Franklin D. Roosevelt
and the
New Deal
Mr. Phipps
American History
California State Standards
11.6.2. Understand the explanations of the principal causes of the
Great Depression and the steps taken by the Federal Reserve,
Congress, and Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano
Roosevelt to combat the economic crisis.
11.6.4. Analyze the effects of and the controversies arising from New
Deal economic policies and the expanded role of the federal
government in society and the economy since the 1930s (e.g.,
Works Progress Administration, Social Security, National Labor
Relations Board, farm programs, regional development policies,
and energy development projects such as the Tennessee Valley
Authority, California Central Valley Project, and Bonneville Dam).
The Era
• The Great Depression was a prolonged period
of widespread poverty and unemployment
• In the United States, the federal government
responded by increasing its power and
influence
• The First and Second New Deals attempted to
provide RELIEF, RECOVERY, and REFORM
• FDR was criticized for abusing Executive
Authority and not ending the Depression
• Mobilization for war the ultimate reason for
ending global depression
Part I:
The Election of 1932
The Election of 1932 was a
referendum on the Republican
Party, on conservative
government, laissez-faire-ism, and
Herbert Hoover.
The Election of 1932
Herbert Hoover (Rep.)
• Conservative politician
– Believed that federal
government should stay out of
people’s lives
– Government should not fix
individual problems
– Direct relief would destroy
self-reliance and self-respect
– Believed that a “big
government” was an abuse of
power and “Socialist”
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem.)
• Liberal politician
– Believed that federal
government had
responsibility to help people
– Capitalism, corporate entities,
and financial/banking
structure needed to be
reformed
– Government involvement was
necessary and ensured
access of Democracy to all
Americans
The Pledge
FDR’s Campaign
Pledge
• Promised a “new deal
for the American people
• Vowed relief, recovery,
and reform
• Pledged an end to
Prohibition
• Won by the greatest
electoral landslide in
history
While it is tradition for the outgoing president to be
a part of the incoming president’s inauguration, it
was rare for both presidents to be in the same car
for the procession to the Capitol. For his
inauguration, FDR “asked” Hoover to accompany
him. FDR’s glee is matched only by Hoover’s
obvious discomfort.
“Sunny Days Are Here
Again”
Experience
• Two term governor of New York
• Cousin to Theodore Roosevelt
• Had strong, well-established
political family ties
• Married to Eleanor, also a
distant cousin
Election of 1932
• Dramatic upheaval in Congress
– Democrats controlled both
houses of Congress
– Greatest change in
Congress in 80 years
Part II:
The First Hundred Days
Lasting from March to June, FDR
took broad Executive Authority to
enact legislation that would end
the Depression.
FDR’s New Deal Philosophy
The Three Rs
• Relief: Provide immediate help
• Recovery: Provide long-term
help and begin economic growth
• Reform: Change government so
it wouldn’t happen again
The Plan
•
•
•
•
•
Renew hope in democracy
Restore confidence in banking
Stimulate the economy
Put people back to work
Restore self confidence
The Democratic
Congress
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
• Within the first 100 days,
Congress passed over 15
major legislative packages
• All 15 were signed by
FDR, although some were
later challenged by the
Supreme Court as
unconstitutional
• Constituted the largest and
fastest expansion of
federal power in American
history
The Alphabet Agencies
Part III: The Three Rs
During the First and Second New
Deals, FDR enacted legislation
that provided jobs, public services,
relief from foreclosure, and
reformed the financial system…at
the cost of billions of dollars.
Step 1: Help Banks
• First priority: Restore
confidence in banking
• Declared a “Bank
Holiday”
– Banks closed to
evaluate records and
get more money
• Passed Emergency
Relief Act, allowing the
President (through the
Treasury) to inspect the
banks
Insurance
• FDR passed the
Glass-Steagall Act
– Established FDIC
(Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp.)
– Ensured account
holders up to
$5,000 (now
$100,000)
Step 2:
Provide Relief
• FERA (Federal Emergency
Relief Agency):
– Gave $500 million of direct aid
relief to unemployed workers,
provided food, clothing, and
grants to cities
• FHA (Federal Housing
Authority):
– Provided home loans, home
mortgages, and grants for
repairs
The Boys of the Road
• CCC (Civilian
Conservation Corps):
– Sent 3 million young men
(18-25) to work in forestry,
trail maintenance and
construction, construct
bridges and aqueducts,
conserve natural
– Removed surplus of young
men from cities and
guaranteed income for
Pay checks would be forwarded directly to
their families
the families. Since the boys of the CCC had
free room and board, the pay would help
needy families back home.
