Winter of Despair Summary and Analysis

Roosevelt won the election in 1932 and took office four months later in 1933. Those were four long, hard months of the Great Depression that Americans lived through. Hoover had ordered an investigation of Wall Street that had uncovered irregularities among the leading financial houses. The investigation was conducted by Ferdinand Percora. The social irresponsibility of leading tycoons became obvious as they shunned responsibility and concern for the jobless. Many business publications tried to portray businessmen has suffering more than the unemployed and starving workers. The businessmen who were viewed in a favorable light in the Roaring Twenties were now looked down upon.

As the depression went on, there were also questions about capitalism itself. Many people sensed intuitively that there was something wrong with the way the system was functioning. Farmers couldn't harvest or market their goods while...