How Successful Was The New Deal Dbq

A frustrating factor of this book is that Badger doesn’t use footnotes, even with direct quotes. Instead he refers to specific authors, newspapers, and other works within the book. This loss is aided by his lengthy bibliographic essay and a list of abbreviations used within the book and their meanings. This list helps because it clarifies the specific organizations and groups used in the book. Within the book, Badger manages to mix together a number of different interpretations to present an account of both the New Deal and its historiography. Badger proposes a comparison of the reforms instituted and their unanticipated consequences. Many of these were the exact opposite of what the New Deal proposed, for example, the stronger establishment of big corporations, urban sprawl rather than revived inner cities, weak labor laws, and others.

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.

Jim Powell did a great job throughout FDR’s Folly of making the reading simple, easy, and fully comprehendible for an audience to read. For example, when he is discussing the Wagner Act, he states, “A principal effect of the Wagner Act was to facilitate union strikes and violence.” Later on, Powell elaborates on the Wagner Act by saying, “By giving labor unions the monopoly power to exclusively represent employees in a workplace, the Wagner Act had the effect of excluding blacks.” Some readers might not understand what the Wagner Act was or did prior to this book, but the author did an exceptional job of further explaining it so the reader could grasp the full topic without needing prior knowledge of it.

Reform and reconstruction were represented by new regulations and monetary policies, it stressed the importance of change to make understanding principles of, “justice and fairness by those in whom leadership was placed,” and to correct conditions in the economy. (Bolden, 48). Other goals that the New Deal was set to accomplish were: helping the banking industry recover from its failure after the stock market crashed, lowering the unemployment rate from a record high of twenty five percent in 1932, and to restore the hope and confidence of the public. (Appleby, Roosevelt’s New Deal went about all of these in a similar means, but it was condemned and criticized by many for some of the programs that were installed.

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

President Roosevelt Responds to The Great Depression President Roosevelt during his time as President had to deal with one of the darkest times in American history: The Great Depression. The stock market crashed and the whole country went to shambles. So, how did President Roosevelt respond? President Roosevelt responded by enacting the New Deal, which helped millions of poor Americans, while also expanding the role of Government in the United States citizens lives. (Thesis) To begin, Document A is Meridel Lesueur asking what will happen to the women during this time period.

In the 1920s, Americans suffered to find work, put food on their children and have morale. In 1932, a new president, Franklin D Roosevelt, promised Americans an escape from the Depression with his plan called the New Deal. Although the New deal did not benefit all Americans equally, it succeeded in strengthening the economy and creating a safety net for Americans to rely on.

FDR wasted no time trying to deliver the country from the financial hole it had been dug into. In the first three months of his presidency, the majority of the New Deal was enacted and this period of productivity is now called the Hundred Days (“New Deal”). Roosevelt’s target industries and areas to improve include “industry, agriculture, finance, waterpower, labour, and housing” (“New Deal”). Agencies that fell under FDR’s New Deal include ones that worked to bring jobs to people like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps and organizations like the National Recovery Administration acted as overseers of companies that needed assistance (“New Deal”). This is just the beginning of FDR’s plan to juggle this

Though the New Deal succeeded in helping people, it largely failed in helping the economy. The National Recovery Administration interfered with the natural workings of the market by setting prices and wages, and fostered cartels rather than supporting small businesses. These cartels set wages above the market rate, which makes labor more expensive and depresses employment. High prices and a high cost of labor also means that the unemployed are both less likely to be hired and also forced to confront a higher cost of living. These measures, when combined with Roosevelt’s other new labor laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act and Wagner Act, were instrumental in supporting his program’s relief efforts and helping the workers, but they didn’t work towards supporting the business community. After Roosevelt reduced federal spending on some jobs-creation projects and increased taxes in 1937, the economy entered another recession and unemployment rose again, demonstrating that the employment created by his New Deal

In 1932, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office, the citizens of the United States had possessed sufficient time to realize that they could no longer be proud, but they must take anything they could get. Therefore, the programs set up by FDR’s New Deal program were perfect for the country at the time. These programs helped the people directly, providing relief, recovery, and reform. FDR based his plans on the philosophy of Keynesian economics, where the government spends money to make money. The government gave money and jobs to those in need, who in turn, had money to spend in the marketplace. The demand for products increased, and businesses were able to hire more workers and produce more products, as well as pay more money in taxes. FDR’s plans worked because they gave money not to those who would take advantage of the government, but to those who would use it in the way the government intended it to be used. During FDR’s first term in office alone, the unemployment rate dropped 4%. Because of FDR’s success in bringing the country out of the Depression, I give him an A.