Public Works
• PWA (Public Works
Administration):
– Part of the National Industrial
Recovery Act
– Provided money and jobs to
construct schools, community
buildings, and other public
projects
– Gave $3.3 Billion in aid
• CWA (Civil Works
Administration)
– Constructed 40,000 schools,
paid for 50,000 teachers
– Built 500K miles of road
– Hired over 4 million workers
“Three Letters That Make it
OK”
• WPA (Works Progress
Administration)
– Employed 8.5 million
workers
– Provided jobs in
construction, public works
jobs (bridges, roads,
buildings, highways)
– Supported the Arts
•
•
•
•
The Federal Arts Projects
The Federal Music Project
The Federal Theater Project
The Federal Writers Project
(including oral history)
When the WPA finally shut its doors, it had
completed 2,500 hospitals, nearly 6,000
schools, 13,000 playgrounds, and over
125,000 public buildings. In addition, it
constructed HWY 1 in California and started
the Golden Gate Bridge.
While praising the
accomplishments and
supporting authors like
Steinbeck, Hurston, and
Hughes, the WPA’s Writer’s
Project also interviewed
thousands of surviving
former slaves, in the hope
of preserving their
experience for posterity.
Step 3: Recovery Programs
• HOLC (Home Owners
Loan Corporation):
– Prevent mortgage
foreclosures
– Gov’t bought mortgages and
allowed for refinancing
• NIRA (National Industrial
Recovery Act):
– Enforced codes of fair
market competition
– Established minimum wage
– Permitted collective
bargaining and union
negotiation
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
The TVA
• TVA (Tennessee
Valley Authority):
• Regional development-upper South was
deeply impoverished
• Stimulate the economy
by providing jobs
• Flood control
• Produce cheap
electricity
30% of property owners in the region
had no toilets, compared to 41% of
tenants. 94% of property owners didn’t
have electricity, compared to 98% for
tenants.
A Long Range Plan
• Nearly 3/4 of all people in
the upper South had to
travel at least 300 yards to
get household water
• Less than 10% of these
people owned a radio due
to poverty and availability
of electrical power
• Less than half of all the
property owners could
read, less than 1/4 of poor
whites and blacks
Step 4: Reform
• SSA (Social Security
Administration):
– Established retirement
pension for persons over
65
– Money deducted
automatically from payroll
– Provided old age
insurance and
unemployment
compensation
Financial Reform
• SEC (Securities and
Exchange
Commission):
– Regulated Stock market
and restricted margin
buying, fraud, and
insider trading
• NLRB (National Labor
Relations Board):
– Protected labor unions,
prohibited unfair labor
practices, affirmed
workers’ rights
Part IV: FDR’s Critics
Because of his unprecedented use
of Executive Authority, FDR
encountered much criticism: from
the Supreme Court, from
Conservatives, and from people
who had yet to be helped.
FDR Gets It From
Both Sides
• Although the New Deal helps many people,
critics emerge
• Liberals:
– Felt that FDR and the New Deal was NOT doing
enough for the American people
• Conservatives:
– Felt that government was doing TOO much
– Believed that the President had overstepped his
Constitutional authority
– Felt that government was spending too much money
that couldn’t be paid back
– Created a welfare state--dependency on the gov’t
“Court-packing”
• Court challenges FDR by striking down:
– NIRA: too much control over industry (Schecter v. United
States--the “Sick Chicken Case”
– AAA: agricultural issues were local matters
• FDR attempted to set age limits for Supreme Court
justices, in order to ensure no opposition to New Deal
– FDR successfully appointed 7 new justices to the Supreme
Court
Demagoguery
• Huey Long
– Louisiana Governor
– Considered the “Most
Dangerous Man in the
World”
– 4 million followers
– Constantly railed against
FDR as incompetent
• Father Charles Coughlin
– Advocated greater
assistance to the poor
– 45 million listeners
Part V: A New Deal Coalition
FDR’s promise of a “New Deal for
the American people” resulted in
greater political, social, and
economic access for minorities
and women.
