Harry Hopkins And The New Deal

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.

There are numerous history specialists who see the New Deal approaches of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the start of the social welfare arrangement of the Federal Government. Amid the Great Depression, there were numerous men who had no employments; thus, their families endured hardship and yearning. The New Deal projects were a progression of local projects, for example, the Federal Emergency Relief

The 1920s were a time of advancement and prosperity in America. The end of the first world war caused America’s economy to boom resulting in a large increase in industrial output and credit. In addition to this, the invention of the assembly line made the automobile much easier to produce making it possible for most middle class families in the United States to be able to afford one which changed the concept of transportation. Modern advertising caused Americans to desire stuff that they didn’t necessarily need. Working conditions at this time were still poor but there were major improvements from the way it was at the beginning of the century. Due to welfare capitalism workers were much less inclined to strike which also helped the booming

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).

When FDR took office, the United States was experiencing one of, if not the worst, economic depression. Labeled the Great Depression, FDR knew that extreme government policies would need to be implemented to combat the problems that existed. To do this, FDR’s “New Deal” policies did just that. Whether it be the Social Security Program or any other aspect of the New Deal, the response was highly effective. In fact, many programs from this time are still in use today, showing just some of the ways that the role of the federal government was changed due to the presidency of FDR.

Following the Great Depression, the government instituted a series of experimental projects and programs, known collectively as the New Deal, which aimed to restore some measure of dignity and prosperity to many Americans. Roosevelt’s New Deal permanently changed the federal government’s relationship to the U.S. populace for the New Deal was a revolutionary step towards the use of governmental power to address economic and social issues.

President Roosevelt created the New Deal, which consisted of recovery, relief, and reform programs in order to combat the Great Depression. People called these programs, known as ABC agencies, by their abbreviations. In the illustration the politician states, “It is evolution, not revolution, gentlemen!” (Document C). This demonstrates that although Roosevelt’s New Deal was radical, numerous Americans thought there were too many agencies and it became extremely confusing to keep up with the immense number of them. Additionally, some of the programs were failures because they did not stimulate economic growth. As a result, the government terminated several of the agencies to reduce federal

During this time, “…FDR promised ‘a new deal for the American people’” (Polenberg, 8). FDR quickly realized that in order to win over the citizens of the United States and to fix the crisis they were in, he had to address the two main things that he saw every American wanted during this economical depression. Polenberg informs his readers that FDR saw that the two things every American wanted was “…Work; work with all the moral and spiritual values that go with work. And with work, a reasonable measure of security—security for themselves and for their wives and children” (p.8). Knowing that these were the two main aspects (at the time) that FDR had to place the majority of his attention on, he went to work immediately as “He feared that a resolution was likely if he failed, as Hoover had, to solve the nation’s problems” therefore he begun formation of the first New Deal reforms (Polenberg, 8). These reforms were “…designed not so much to promote reform as to proceed recovery,” (Polenberg, 9) therefore indicating that “…the Roosevelt administration intended to move the country in a dramatically new direction” (Polenberg, 9). Some of the programs that the New Deal initiated were: the NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act), the NRA (the National Recovery Administration), the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act), the WPA (Works Progress Administration), the CWA (Civil Works Administration), and the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) just to name a few (Polenberg, 9-13). Each reform act was aimed at recovering a different but specific area of society. For example, the TVA worked to “…provide cheap electrical power… and… help prevent soil erosion and control floods” (Polenberg, 13) while the AAA “…served as the foundation of New Deal farm policy… balancing agricultural production and consumption so as to avoid surpluses and ensure that

At the beginning of the 1930s the era known as the “Roaring Twenties” died and from it emerged one of the hardest times known to Americans. The 1930s were centered on the Great Depression and how to alleviate the millions of Americans who were affected by it. During this era the American government, lead by FDR, attempted to reform the American economy and the lives of American people. Contrary to Hoover’s “laissez faire” economics, FDR and his administration created the New Deal to aid the US economy by government intervention. Although FDR’s New Deal did not end the Great Depression, it eased the people's suffering and reformed many issues that contributed to the depression by providing relief and reform, while changing the role of the federal government by creating lasting programs, such as social security, satisfying the needs of many citizens and increasing the

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in response to the Great Depression that was wreaking havoc on America in the 30’s, enacted a plan called the New Deal. Which entailed a series of federal programs, public work projects, financial reforms and regulations to hopefully restore our country to a state of prosperity. The prospects of this New Deal were stated to be all about the three ‘R’s. These three ‘R’s included: Relief for the unemployed and poor, Recovery of the economy back to normal levels, and Reform of the financial system. The goal of this plan was to pull our country out of the Great Depression, to rebuild the nation, and to prevent a depression like this from ever

He wanted to extend businesses (banks, railroads, insurance companies) by keeping in a good shape. As a result to extend business, the Government had relied on local relief organizations to help the unfortunate people. Leading up to the end of Hoover’s single term in office, newly president Franklin D. Roosevelt had created the New Deal. The New Deal would have soon have the three “Rs” (Relief, Recovery, and Reform). In his first inaugural speech, he would state “putting people back to work and managing the economy.”

Imagine being unemployed and so poor that you call a shantytown your community and a shack your home. This was the economic situation for one-quarter of the civilian labor force in 1933 (Dimand, 2000, para. 4), and so, in the same year, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president during the worst economic recession in history of America (ABC-CLIO, 2000, para.2). Accordingly, FDR introduced a series of programs to help the American public called the New Deal. These programs were often called “alphabet soup agencies” due to the acronyms for various programs made to provide relief, recovery and reform, such as decreasing the amount of unemployed by creating jobs, giving secure wages and making housing more affordable. The New Deal was a success because of the numerous Federal programs Roosevelt created to accomplish its goal of helping the people.

The New Deal was serious of domestic programs and it included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The New Deal focused on what historians call the, “3 Rs”: Relief, Recovery, and Reform. That is Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression. Roosevelt nationalized unemployment relief through the Works Progress Administration (WPA), headed by close friend Harry Hopkins. Roosevelt had insisted that the projects had to be costly in terms of labor, long-term beneficial, and the WPA was forbidden to compete with private enterprises (therefore the workers had to be paid smaller wages). In 1935, Roosevelt called for a tax program called the Wealth Tax Act (Revenue Act of 1935) to redistribute wealth. The United States Housing Act of 1937 created the United States Housing Authority within the U.S. Department of the Interior. It was one of the last New Deal agencies created. The bill passed in 1937 with some Republican support to abolish

It all started back in 1929, the depression era. The stock market had recently crashed and people were desperate for hope. Unemployment was at its all time high, more than one fourth of the U.S population was unemployed and gradually increasing. At the time of when the depression first began, President Herbert Hoover was in power. During the depression people would wait in long lines just for a few bites to eat. Volunteers would hand out food to the hopeless and hungry people, these were commonly known as Soup kitchens in “Hoovervilles” . The soup kitchens and the help efforts that were in place during the depression were named after the president of the time. The struggles did not get any better until the start of the CCC, The Civilian Conservation Corp.

In 1932 during the worst of the great depression and prior to World War II, President Roosevelt’s administration implemented a series of initiatives or legislative reforms that all fell under the New Deal. “The flood of New Deal legislation that followed produced major changes in government-economy relationships and in government’s role in American society generally.” (Anderson, 2015, p. 72) Roosevelt’s description of the New Deal was that it would help to provide relief, recovery, and reform; this came to be known as the “3 Rs.” Many of the reforms were highly successful like the Federal Emergency Relief Act, Tennessee Valley Authority, Federal Housing Administration and the Social Security Act. In 1933 the Rural Rehabilitation