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New Deal Dbq

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The Great Depression was the longest economic downturn in history, it started after the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929. Banks failed, the nation’s money supply diminished, and companies went bankrupt, which caused them to fire their workers. At one point, twenty-five percent of the United States was unemployed. In 1933, Theodore Roosevelt became and took action by starting the New Deal. The New Deal was a series of projects and programs that aimed to restore the United States economy. The New Deal was split into two parts, one from 1933 to 1934 and the second from 1935 to 1938. Before the New Deal began, Roosevelt declared a four day bank holiday so Americans would stop withdrawing money from their bank. The first act passed during …show more content…

Due to the persistent unemployment, Roosevelt launched a second and more aggressive series of federal programs, which was called the Second New Deal. In April of 1935, he created the Works Progress Administration, it provided jobs for unemployed people. These projects were not allowed competition, they focused on building government related things. These things included post offices, bridges, schools, highways, and parks. It also gave a lot of work to artists, writers, theatre directors, and musicians. This created a lot of jobs for many Americans while helping America prosper. In July, the National Labor Relations Act created the National Labor Relations Board. This board supervised union elections and prevented unfair treatment of workers. In August, Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act of 1935, this act guaranteed pensions to millions of Americans and set up a system of insurance for the unemployed. It also specified that the federal government would help take care of dependent children and the disabled. The Supreme Court began to argue that the New Deal’s programs were an unconstitutional extension of federal authority. They invalidated the reform of many programs including the NRA and the AAA. To prevent even further involvement with the New Deal, Roosevelt announced a plan that would add enough liberal justices to the Supreme Court to neutralize the conservatives. This later turned out to be unnecessary, the conservative justices started voting to support the New

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