Franklin D. Roosevelt & the New Deal
• In the midst of the Great Depression, Roosevelt told America, “…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
– 25% unemployment rate
– No one could receive bank loans
• Within 2 days of his inauguration he closed all the banks.
– He reopened the banks for a fresh start.
• New Deal
– New laws regulated banking, relief to poor, managed farms.
– Put people back to work

Franklin D. Roosevelt & the New Deal
• 1933 – Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): The
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program for unemployed men, focused on natural resource conservation.
– Flood control, reforestation
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA): to provide: navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, & economic development in the Tennessee Valley.
• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA): provided relief to farmers in the form of crop subsidies (money paid by govt for a particular purpose.
– Keep farmers from overplanting

Franklin D. Roosevelt & the New Deal
• Congress created Social Security – retirement insurance for elderly.
• Works Progress Administration (WPA)
– built buildings & roads & created employment for workers & artists.
• National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) – protected the right of laborers to form unions.
– Barred management, firing workers for joining unions,
& protected collective bargaining (the ability to bargain as a group for workers’ rights).
– Est. the National Labor Relations
Board
– Sometimes called the Wagner Act

Franklin D. Roosevelt & the New Deal
• Senator Huey Long of Louisiana – “share the wealth” plan
– Called for taxing the rich & using those dollars to give everyone a home & an annual income of $2,500.
– Shot at the Louisiana State Capitol
• 1935 – U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Agricultural
Adjustment act (AAA) was unconstitutional.
– Roosevelt tried to increase number of Supreme Court justices from nine to fifteen (those that would support the New Deal)
– The Idea was dropped after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Social Security Act.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
• Viewed as a woman of great compassion.
• Many wrote to her asking for financial help
• Toured country to assess needs of the people
• Stood out as symbol of social progress & women’s activism.
• Played active role in the Women’s Trade Union
League (WTUL)
• Big supporter of the African-American civil rights movement

• Germany was experiencing a severe depression.
• Turned to Adolph Hitler, head of the Nazi Party.
• Military leaders in Japan sought to expand the country’s power.
• 1935-1937: Congress passed a series of
Neutrality Acts.
– “America should have little involvement in foreign disputes”
– Banned the sale of arms to any nation at war
– Countries must pay cash & use their ships for transporting goods