America 1933 by Michael Golay
Nonfiction

When FDR took over the presidency during the depths of the Great Depression, he knew that he couldn’t depend on whatever news managed to filter into the Washington bubble to tell him what was really going on in the country. So his right-hand man sent out Lorena Hickok, a newspaper reporter and close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, to see the country first-hand. She spent 18 months driving on appalling roads, talking to everyone she could find, and sending back horrifying reports. Almost universal hunger, cold, and misery were often exacerbated by politicians and businessmen trying to take advantage of the desperate, sometimes with violence. Many of the arguments about assistance she reported are still being rehashed in the news today. Her reports were critical in shaping FDR’s New Deal, which helped get the country back on its feet.

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