Changes In American Society During The Great Depression

The New Deal era is often cited as the time when the federal government began to assume its modern form. It was a time of unprecedented government intervention and in many ways changed the way Americans viewed government. After the Stock Market Crash of 1929, it was clear that the government was going to take immediate action. Anthony Badger’s The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933-1940 is an outstanding summary of some of the most difficult, yet important, years in American history.

After the Great Depression, many Americans were left disheveled. They needed some form of financial assistance to help them get their lives back to normal. Many government officials such as Hurbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt helped to enact bills and programs that would assist Americans in rehabilitating their lives. The amount of unemployed workers, the economic relief for retired workers, and the creation of legislature directed towards financial stability all illustrate that the most important effects that the New Deal legislation had on the American government was a liberal one..

The United States encountered many ordeals during the Great Depression (1929-1939). Poverty, unemployment and despair clouded the “American Dream” and intensified the urgency for solutions to address and control the nationwide damage. President Franklin Roosevelt proposed the New Deal to detoxify the nation of its suffering. It can be argued that the New Deal was ineffective due to the inability to end the Great Depression with its short-term solutions and created more problems, however; it was successful in regards to providing direct relief for the needy, economic recovery and some structural reform for the majority of the general public in the severity of the Great Depression.

The America in the 1930s was drastically different from the luxurious 1920s. The stock market had crashed to an all time low, unemployment was the highest the country had ever seen, and all American citizens were affected by it in some way or another. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal was effective in addressing the issues of The Great Depression in the sense that it provided immediate relief to US citizens by lowering unemployment, increasing trust in the banks, getting Americans out of debt, and preventing future economic crisis from taking place through reform. Despite these efforts The New Deal failed to end the depression. In order for America to get out of this economic

The United States entered one of the most devastating economic periods in its history after the stock market crash of 1929. The massive damage done to the quality of life of the average American during this time, known as the Great Depression, prompted a fundamental change in the attitude of the nation. The most notable change was a shift in public belief about what type of President would best serve the struggling nation. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt completely reversed the trend of Presidents that pursued policies focused around benefitting businesses and the wealthy. Whereas leaders before him held fast in their support of big businesses, even to the point of ignoring the harm they had brought to the country, Roosevelt focused his

The businessmen and bankers were against Roosevelt's “New Deal program.” (Source B). “They feared his experiments, were appalled because he had taken the nation off the gold standard and allowed deficits in the budget, and dislike the concessions to labor.” (Source B). Mr. Roosevelt did not like being talked about like this so he responded with a new program of reform which was: Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an enormous relief program for the unemployed. Yet another action taken by him to ensure that all the American people were satisfied. And in response to the people who still has fear in them Roosevelt says that “The only thing you have to fear is fear itself.” (Source

In his inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the tone for the upcoming half century when he confidently said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. In response to the economic collapse of the Great Depression, a bold and highly experimental fleet of government bureaus and agencies known as Roosevelt’s Alphabet Soup were created to service the programs of the New Deal and to provide recovery to the American people. The New Deal was one of the most ambitious programs in American history, with implications and government programs that can still be seen to this day. Through its enactment of social reform and conservation programs, the New Deal mounted radical policies that gave the federal government unprecedented power in the nation’s economy and society, however, the New Deal did not bring America out of the Great Depression and could be considered conservative in the context of the era, ultimately saving capitalism from collapsing in America.

The men who served as president during their terms before FDR either focused on Hamiltonian or Jeffersonian views when making decisions for the country. They either focused on the government having more control, or on the common man having the control. FDR, on the other hand, used a combination of the two. The New Deal was created solely to improve the conditions of the United States during the Great Depression. The successes and failures of FDR’s combination of “Hamiltonian means” to achieve “Jeffersonian ends” are reflected by the New Deal with the occurrence and extremism of the court-packing scheme, the outcome of the National Industrial Recovery Ac t, and the New Deal programs helping the common man while increasing the government’s involvement.

