How important was Roosevelt’s New Deal in Ending the Depression?

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 marked the start of the great depression which hit America and much of the industrialised world during the 1930’s. The cycle of prosperity turned into a spiral of depression as consumer spending fell by almost half, unemployment rose to over 12 million and there was widespread poverty and homelessness. The Hoover government’s ‘rugged individualism’ meant that people did not receive any relief from the federal government and led to a loss in support for Hoover as people blamed him for their problems. After his landslide victory in 1932, President Roosevelt vowed that through his reforms and economic policies, America would return to the road of prosperity. In 1933 he set out the ‘New Deal’ which sought to deliver relief, recovery, and reform. It could be argued that although the New Deal was effective in certain aspects such as short term relief, it did not end the depression; rather the war was the decisive factor.

During the first Hundred Days, Congress passed immediate relief measures for the American people that Hoover had failed to provide. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, for example, provided millions of Americans with enough money to make ends meet. The Civil Works Administration put four million unemployed people to work. Roosevelt encouraged the creation of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration to assist farmers. The AAA temporarily reset prices for farm commodities and then began subsidising farmers to reduce production. Before the depression, many debt-ridden farmers had increased crop production in order to earn more money. Ironically, this led to overproduction, which flooded the market and drove prices down, forcing farmers to plant even more in a never ending cycle o...

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...s of the New Deal worked; some did not. The New Deal restored a sense of security as it put people back to work. It created the framework for a regulatory state that could protect the interests of all Americans, rich and poor, and thereby help the business system work in more productive ways. It rebuilt the infrastructure of the United States, providing a network of schools, hospitals, and roads that served the United States well for the next 70 years. For many Americans, Roosevelt was the president who included in his policies the people who had felt excluded (Source XX). Nevertheless, the war was the decisive factor in ending the Depression. It employed people regardless of race and gender and thus eliminated unemployment. It stimulated industry as seen in (Source RRR) and ‘did for the economy what Roosevelt’s New Deal had not been able to achieve’ (Source PPP).