Essay on Fsa Photography During the Great Depression

The Great Depression, however inevitable, took the world by surprise when the stock market crashed in 1929. At first people did not fully understand the state of the economy, they could not wrap their heads around the transition from popping champagne bottles to eating bread crumbs for dinner. People were expecting a quick fix to the problem, assuming their lives to go back to normal after a few months, tragically underestimating the situation America was in. As a result, no one was prepared to properly combat the extreme shortage of food, jobs, and money in the years to come.

Once President Franklin Roosevelt was elected during the Great Depression, his first 100 days enacted what he called the New Deal. This “deal” was a series of reforms that were meant to increase available jobs, better the working conditions, and put money back into the economy. Jobs offered during this time, as well as the relief, recovery, and reform efforts gave a kick start to the American economy, helping to pull us out of the Great Depression. Some examples of these efforts can be seen in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the National Recovery Administration (NRA), and the Social Security Act (SSA).

The 1930’s were filled an enormous sense of vulnerability and angst because of the horrifying events of the Great Depression and its impact that it had on the society and economy of the United States of America. People of all classes, races, genders, and heritages were struck by the tragedies of the Great Depression. However, with new advancements in the technology of photography came a new hope and outlook for the future of Americans. The introduction of colored photography along with organized photographic groups and their impact took the World by storm as the realization of normal citizens being impacted by the Great Depression set in.

FDR knew that he had to deal with unemployment in New Deal, and he enacted the Works Progress Administration, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Social Security Act, and the Civilian Conservation Corporation. The Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) goal was to provide jobs for the unemployed, building hospitals, schools, parks, playgrounds, airports, and post offices. The WPA also gave jobs to actors, writers, artists and teachers. For example, artists could paint murals on public buildings. Overall, the WPA managed to build 120,000 public buildings, and paint ½ a million miles of road(Source

Many of the New Deal’s relief programs were revolutionary; the federal government was now responsible for relieving the problems of society previously left to individuals, states, and local governments. Work relief programs, such as the popular Civilian Conservation Corps, which offered unemployed Americans a chance to earn wages while working to conserve natural resources, and the Works Progress Administration, which gave unemployed Americans

The New Deal was a specific set of government works programs put into effect by President Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression. The New Deal took action to bring fast economic relief as well as improvements in industry, finance, agriculture, housing, the labor force, etc. The traditional American policy of laissez-faire was opposed in the new democratic promise of the “New Deal”. The majority of the New Deal was enacted in the first couple months of FDR’s presidency, which later became known as the Hundred Days. The first objective was to lessen the hardship of the large amount of unemployed workers in the nation. The Works Progress Administration(WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps(CCC) were created to establish short term government aid to temporary jobs. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was created to develop rules to govern trade practices, hours, child labor, wages, and collective bargaining. Also, the New Deal worked to avoid another stock market crash and bank failures.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) gave insurance for bank deposits and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was created to protect the people from stock-market companies committing fraud. An agricultural program , the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) attempted to raise prices by providing subsidies to farmers to reduce crop production. The New Deal was filled with government works programs to help pull the country out of the Great Depression but,

To start off I should give a little background to help understand what the new deal was fighting, and I will stick more to the agricultural side of the depression in the interest of brevity. The main culprit that hurt the citizens of the U.S. was unemployment. This came about due to a couple of factors. But in my opinion the most important ones are credit, and deflation due to abundance. Both of these reasons abound in the agricultural sector of the time. With world war one being a catalyst farm size grew exponentially with the need to supply efforts overseas. This lead to the need to take out loans to buy expensive machines to work the larger areas. So when the war was over the farmers were still producing at the same quantities to try and maintain their farms. With all of this excess the prices on farm produce dropped to almost nothing. This is lead to many farms being foreclosed on. This was just one area where this happened similar situations occurred in the industrial sector with many

The New Deal was a set of federal programs with the principle of social-welfare liberalism. President Roosevelt was deeply compromised to help the most vulnerable in the ongoing crisis. In second inaugural address he outlines the progress of the New Deal “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bed morals…. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come to the conviction that in the long run economy morality pays.” At some extend President Roosevelt proudly tell the Nation that he was heading to the right direction to progress. Some of the New Deal successful programs that brought relief and dignify living to many Americans were Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) a direct governmental regulation of farm economy to resolve the overproduction problem. In the unemployment relief, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) that provided federal funds for state relief programs. Public Works Administration (PWA) a construction program that lead to Civil Works Administration (CWA) that provide work for more than 4 million Americans repairing, building, and constructing America's infrastructure. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that mobilized young men to do reforestation and conservation work helping their family’s income and the country reservation. In 1935 in housing issues Works Progress Administration (WPA) Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) that help many Americans keep their