The First Lady
• Eleanor Roosevelt
– Helped women gain higher
political positions during the
New Deal
– Was influential in her role as
advisor to the President
– Hired first female Cabinet
position: Frances Perkins
– Personally replied to letters
from Americans (estimated
5,000--8,000/wk)
– Personalized politics and
feminized the New Deal
The New, New Negro
• The Black Brain Trust
– Witnessed increased
activism for black
Americans
– A. Philip Randolph
becomes head of first allblack labor union
(Brotherhood of Sleeping
Car Porters)
– Mary McLeod Bethune
headed the Division of
Negro Affairs for the NYA
– Overall, FDR appointed
over 100 AfricanAmericans to federal jobs
Native Americans
• Granted full
citizenship in 1924
• Reorganization Act
of 1934 gave more
natives more control
of their reservations
• Policy shift from
assimilation to
autonomy
Part VI: 1930s Culture
Hollywood attempts to gloss over
the Depression with big-budget
pictures, while writers detail the
personal tragedy of the decade.
Hollywood and the Studio
System
• Large studios centralized production
– Provided necessary funding during the Depression
– Allowed for bigger productions, with a bigger budget
– Provided systematic organization, from production to
theatrical release (studios owned theaters)
– Maintained contracts with individual actors and
directors
• Transition to sound (The Jazz Singer, first talkie)
– Required re-investment in new technology on all levels
of production
– Development of new genres: crime, caper, comedy,
musical, horror, epic, and noir
• Actresses: Greta MGM
Garbo, Joan
•
Crawford, Jean
Harlos
• Actors: Clark Gable,
Mickey Rooney,
Spencer Tracey
Genre: Glitz,
Glamour, Big
Productions, Epics,
and Noir
Paramount Pictures
• Actresses: Marlene
Dietrich, Mae West
• Actors: The Marx
Brothers, Gary
Cooper, Cary Grant
• Directors: Cecil B.
DeMille
• Genre: Humor,
Suave and
Sophistication
Warner Bros.
• Actresses: Bette
Davis, Barbara
Stanwyck
• Actors: James
Cagney, Humphrey
Bogart
• Genre: Working
Class Grittiness,
Noir, Crime Dramas
Twentieth Century Fox
• Directors: John Ford
• Actresses: Shirley
Temple, Loretta
Young
• Actors: Henry Fonda
• Genre: Historical
Epics
RKO
• Actresses:
Katherine Hepburn,
Ginger Rogers
• Actors: Fred Astaire
• Directors: John Ford
• Genre: Musicals,
Adaptations, Style
and Sophistication
Universal Studios
• Actors: Bela Lugosi,
Boris Karloff
• Genre: Horror,
Melodrama, LowBudget
Other Studios
Radio
• Radio sales increased
from 13 million in 1930
to 28 million in 1940
• Approx. 90% of
American households
had a radio
• Used as a means for
FDR to directly
communicate with the
people through the
“Fireside Chat”
Radio Shows
• Popular radio programs
included Jack Benny,
Burns and Allen, and
Bob Hope
• Orson Welles’ “War of
the Worlds” shocked
Americans with the
threat of a Martian
invasion, causing mass
hysteria
Art
• Funded by the WPA,
through the Federal Art
Project
• Subsidized by wealthy
philanthropists (eg.
Rockefellar Center)
• Famous artists include
Edward Hopper, Thomas
Hart Benton, and Grant
Wood
Grant Wood: Fall Plowing (1931)
Grant Wood:
American
Gothic, 1930
Edward Hopper: Nighthawks (1942)
Edward Hopper: Railroad Sunset (1929)
Mabel
Dwight:
In the
Crowd
(1931)
Thomas
Hart
Benton:
Mine
Strike
(1933)
Thomas Hart Benton: Lord, Heal the Child (1934)
Nicolai Cikovsky: On the East River (c. 1934)
Literature
• The Federal
Writer’s Project
funded authors
• Both Richard
Wright and John
Steinbeck
received federal
assistance for
their projects
• Both authors,
among others,
captured the spirit
of the times
Conclusion
• FDR received criticism from both Liberals and Conservatives
– Liberals argued that he didn’t do enough to end the
Depression, which is why it continued to linger until 1939
– Conservatives argued that he abused Executive Authority
in implementing the New Deal and ran up a gigantic
national debt
• The New Deal failed to completely address the economic,
social, and political problems of the Depression but did
– Provide millions of jobs
– Construct roads, bridges, dams, and public buildings
– Reformed the government to provide direct assistance to
children, the unemployed, the homeless, the disabled,
and the elderly