A New Deal for the American People
Our presentation topic was the United States in the 1930s. The 1930s was a time of dramatic change in the United States, both economically and later on also socially. The country had gone into severe depression in 1929, which resulted in a wide-scaled collapse in the state of the economy. Stocks started to lose their value, which eventually spiralled out of control, leaving millions unemployed since failing companies had to lay off their employees. When the Great Depression had reached a crisis point, the United States faced an ambitious series of reform policies in order to stabilize the economy. These expansionary policies are collectively known as the New Deal. In our opinion, the New Deal was the most interesting part of the 1930s because of its revolutionary effects on the American society.
The New Deal
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Although it failed to reach its goals in the economic field, the New Deal was a revolutionary policy in terms of its effects on the American society at the time. It included policies, for example the National Industrial Recovery Act and The Fair Labor Standards Act, that improved workers’ conditions by strengthening labor unions, as well as establishing minimum wages and maximum working hours. Additionally, the New Deal brought much-needed security for the old-aged, physically handicapped or otherwise dependent by guaranteeing them pension or unemployment insurance as a part of The Social Security Act of 1935. Combined with many more similar policies, the social welfare aspects of the New Deal helped to build trust and improve the living conditions of millions of Americans. With their new-gained confidence, employers started to actively recruit workers even amongst women, the old and the unskilled. Eventually even racial barriers were broken, and it became possible for people to earn a stable income despite their ethnicity or skin
The 1930’s were a time of poverty in America. The Great Depression hit the United States hard and it would take years to recover, but presidents like Franklin D. Roosevelt, although he did not solve everyone’s problem, would help a lot. Roosevelt brought America back from the brink and helped a lot of people, but so many others were left without jobs or money or food. 1930 to 1941 were difficult years for America and it was not until World War II that we started to make some progress.
Amity Shlaes tells the story of the Great Depression and the New Deal through the eyes of some of the more influential figures of the period—Roosevelt’s men like Rexford Tugwell, David Lilienthal, Felix Frankfurter, Harold Ickes, and Henry Morgenthau; businessmen and bankers like Wendell Willkie, Samuel Insull, Andrew Mellon, and the Schechter family. What arises from these stories is a New Deal that was hostile to business, very experimental in its policies, and failed in reviving the economy making the depression last longer than it should. The reason for some of the New Deal policies was due to the President’s need to punish businessmen for their alleged role in bringing the stock market crash of October 1929 and therefore, the Great Depression.
Unlike any president before him, President Roosevelt faced the Great Depression and created the New Deal to try and ensure the economic and political wealth of the United States. In 1935, the federal government guaranteed unions the right to organize and bargain collectively, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established minimum wage and maximum outs. Beginning in 1933, the government also helped rural and agricultural American with development programs and assume responsibility for the economy of the United States. Essentially, the New Deal sought to ensure that the benefits of American capitalism were spread equally amongst the many diverse peoples of the United States. Even though Roosevelt's New Deal failed to cure completely the economy of the Great Depression, his governmental policies during it established a new norm for succeeding governments to
The Great Depression of 1929 to 1940 began and centered in the United States, but spread quickly throughout the industrial world. The economic catastrophe and its impact defied the description of the grim words that described the Great Depression. This was a severe blow to the United States economy. President Roosevelt’s New Deal is what helped reshape the economy and even the structure of the United States. The programs that the New Deal had helped employ and gave financial security to several Americans. The New Deals programs would prove to be effective and beneficial to the American society.
People continue to argue whether the New Deal is radical or conservative today using many programs and outcomes as their support. The government imposed new radical programs influencing American society with changes in political and social reform. Conservatives at the time felt threatened by government interference feeling the changes led them toward a socialist style of government. Today, historians view the New Deal as more conservative, completely opposite of what conservatives felt at the time. With programs challenging economic, social, and political standards, the New Deal imposed both radical and conservative ideals into the American society causing Franklin D. Roosevelt to leave his lasting stamp and legacy on all presidents and generations to come.
