Intro (1 Min)
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“Hey, everyone! Thanks for tuning in!
This is the UCSB Undergraduate Journal of History Podcast. This season, we are sharing our archive stories of unboxing the stuff of history from the vaults of the UCSB Library Special Research Collections.
I’m your host, Ela, a fourth-year history and political science double major. I specialize in Early Modern European History and American Political Communication.
In today’s episode of Unboxed, we will dive into the UCSB archives and special research collections to discover the interesting, novel, and sometimes even profound historical materials stored here at UCSB. Today, I’ll be looking at a set of campaign literature from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1936 presidential campaign.
For some images of today’s archival collection, follow us on Instagram at @ucsbhistjournal.
Ok. Let’s see what that grey Hollinger box has in store for us today.
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Act I Duration: (3 Mins)
This box was packed with assorted literature on a number of campaign topics, but the one I’d like to start with today is a set of small pamphlets produced by the Business Men’s League for Franklin D. Roosevelt. The first is a pamphlet with a header called “Facts to Remember” and the date of August 1936. On the first page, the pamphlet lists a set of “happenings since 1933” and detailed facts about economic improvements under FDR. If you remember, this would have been the campaign for FDR’s second term in office, having been previously elected in 1932. In that election he beat President Herbert Hoover, the incumbent, with his economic reform platform, as the Great Depression had hit the nation several years prior. The pamphlet lists statistics such as “unemployment reached 27%,” “stock prices advanced 141%,” and “bank deposits advanced 38%.” I think this particular section is evidence of a societal focus on the needs of the economy. Of course, FDR’s term was directly in the middle of the Great Depression, and his New Deal programs were a key aspect of his platforms, but the framing of his campaign toward this is indicative of the wants of the people at the time.
Additionally, the pamphlet contains statistics on the stock market, automobiles, construction, banking, steel production, and railroads. This serves as an interesting insight into the time, as this campaign literature is evidence of exactly what framing went into a presidential campaign. Especially during such a tumultuous time in the US right now, the shared focus on the economy gives us a look into what issues people at the time were focused on. We can see the influence and fear that the Great Depression left on voters reflected in the pamphlet. Under the Steel Production header within the pamphlet, there are only two sets of statistics, one looking at steel production in August of 1932 and another in August of 1936. In 1932, the steel production rate was 21.2 million metric tons, and in 1936 the production had reached 111.7 million metric tons. This being the only set of statistics provided is especially indicative of the criteria people were looking for – they wanted to see that the Depression was improving under Roosevelt and that it would continue to do so with a second administration.
While this is an obvious insight into the Roosevelt campaign of 1936, it discusses a much more individual approach to elections. It shows that the fears of the Great Depression were still present and impactful at the time.
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Act II Duration: (3 Mins)
Another interesting aspect of this economy-based campaign of 1936 was the way the Democratic National Campaign Committee, or the DNCC, approached the same topic. In the folder, I found a set of leaflets from the DNCC, the first labeled “The Farmer Remembers Longer Than the Elephant” and the second including the title “Farmers – make your choice.” The first contains a set of headers that include the “old deal” and the “new deal.” The old deal discusses the failure under Republican leadership when “it cost more to raise a pig than it brought at market” and when “farmers appealed to Washington in vain.” The second contained rhetoric focused on how “a hog brings up to $10.00 per hundredweight” and how “Washington will continue to help the farmer under the Soil Conservation Act.” An interesting focus of this is on farmers, it is clear that farmers were one of the most impacted groups during the Great Depression, but it is fascinating to see the ways in which the demographic was appealed to by the political elites of the time. Additionally, their focus on direct comparisons and debatably aggressive campaign strategies toward the opposing party are reminiscent of our own ads today, an interesting perspective given the almost 100 years of difference.
The second leaflet attempts to create a similar picture, “Republicans failed the farmer” while “Democrats gave hope and help.” Within the latter, the leaflet details each specific Act that targeted farmers and gave them aid while showing the statistics under the prior Republican administration. At the top of this page is a small box with price comparisons of common household goods between Hoover and Roosevelt’s administrations, complete with photos of each good, such as wheat, corn, and hogs. Another interesting aspect is that this clearly appeals to those who may not be highly literate. Even if one could not read, one would be able to see an increase in the amount of money for each good, the key aspect of this leaflet.
FDR’s focus on targeting this demographic and the economic campaign strategy is fascinating in the context of the time and shows stark comparisons to our own elections today. Costs of current products today are also a hot topic in the election, we often hear debates over inflation and cost of living. Such debates being had in an entirely different time are fascinating, as it demonstrates a concern that appears to transcend time and context.
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Act III Duration: (3 Mins)
Lastly, I want to look into a different topic that was discussed during this campaign, the Great War. In another Business Men’s League pamphlet, the campaign literature discusses “The Two Wars,” the first being the World War and the second being the war on the Depression. This was distributed in September of 1936, eighteen years after the end of the Great War, but sentiment toward war was still pessimistic. The pamphlet goes into excruciating detail about the cost of the war to the US, with a figure of $22 billion as a direct cost to the US and another $12 billion in war debts as of 1934, and it also goes into the human cost. The pamphlet gives grim statistics of a total of 306,328 casualties, 123,654 of them being killed and 182,674 having been wounded in the war. Following this, a quote by Roosevelt condemning the horrors of war, and in bold at the end, “I hate war – Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
Contextually, this is quite tragic, as the beginning of the Second World War was looming, but based on such rhetoric, we can see that the public opposed it. There was clear anti-war sentiment, and Roosevelt called for peace over profit. “If we face the choice of profits or peace, the nation will answer – must answer – we choose peace.” The campaign had to create this sentiment to win over the will of the people, a sentiment quite different from the one we see today, where war itself is not debated but how it is conducted. Politicans debate today over the politics of war, the reasons to get involved or not get involved. In FDR’s time, it seemed a little simpler to wish for peace instead of debates over the type of war we choose to fight.
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Summary (1 Min)
Looking into this campaign literature has been fascinating, especially in the context of our recent election. The most recent US election has been plagued by all sorts of different debates, including ones similar to the 1930s. We also have extended debates over the way the economy is run, we’ve all seen Harris and Trump debate economic strategy. Additionally, international relations are still a hot topic. Even so far as tarrifs and global trade, the way that our country functions as part of a greater economic system remains a shared concern, both now and almost 100 years ago. As someone who cares deeply about how our country runs and how we promote our beliefs on a global scale, I find this fascinating compared to our own current issues. We can see FDR’s campaign focused on the problems of the time, but we can also see the lingering effects of the past and how they impacted how he approached his strategy.
Despite only briefly investigating these pieces of campaign literature, I think it is clear that they tell a far deeper story than we can cover in 10 minutes. They also display the fears of the people at the time, people who lived through some of the most globally significant events to date.
In examining American history, it is critical to remember that ordinary citizens experience these events just as much as the elites, and how they interact tells a deeper story. Examining these pages has given me, and hopefully you, a deeper understanding of what it was like to live during this period and a deeper compassion for the troubles and fears of people at the time.
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Thanks for listening to your summary of your episode in a sentence. Be sure to join us for our next episode, the Atomic Age, when Sara shares their archive story of unboxing pamphlets and brochures on the US Atomic Age, from the vaults of the UCSB Library Special Research Collections. To see some images of today’s archival collection, check out our Instagram page @historicaljournal.ucsb, and follow us on Spotify at the Undergraduate Journal of History: The Podcast.
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