help, but remained very proud in doing so. Many begged to remain anonymous. Also, like many other classes, the members of the middle-class didn’t want charity or handouts; they just wanted employment, or possibly a loan (pp. 53-4). No one took pride in having to write these letters. Many had to swallow their pride just to get pen to paper. “It is very humiliating for me to have to write to you” one Depression victim wrote (pp. 62). Middle-class citizens, like the rural citizens, wanted nothing less than the blacks to take their employment (pp. 94). The rural citizens also turned to the Roosevelt administration as a beacon of hope. The cherished the values of independence and hard work, so they asked only for employment or a loan (pp. 69). Their ideal solution to this economic terror was employment, as a result. They weren’t satisfied with the outcome of the relief though. They believed the relief was just creating ‘loafers’ out of the unemployed who choose not to work (pp. 125). They felt that Roosevelt should “give work to the needy ones, and not to the ones that have everything” (pp. 138). The rural citizens felt slightly forgotten, but not as forgotten as some

During the 1920’s, America was a prosperous nation going through the “Big Boom” and loving every second of it. However, this fortune didn’t last long, because with the 1930’s came a period of serious economic recession, a period called the Great Depression. By 1933, a quarter of the nation’s workers (about 40 million) were without jobs. The weekly income rate dropped from $24.76 per week in 1929 to $16.65 per week in 1933 (McElvaine, 8). After President Hoover failed to rectify the recession situation, Franklin D. Roosevelt began his term with the hopeful New Deal. In two installments, Roosevelt hoped to relieve short term suffering with the first, and redistribution of money amongst the poor with the second. Throughout these years of the

Families had to split up in search for work and many children got jobs to make extra money for their families. In 1933, when Roosevelt took office, “24.9% of the total workforce or 12,830,000 people were unemployed” according to the FDR Library. This statistic shows just how much the average American was struggling to keep themselves and their families afloat. The FDR Library also states that “drastic drops in farm commodity prices resulted in farmers losing their lands and homes due to foreclosure” and that “gangs of unemployed youth, whose families could no longer support them, rode the rails as hobos in search of work.” The previous excerpts depict America’s loss of stability because the people providing food were out of jobs and parents had to send their children away since they could not afford to care for them any further. Thankfully, President Roosevelt and his administration stepped in soon afterward to correct the

Influential leaders have risen to power from a variety of beginnings. Many, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, start from humble beginnings, and they rise to power to serve the people in their darkest hours. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s odyssey to power started when he was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York, to two upper middle class parents. Five years later little Franklin got his first peek at the white house when his family got invited there by Grover Cleveland, whose was then the 22nd president of the United States of America. Before graduating Harvard in 1904, Franklin married Ana Eleanor Roosevelt, a distant cousin. Throughout university Franklin became obsessed with politics and after he graduated he decided to run for

After considering all 44 presidents, Mr. Roosevelt rose to the top as our top pick. Not only did he overcome a deadly disease, he was President of the United States at the same time. It wasn’t only his will to live that was appealing, but his ability to bring our country out of the depths of depression. His innovative ideas and programs were so revolutionary that he was elected President for four consecutive terms. FDR was a great man of his time, and one of the greatest leaders the United States has ever seen.

an oath on August 9, 1974 which he said - "Our long national nightmare is

     The birth of the automobile was truly something special. Once a far fetched dream is now what many people believe to be the back bone of the American economy. When people think about the automobile the name that comes to mind is most usually Henry Ford. Although he is not credited with the invention of the automobile, Henry Ford played a crucial role in the development of mass production. The automobile was first invented Europe in 1771 with a top speed of 2.3 miles per hour. A man by the name of Gottliech Daimler produced what was known as the milestone car in 1889, this vehicle traveled at 10 miles per hour (Brown, 105). Not more then a handful of these cars were produced over seas. Not many people had ever

It was the year of 1934. America was fighting to come out from the worst economic crisis that the world would ever witness. It was also the year of high crime rate, low Gross Domestic Product and the lowest unemployment rate America had experienced. The Depression had paralyzed American labor forces, but there was a hope still alive in every American including J.D. Rockefeller when he said, “These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come and gone. Prosperity has always returned and will again” (Rockefeller). At that time, the next president named Franklin D. Roosevelt, famous as FDR, brought Americans back to work through his confident efforts and new series of programs called ‘the New Deal’.

Following his defeat in the 1976 presidential election, Gerald Ford retired to Rancho Mirage, California. Thereafter, Ford appeared frequently in public as a speaker, lecturing for private audiences and on university campuses. In his post-presidential years, Ford wrote a number of books, including an account of his presidency, A Time to Heal (1979), and Humor and the Presidency (1987). Always very athletic, Ford continued to enjoy the game of golf.

In the early years of his life, he suffered from poor health and enervating asthma, but that hadn’t stopped him from being an energetic and exuberant child, and these characteristics followed him well into adulthood. He had been a National Guard veteran, the governor of New York City, the assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy, and had taken other high-ranking occupations. (Britannica). His political proficiency, along with his zealous personality, made him a worthy candidate for the American presidency, and he won election in 1904.

The Great Depression broke people and their relationships apart. It strapped Americans of their money, way of life, and societal pattern. In Russell Baker’s memoir, Growing up, he talks about this and the experience his mother, Lucy Elizabeth, endured when giving up her youngest daughter Audrey. After the death of his father, George Baker, his mother was left with only “a few dollars of insurance money, a worthless Model T, several chairs, a table to eat from… no way to earn a living, and no prospects for the future” (Baker 84). She couldn’t care for her entire