Angela Ly
New Deal DBQ Outline
Analyze the responses of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration to the problems of the Great
Depression. How effective were these responses? How did they change the role of the federal
government?
Thesis Statement: During Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, his administration helped and
tried to solve the problems of the Great Depression. He caused the government to play a very
important role in society and from their help many people responded with their opinion of what
they felt about it.
Document A:
 in Document A it discusses about women during the Great Depression
 FDR and his administration helped keep women’s condition very well  women didn’t
suffered as much as the other people
o “…not many women in the bread line…”  they didn’t have to wait in line for
food
o “…you don’t see women lying on the floor of the mission…”, “They obviously
don’t sleep…under newspaper in the park”  women had a better condition than
other people, had a better living and didn’t have to sleep elsewhere
 even though the Great Depression caused many women to become jobless, but they still
have a better living than others  showed that women didn’t suffer much during FDR’s
presidency
Document B:
 during the Great Depression, many people pitched in to help out  FDR helped better
the worker’s working conditions and wages  NRA and Section 7(a) of the National
Industrial Recovery Act
o “Everyone is sympathetic to the cause of creating of creating more jobs and better
wages for labor…”  showed that everyone was pitching in to help and create
more jobs for people
o “…leading us fast to a condition where the Government must more and more
expand its relief activities…” the government is using its money to create more
jobs for people  government was playing a major role in providing people jobs
Document C:
 some of the people believed that FDR’s actions during the Great Depression was too
radical and it was changing America into a whole new nation instead of fixing the
problem
o “It is a evolution, not revolution, gentlemen!”
 evolution: any process of formation or growing  developing
 revolution: a radical change in society
o saying that this was supposed to be the time to develop newer ways to prevent the
Great Depression from happening again  a time to develop newer ways and
ideas to better the society  FDR’s actions doesn’t seem like it’s better the
society, it seems like he’s doing a radical change to it  FDR kept creating new
administrations and programs, and passing acts and laws  doing more than
bettering the society  he’s changing it
Document D:
 the government took out money to help relief people and to create more public-works
projects so that people can have jobs  the government was willing to make as much
money as they can to help to help people  this also contributed more to their national
debt  government needs to watch on how much they spend
 “An enormous outpouring of federal money for human relief and immense sums for
public-works projects started to flow to all points of the compass…Six billion dollars was
added to the national debt…”
Document E:
 the government passed the Social Security Act so that the older generation can retire and
still get paid by the government and the younger generation can take their jobs
 the advertisement is used to advertise and notify people that when they retire they can
still get money from the government each month  “a monthly check to you-“  this
helped provide more jobs for the younger generation
Document F:
 the government is getting involved with unions and telling businesses how they should
treat them  people believed that the government is pushing its powers  believed the
government is doing too much now
 “The authority of the federal government may not be pushed to such an extreme”
Document G:
 people believed that the government now is overdoing things  they are getting too
involved with workers and union  government gave worker’s the right to form unions
and collect bargains  businesses and employers didn’t like this, said the government is
overdoing it
 “…have no right to transgress the law which gives to the workers the right of selforganization and collective bargaining”
Document H:
 the government needed to take such radical moves to solve problems of the Great
Depression  the government is the main key to helping the nation through the Great
Depression  changing the Supreme Court and adding new justices  bettered the
Supreme Court
 “The government as an instrument of democratic action in the future has also been
strengthened and renovated”
 “The Courts, too, have been revived...”
 “…excellent new appointments, so that we now have a Supreme Court which is abreast
of the times”
Document I:
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FDR tried to relief the blacks from the Great Depression but he didn’t have the intention
to deal with social injustices  he did help provide some blacks jobs, but didn’t deal
with social injustice because he didn’t want to lose the support from the Southern
Democrats
“…Roosevelt administration has tried to include the Negro in nearly every phrase of its
program for the people of the nation…”
“…most important contribution of the Roosevelt administration to the age-old color line
problem in America has been its doctrine that Negroes are a part of the country and must
be considered in any program for the country as a whole”
Document J:
 during FDR’s presidency, he provided many jobs to people and the unemployment rate
decreased greatly from the Great Depression
 this graph shows that when the Great Depression started (1929) there was a high
percentage of unemployed people, but when FDR came into office (1932) and he started
to take actions, the percentage begins to drop  showed that FDR and the government
worked hard to provide people jobs  government played a very important role  FDR
turned government into the nation’s largest employer