The New Deal: Achieving The Great Depression

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.

In FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression, Jim Powell discusses how Roosevelt’s New Deal actually prolonged the Great Depression and made it significantly worse economically for the people in the 1930s United States. Powell reveals a different angle of the “hero” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his New Deal, and how he allegedly lead the United States out of the Great Depression. Throughout this book, the author analyzes the actions and repercussions of Roosevelt’s economic decisions revealing how these decisions actually made the depression significantly worse. Along with that, the author analyzes the various policies and implementations in a more in-depth way that really convinces the reader of the poor

Using you knowledge AND the documents provided, write a well-reasoned essay on the following prompt:

In his work The Achievement of the New Deal, author William E Leuchtenburg argues that when the great depression was shaking the stability of the American life, the new deal which is the policy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt led America towards the light. He shows us the drastic change that the deal brought which was very controversial and brought positive socioeconomic changes. It shows how the American life changes and the economy flourished in America. Leuchtenburg was a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a brilliant scholar of the life of Roosevelt.

As soon as Franklin Roosevelt came to power, he was quick to react to the countries needs. The text states, “Swift legislation regulated the stock market and the banking system, improved the agricultural economy, and introduced a social security program” (“Great Depression”). Franklin Roosevelt was swift in recognizing the problems facing the country and attempted to solve the issues. His legislation focused on securing the economy and beginning to built back up the trust between the government and the American people. It was successful, to an extent. People did begin to trust the government again but economic decline would not stop immediately. There were signs of progress; From 1933 to 1938 the economy experienced growth. Unemployment fell and national income increased (Jeffries). This statistic shows that New Deal reforms had some positive impact on the economy. They also succeeded in restoring confidence to the average person which was extremely important at the time. This statistic does not, however, reflect that this growth was very small relative to the growth experienced during World War II. New Deal policies failed to ever achieve enough economic growth to push the nation out of the depression. Another cornerstone of the New Deal was its campaign to make life more safe. The New Deal worked to make life less risky, and in a sense it did through acts

Beginning in October 19, 1929 and ending in 1939, the American people had no hope having endured severe unemployment, food shortages, and dreadful living conditions. Life started to turn around when Franklin D. Roosevelt stepped into office and put his New Deal programs into play. Franklin and his administration quickly addressed the problems that had led to the Great Depression by executing policies that would successfully address reform, relief, and unsuccessful recovery. Following World War II it ultimately repaired most of America from the Great Depression but, Franklin’s New Deal programs were the major cause that stopped America’s economic downfall. By Franklin stepping into office and presenting his New Deal programs, this relieved

Thesis: The New deals legislation has played a very integral part in helping recovery effort during the great depression because it led to a greater employment, and restored the security in the American economy. Although not perfect, the new deal success ultimately set the precedent for future progressive reform during times of economic depression and recession.

The late 1930s were a time of great suffering and uncertainty in the United States. The country was crippled by effects of the Great Depression; the result was a massive decline in jobs and economic stability that dramatically impacted both rural and urban communities. Millions of Americans were out of work, unable to support their families. State organizations and charities were unable to meet the growing needs of the people and many were left to fend for themselves. The Great Depression brought with it a legitimate, tangible fear about the future of America and its citizens. Upon the outcry of the American people a “New Deal” was struck giving the citizens of America a lifeline of hope in the ever-growing State. The New Deal was a succession of programs, organizations and laws, enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, directly addressing the issues of jobs, welfare and uncertainty through direct federal involvement. The creators of the New Deal worked across party lines to reshape the norms of state involvement whilst making a great legislative effort to turn the declining economy around. The New Deal reshaped the federal government’s relationship with its citizens in a time of economic uncertainty helping to grow the State in a time of peace.

The traditional view of Franklin D. Roosevelt is that he motivated and helped the United States during the “Great Depression” and was a great president, however, as time has passed, economist historians have begun analyzing Roosevelt’s presidency. Many have concluded that he did not help America during the Great Depression but instead amplified and prolonged the depression. Jim Powell wrote about FDR economic policies and did an excellent job explaining Roosevelt’s incompetent initiatives. Roosevelt did not know anything about economics and his advisors made everything worse by admiring the Soviet Union.

The New deal was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s plan to end the great depression. It created jobs, made the social security program, and helped farmers make soil less loose. (Sources E, F, and G)It solved the banking situation, and modified the stock market. It also helped businesses get unions. (Source F) The New Deal was successful because it created many jobs and saved banks. (Sources F, G, I, and J)

There were hot lunches for children and jobs for women, Native Americans getting jobs as well, and many Americans got jobs. Though kids only got one meal, Native Americans not getting all their problems addressed, and African Americans were discriminated from jobs. The U.S. as a whole pulled through and survived. They at least happened so they got help from the government and from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This is extremely significant because without these programs and policies, life may have been very different for people in the great depression hugely. The unemployment rate could be tripled or quadrupled even, hot lunches may never have happened, and problems with Native Americans would not be solved. With the New Deal it did happen. Unemployment rates went down and there problems were addressed, so it’s policies and programs did help . The New Deal was needed to help the United States survive during the great depression because without it, they would have an even harder

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.

“Black Tuesday” is cited to be the day that the Stock Market Crashed on October 19, 1929, and it is believed to have been the beginning of the Great Depression (Schultz). This led to many catastrophes in the United States economic system that lasted ten years, from 1929-1939 (Schultz). During this time period consumer spending declined, unemployment increased, and a severe drought throughout the U.S led to a reduction in agricultural labor, which resulted in even more unemployment (Schultz). Nevertheless, out of this crisis President Roosevelt created programs, throughout his presidency, in hopes of bettering the United States economy. These programs would eventually be called the New Deal and Second New Deal programs. These programs were

The Success of the New Deal in Solving the Problems Caused by the Great Depression

The next step in FDRs New Deal is recovery. The objective of the National Recovery Administration was to create codes for businesses to follow. These codes would then help to provide minimum wages for employees, restrict the number of hours worked to prevent over time and set prices and production levels. The goal was to fix the American economy by limiting competition, rising power purchased by the consumer and hiring unemployed workers back to work for them once more. By mid-1933, the new agency achieved the voluntary acceptance by nearly 600 industries of new codes. The new codes covered nearly 30 million workers. One problem was that the chief administrator was chosen because of his well-known service in the WIB during World War I. Sadly,