The New Deal had a variety of programs that proved to be effective during the Great Depression. While some of them failed or were ruled unconstitutional many succeeded in helping the economy whether it was temporarily or permanently. The programs were made for many different problems and tried to find a solution, some provided direct work for the unemployed. One of these programs was known as the TVA which stands for the Tennessee Valley Authority. A chart on the New Deal Legislation describes each policy including the TVA, CCC, and WPA. It created public corporations that would construct dams and power projects. (Document 3). Two of the other programs that helped with unemployment were the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Public Works Administration (WPA) which employed 8 million people by creating public works projects. (Document 3). In fact, two programs are still in effect today: the Tennessee Valley Authority(TVA) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) (Document 3). The programs that helped to employ people throughout the nation helped with unemployment which led to people buying more products which put money back into circulation because the more people bought the more employees they needed. Also because of the New Deal unions became stronger. During a song named “Songs and Yells of Steel Workers” the lyrics say, “We’re

During the Dust Bowl Era the government offered recovery programs. Those programs included Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA), Civilian Works Administration (CWA), and Work Progress Administration (WPA). The purpose of the CCC was to preserve the country’s natural resources, in order for this to happen more than three million men between the years 1935 and 1942 went to work in parks and forests. This was good for farmers, their land would be safe to build the crops they needed to help their families survive. The FERA’s purpose had three goals in mind the first was to be effective, the second was to be able to provide work employable people on the relief rolls, and the third was to have a diverse variety of

People lost their life’s savings, their homes and farms. In his first broadcast on the radio Roosevelt speech, declared that “This great Nation will endure as it has endured , we will revive and will prosper the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. Heeding the nation to call for action, and action now he promise to exercise broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency. The first step was to save the banks. During his first hundred days as president, FDR ordered all banks to closed to stop people from withdrawing money from the banks, until congress meeting into special session. On March 9 congress passed Roosevelt’s Emergency Banking Act, in which recognized the banks and closed the ones there were insolvent. Banks would re open immediately with government support, and the ones that were insolvent would be handed over to federal conservators who would guide them to solvency. The President urged Americans to put their savings back to the bank, when banks re open the next day, deposits exceed withdrawals. Saving the banks and financial markets meant little if human suffering continue. One work relief program proposed by FDR was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). This program consist to employed hundreds of thousands of young men from relief rolls, and sent them into the woods and fields to plant trees, build parks and fight soil erosion. During its ten years put more than three million young men with jobs. The need to alleviate starvation led Roosevelt to proposed a new giveaway program. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) which consist in gave grants to the states to operate relief programs.The main goal of the program was to alleviate unemployment by creating new unskilled jobs in local and state government. The Social Security Act, and unemployment insurance were incorporated in a separate piece of legislation. The Social Security Act sought

Americans, during the 1930s, clearly needed help. Too many were unemployed, struggling, starving, and/or homeless. One of the biggest legacies of the New Deal is that it combated unemployment with jobs in infrastructure. Many agencies and programs were set up to help increase America’s infrastructure and provide many needy people with jobs. One of those organizations was the Works Progress Administration. Incredibly, the WPA employed an average of 2.1 million people annually for a total of almost 8 million people. It had become largest New Deal program and required almost 11 billion dollars to fund it (Friedrich). The WPA was made with one goal in mind: to get people back to work so they can get money in their pockets to survive. The WPA built highways, airfields, public buildings, and did rural rehabilitation such as planting trees. In total, it had built around 110,000 public buildings, 600 airports, 500,000 miles of roads, and 100,000 bridges (“New Deal”). Like the WPA, the Civilian Conservation Corps, had been created to provide jobs, but it was mainly for younger Americans. This program had employed and put 3

During FDR’s first hundred days of his presidency, he advanced and Congress passed 15 bills. One of them, including the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which accorded jobs for people between the ages of 18-25. This program specifically targeted white men. Some of the jobs included building parks, planting trees, and building small dams. However, in the Second New Deal, the Works Projects Administration (WPA), which funded the government with $4 billion for public works. This created jobs for the people who lost their jobs during the crisis. The CCC and WPA decreased the unemployment rate, however there are many people that are still unemployed. The unemployment rate also triggered bank failures.

The New Deal instituted during the First 100 days addressed the obvious issue by providing programs and organizations to help the poor and destitute Americans to regain a prosperous life. People in the West suffered from unemployment that eventually cost them to lose their homes and live on very little necessities. Since money was not an option to live on, people built shacks with anything they could find. In order to help the people, President Roosevelt and Congress developed welfare and work programs such as the Agricultural Adjustment Act, Civilian Conservation Corps, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. These programs aided in limiting farm production so prices could be higher. Other programs

The new production caused an increase in the need of workers, thus causing the unemployment rate to decrease. One way the New Deal was able to give jobs to the jobless was via the Civilian Conservation Corps. This program gave jobs to civilians between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five; they were planting trees, building dams, and stopping the erosion of the soil. By August of 1933, 300,000 men were at work. Roosevelt also aided the farmers through the Agricultural Adjustment Act. This act helped farmers meet their mortgages, which went hand in hand with the Home Owners' Loan Corporation. Through these acts the government used millions of dollars to try to relieve farmers' economic crises. But by doing this, Roosevelt caused an increase in the national debt.