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

The Great Depression had detrimental effects on American capitalism. The sudden crash of the stock market failed to allow Americans to achieve economic success. However, Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed new ideas to help the American economy find stability with his “New Deal”. Roosevelt’s presidency impacts the lives of American citizens today. President Roosevelt’s Administration was effective because it brought upon social change, decreased the unemployment rate, and altered the government's responsibility to ensure the welfare of their citizens.

The main body of the essay begins by presenting instances in which the pre-1937 government protected business interests rather than those of the people. Businessmen like Henry Ford benefitted from prohibition because it kept their workers sober and consequently more productive. The founding of the United States was not free from criticism either. The constitution included protections for the slave-based economy of the South and the National Bank was created in order to support the new government which was floundering in debt incurred during the Revolutionary War. The author argued that the United States itself was created in order to provide a unified financial framework which would make paying the debt easier. The author then proceeded to explain the effects of the New Deal, which created a framework that allowed “the government to focus on its people and their civil rights.” The author included two paragraphs which described the change in policy that the government experienced post 1937. Before the essay concluded, the author attempted to address the argument that the Revolution of 1937 overextended the government by making it too inclusive, with Japanese internment as the primary evidence for this. The author refuted this argument by saying

The New Deal has two major areas of focus between 1933 and 1938. The “first” New Deal focused on the reform of financial systems. This established a more secure banking system with the banking Act of 1933. This act held banks accountable for deposits. While some credit this act as being the reason for economic stability for the following decades, but in all actuality all this act did was limit bank competition. Therefore further restriction economic growth. The upper class blamed Roosevelt for the New Deal spending policy and the handling of Federal relief. (Relief Top Issue, Survey Indicates)

The three conservative Republican presidents wanted to get back to serving the public with less direct government intervention and more co-managing with big business. After WWI, the United States turned and from its international interest to its traditional style of foreign policy such as military unpreparedness and isolationism. The “Old Guard” wanted to get back to its old business of laissez-faire business with government helping businesses push profits but keep their hands off business at the same time. Harding allowed corporations to expand again and regulation of trusts were less enforced. Harding appointed to his ICC Board men that were more lenient on the railroad industry. Government control over wartime decisions disappeared such as the War Industries Board and an act was passed to sell a majority of war ships for a reduced price. This would make our navies less prepared for war. The railroads were also turned back over to private industry. Labor organization unions lost much of its power against wage cuts. Strikes were shut down with government injunctions like the Steel strike and the Boston Police strike in 1919. Labor membership suffered a decline of thirty percent for the next years. A Veterans’ Bureau was established to handle the veterans’ hospitals and rehab clinics for the vets that had returned from war. Veterans wanted to be compensated for their time in the war and a bureau was set up to pay an insurance

The economic crisis that showed all the contradictions of capitalism led to an increase of a deep political crisis in the USA in late 1920?s. October 29, 1929 is known in the American history as the Black Tuesday. It was the date, when the American stock market collapsed. In such economically difficult situation, in November 1932, a regular presidential election took place. The Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, who spoke with the program the New Deal, came to presidency. It was a series of social liberal programs applied in the United States in 1933-1938 in response to the Great Depression. The New Deal was focused on three main principles: relief, recovery, and reform.[footnoteRef:1] They promised to bring the country to prosperity and economically stable future. However, the Conservatives criticized the New Deal during the whole period of the reforms. It was expressed by Herbert Hoover in Anti-New Deal Campaign Speech in 1936 and Minnie Hardin in 1937 in a Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt. [1: (notes)]

The Great Depression challenged the American society in various ways;placing economic strains, and demands upon family members. By 1929, it is clear that too much money was being put into stock speculation, which causes the stock market crash. Many citizens have trouble paying their bills and are encouraged to reach their American Dream. Americans start to buy on margin and put themselves in large debt. The unequal distribution of nation's wealth supports the unemployment rates and a numerous amount of smaller businesses are drawn in by larger companies. From this novel, readers are able to get a load of some of the experiences society faced with from these hard times.