Impoverished young Americans had no greater champion during the
Depression than Eleanor Roosevelt. As First Lady, Mrs. Roosevelt
used her newspaper columns and radio broadcasts to crusade for
expanded federal aid to poor children and teens. She was the most
visible spokesperson for the National Youth Administration, the New
Deal's central agency for aiding needy youths, and she was adamant
in insisting that federal aid to young people be administered
without discrimination so that it reached blacks as well as whites,
girls as well as boys.
This activism made Mrs. Roosevelt a beloved figure among poor teens
and children, who between 1933 and 1941 wrote her thousands of
letters describing their problems and requesting her help.
Dear
Mrs. Roosevelt presents nearly 200 of these extraordinary
documents to open a window into the lives of the Depression's
youngest victims. In their own words, the letter writers confide
what it was like to be needy and young during the worst economic
crisis in American history.
Revealing both the strengths and the limitations of New Deal
liberalism, this book depicts an administration concerned and
caring enough to elicit such moving appeals for help yet unable to
respond in the very personal ways the letter writers hoped.