What was the brain trust in the great depression

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Collective brain trust
Franklin d roosevelt interesting facts

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Brain(s) Trust

The Brains Trust was a small group of academics selected by Franklin D. Roosevelt and his political advisors to help the Democratic candidate in 1932 in his presidential bid. The term was originally coined by Louis Howe, a long-time associate of Roosevelt. It was later shortened to Brain Trust and made popular by New York Times reporter James Kieran.

Given the complexities of the modern American economy and the enormity of the Great Depression and its effects, Roosevelt's law partner, Sam Rosenman, suggested to the Democratic candidate that he seek the advice of academics in attempting to deal with the economic issues of the day, a practice Roosevelt had used previously during his governorship of New York. Rosenman recruited Raymond Moley, a political science professor at Columbia University in New York, to help Roosevelt organize this academic group.

Raymond Moley had already worked with Roosevelt during the Seabury investigation into corruption in the New York City government. An expert in criminal justice, Moley was to help the candidate in political matter

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Topman of FDR’s Brain Trust: Rexford Tugwell

When president Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Rexford Tugwell as Undersecretary of Agriculture in 1934, the hearings were so contentious that his opponents and supporters variously described them as an inquisition and a crucifixion, and protested that Tugwell was being forced to drink hemlock. Time reported that Iowa’s Senator Murphy demanded of the well-dressed academician: “Did you ever follow a plow?” “Yes, sir.” “Did you ever have mud on your boots?” “Yes, sir.” “Do you know how hard it is to get a dollar out of the soil?” “Yes, sir.”

The answers helped the brilliant, polished Tugwell win confirmation, 53 to 24. Tugwell had worked on his father’s fruit farm in upper New York State as a child, but his acute asthma had led into academic life—and eventually for him to become the primary, but controversial and dogged architect of President Roosevelt’s massive economic and social policy, the New Deal.

At Wharton and Penn, he earned bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees in economics and was influenced by Scott Nearing, an econ

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Franklin D. Roosevelt: Campaigns and Elections

The Campaign and Election of 1932:

Political observers in the early 1930s were of decidedly mixed opinion about the possible presidential candidacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Many leaders of the Democratic Party saw in Roosevelt an attractive mixture of experience (as governor of New York and as a former vice presidential candidate) and appeal (the Roosevelt name itself, which immediately associated FDR with his remote cousin, former President Theodore Roosevelt.)FDR's record as governor of New York—and specifically his laudable, if initially conservative, efforts to combat the effects of the depression in his own state—only reinforced his place as the leading Democratic contender for the 1932 presidential nomination. Under the watchful eyes of his political advisers Louis Howe and James Farley, FDR patiently garnered support from Democrats around the country, but especially in the South and the West. In preparation for his presidential bid, Roosevelt consulted a group of college professors, dubbed the "Brains Trust" (later shorte