FDR's Alphabet Soup: New Deal America 1932-1939

Tonya Bolden is the author of more than 20 books for young readers. She lives in the Bronx, New York.
From the Hardcover edition.

Grade 6–9—Bolden uses the myriad programs of the New Deal, collectively called "alphabet soup" because they were known by their initials or acronyms, as a metaphor to describe how Roosevelt's policies and legislation gave vital nourishment to the American people and created permanent changes in the government and economy. She opens with a discussion of the unprecedented crisis of the Great Depression and Roosevelt's subsequent election, but devotes most of the book to the creation and implementation of New Deal agencies and programs, and includes quotes and primary-source excerpts to show how different segments of the population, such as workers and investors, viewed Roosevelt and his policies. The author views the New Deal positively, but does discuss how it polarized the American people and drew opposition from both the left and the right. The narrative is supplemented by numerous sidebars and facing-page inserts that provide additional information and well-captioned, high-quality reproductions of period photos and artifacts. Bolden's writing style is contemporary, with brief sentences, short paragraphs, and vocabulary that uses slang and abbreviations that may not win adult approval but will appeal to teens. The book is more focused on the New Deal than Edmund Lindop and Margaret J. Goldstein's America in the 1930s (21st Century Bks., 2009), which offers a more comprehensive overview of American life during the decade.—Mary Mueller, Rolla Junior High School, MO
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