Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: James Agee and Walker Evans analysis

¶ … Praise

Let Us Praise Famous Men

In a 1937 report by the Committee on Farm Tenancy to President Franklin Roosevelt, it was estimated that nearly half of the farmers in the South, close to a third in the North, and a fourth in the West were what was known as "tenant" farmers. (Austgen) When Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, it was with a promise to change the nature of the American economy to better serve the millions of Americans who then were living in the grips of poverty. The previous president, Hoover, was a practitioner of the "Liaise Faire" model of economics which rejected government participation in the economy. Roosevelt's attempted to help tenant farmers led to the Bankhead-Jones Farm Act, which "reorganized the Resettlement Administration as the Farm Security Administration and which included among its purposes assisting enterprising tenants in becoming land owners." (Austgen) This interest in tenant farmers sprung from a book by James Agee and Walker Evans who traveled to rural Alabama and exposed to the world the difficulties associated with the life of a tenant farmer in their Book titled Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. This book explored the lives of three white tenant farmers and many claim that it directly impacted the policies enacted by Roosevelt.

The lives of three families: the Woods, Ricketts, and Gudgers, are explored in the book which begins with a detailed description of the houses in which these families live and exposed the economic variety that existed even among tenant farmers. While still poor tenant farmers, the Woods' home seemed slightly better off that the Ricketts who were obviously suffering in poverty. When the majority of Americans lived in relative comfort, the homes of tenant farmers were considered primitive; relying on fireplaces for heat, and without either the comforts of electricity or indoor plumbing. They lived in a state that was more similar to the early 1800's frontier than to a modern 20th century nation, even depending upon animals such as cows, pigs, and chickens for their very survival. The way Agee and Evans describe it, these Americans lived a subsistence-level existence in the midst of a modern and wealthy nation. "It is for the clothing, and for the food, and for the shelter, by these to sustain their lives, that they work" (Agee 281)

If there is one word that the authors use to describe the existence these families were forced to endure it is "awful." As they put it, "the family exists for work. It exists to keep itself alive." (Agee 284) This is the main premise the authors attempt to present to the reader in their descriptions of not only the homes of these families, but their daily lives, including work. And since cotton is their main crop, the authors then explore the importance as well as the difficulty of raising cotton. The cultivation of cotton is an extremely labor intensive proposition and requires a great deal of time and attention. Agee and Evans provide an introduction to the world of cotton farming with a very detailed description of the process from planting to harvesting, stressing the difficult labor involved.

With their depiction of the incredibly arduous lives of the average tenant farmer, Agee and Evans were able to influence the politicians of the day, especially Franklin Roosevelt. The homes in which they lived, the lives teetering on the brink of subsistence, the importance of animals for survival, and the incredible hardships involved in farming cotton were a revelation to the rest of the country. Most Americans believed that the lives endured by the Woods, Ricketts, and Gudgers were a thing of the past, something that America had evolved out of. But the vivid and detailed descriptions of the lives of these families spurred Americans to action, which included the Bankhead-Jones Farm Act.

President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal included a number of provisions to aid rural Americans, including tenant farmers like the Woods, Ricketts, and Gudgers. One such provision, the Bankhead-Jones Farm Act, among its provisions, included an attempt to define the provisions involved in raising tenant farmers to landowners, and "to point out some of the obvious weaknesses of those provisions, and make suggestions for their improvement." (Bankhead-Jones Farm Act) This Act allowed for the development of previously uncultivated land which could be purchased by tenant farmers but would involve the bringing under cultivation, a process known as "broadcasting." However, for the three families to take advantage of this program, they still needed a team of mules to work the land. As described by the authors, "if, lacking mule power, you still have land which is not broken." (Agee 292) Therefore, the program also included a series of loan programs to help tenant farmers make the transition to successful landowners by obtaining the necessary tools.