During the 1920’s, America was a prosperous nation going through the “Big Boom” and loving every second of it. However, this fortune didn’t last long, because with the 1930’s came a period of serious economic recession, a period called the Great Depression. By 1933, a quarter of the nation’s workers (about 40 million) were without jobs. The weekly income rate dropped from $24.76 per week in 1929 to $16.65 per week in 1933 (McElvaine, 8). After President Hoover failed to rectify the recession situation, Franklin D. Roosevelt began his term with the hopeful New Deal. In two installments, Roosevelt hoped to relieve short term suffering with the first, and redistribution of money amongst the poor with the second. Throughout these years of the depression, many Americans spoke their minds through pen and paper. Many criticized Hoover’s policies of the early Depression and praised the Roosevelts’ efforts. Each opinion about the causes and solutions of the Great Depression are based upon economic, racial and social standing in America.
An overview of the 1930's and how many Americans' lives were adversely impacted by the New Deal.
"Unit 11 The 1930s: The Great Depression." Welcome. New Jersey State Library, 12 Jan. 2011. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. .
One thing the New Deal did to help its citizens was lower the unemployment rates. The unemployment rates had been low before the Great Depression. When the market crashed it was at 3.2% but only four years later it had
The New Deal was a set of acts that effectively gave Americans a new sense of hope after the Great Depression. The New Deal advocated for women’s rights, worked towards ending discrimination in the workplace, offered various jobs to African Americans, and employed millions through new relief programs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), made it his duty to ensure that something was being done. This helped restore the public's confidence and showed that relief was possible. The New Deal helped serve American’s interest, specifically helping women, african american, and the unemployed and proved to them that something was being done to help them.
The years berween 1929 and 1933 were trying years for people throughout the world. Inflation was often so high money became nearly worthless. America had lost the prosperity it had known during the 1920's. America was caught in a trap of a complete meltdown of economy, workers had no jobs simply because it cost too much to ship the abundance of goods being produced. This cycle was unbreakable, and produced what is nearly universally recognized as the greatest economic collapse of all times. These would be trying years for all, but not every American faced the same challenges and hardships. (Sliding 3)
The New Deal occurred in 1933 when 13 million American workers lost their jobs. As a result of the massive job loss, thousands of workers demanded union recognition, unemployed Americans demanded food and shelter, and farmers demanded higher process on their goods. Federally funded jobs and social welfare programs to help the poor were set up by President Roosevelt in order to please the demands of the American people. The New Deal was established with the intention of improving lives, to save capitalism, and to provide a degree of economic security. In 1935, President Roosevelt passed the Social Security Act which, according to Katznelson, Kesselman, and Draper, “offered pensions and unemployment compensation to qualified workers, provided public assistance to the elderly and the blind, and created a new national program for poor single mothers” (332).This act allowed states to set the benefit level for welfare programs, which was set quite low (Katznelson, Kesselman, & Draper, 331-334). The Great Society programs were established by Lyndon Johnson in 1964 when Johnson declared war on poverty. This was would be the action that initiates the Great Society programs. The government used the New Deal as a foundation to build new welfare programs. Medicaid and Medicare were created to help poor and old people with their medical costs. Head Start was established to help low income
The 1930s was a time of not only political turmoil abroad, but of economic chaos on the home-front as well. After President Herbert C. Hoover's Presidency took the blame for launching the ...
Coming into the 1930’s, the United States underwent a severe economic recession, referred to as the Great Depression. Resulting in high unemployment and poverty rates, deflation, and an unstable economy, the Great Depression considerably hindered American society. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt was nominated to succeed the spot of presidency, making his main priority to revamp and rebuild the United States, telling American citizens “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people," (“New” 2). The purpose of the New Deal was to expand the Federal Government, implementing authority over big businesses, the banking system, the stock market, and agricultural production. Through the New Deal, acts were passed to stimulate the economy, aid banks, alleviate environmental problems, eliminate poverty, and create a stronger central government (“New”1).
In his presidential acceptance speech in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed to the citizens of the United States, “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.” The New Deal, beginning in 1933, was a series of federal programs designed to provide relief, recovery, and reform to the fragile nation. The U.S. had been both economically and psychologically buffeted by the Great Depression. Many citizens looked up to FDR and his New Deal for help. However, there is much skepticism and controversy on whether these work projects significantly abated the dangerously high employment rates and pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression. The New Deal was a bad deal for America because it only provided opportunities for a few and required too much government spending.