They write, “In response to the massive unemployment of the 1930’s, Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1933 introduced the first federal relief programs targeted at the poor and unemployed… he anticipated that the work relief jobs would boost consumer spending and thus increase demand for labor, which would then raise private employment and earnings.” (Neuman, Fishback, Kanton, pg 4) This quotes illustrates that programs such as these relief jobs, would not only be able to get the people back to work, but also get the economy up and running again.

The main bases for the foundation of work relief projects were not intended to substitute private production but to build and maintain public buildings and communities. The payments were designed to stay beneath market wage rates to encourage workers to seek private employment. The creation of such projects brought forth the growth and prosperity of communities by introducing civil infrastructure such as more roads, sanitation facilities, schools and dams. According to William Horrace, the public works projects paid immensely better wages than relief projects, more freedom was established for appointment of a diverse class of skilled workers; however, they were only permitted to hire a portion of people from the relief rolls. In conclusion to the relief of The New Deal, the WPA, PBA, PWA and PRA had been accepted into the Federal Works Agency. Over all, the companies were able to tremendously assist the working and poor class of America to a better state, despite their allocation to different federal agencies by 1942.

As is known to us all, America suffered a great depression in 1929. The Great Depression of 1929 was one of the worst time period in America history. Business houses closed their doors, factories shut down, banks failed with the loss of savings. Farm income fell some so percent. By November 1932, approximately one of every five America workers was unemployed.

American Business man, Lloyd Blankfein, once quoted, “We certainly had an upheaval at the start of the Great Depression, and that resulted in a lot of financial reform, but it wasn’t done in one stroke, and it wasn’t done immediately.” The Great Depression was by far the worst economic downturn during the period of the 20th century. The financial crisis was caused by the stock market crash in 1929 which sent Wall Street into utter chaos and turmoil. Following the stock market crash, American citizens could no longer trust the government to protect its people and finances. Millions of Americans were unemployed and the economy was tiptoeing on thin ice. With the upcoming presidential election, America was desperate for industrial and agricultural revival; they had no choice but to vote for democratic candidate, Franklin D. Roosevelt. During Roosevelt’s first inaugural address, the new president offered a propitious vision of America including increased jobs and prosperity. He called these ideas the New Deal. The New Deal included legislation enacted by congress and the president to lessen the repercussions followed by the Great Depression. The whole purpose of the New Deal was to institute an application for Americans to use for revival methods. However, some of the programs created by the New Deal are still being utilized today and have had lasting reforms. Although President Roosevelt had much opposition during the creation of many programs, he was able to create many

Millions of innocent American citizens suffered extreme circumstances that resulted in the worst economic downfall known as the Great Depression. In response to this economic downfall, the New Deal flourished. The New Deal, by definition, was a series of federal programs, federal work projects, and financial regulations appointed by the president at the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Before these countless rules and regulations, the lives of American citizens were deemed hopeless due to homelessness and unemployment. Because of how poor they were, many struggled to survive and died of starvation. Jobs were extremely hard to find and even harder to keep; businesses were constantly letting go of employees due to the inability to supply them with wages in return for labor. Plenty of men turned to alcoholism, spending their days drunk and unaware of their situations. Mothers were left to try and keep their children alive all alone. Unemployment was one of the worst outcomes of the Great Depression. When the New Deal came around, however, things began to change. Roosevelt wanted to reform, relieve, and recover America to its’ former glory. The New Deal greatly improved the lives of Americans by increasing their trust with the government through the FDIC, starting the FireSide Chat Radio Address (Document B), and creating the “Social Security Legislation”(Document C).