The New Deal: Transforming American Society during the Great Depression

1. U3C12 The New Deal1933-1940 U.S. History

2. Essential Question • What was the New Deal and how did it change American society?

3. Main Idea • The New Deal was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s plan for overcoming the Great Depression. His plan gave government jobs to the unemployed and increased government regulation of the economy. Although New Deal programs achieved varied levels of success, they did represent a basic change in American society.

4. Roosevelt Inauguration “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” –Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

6. Roosevelt Takes Action • Two days after inauguration, closed all banks, had an emergency session of Congress pass the Emergency Banking Act, giving the government power to examine them, people then began to trust their money in banks • 1933: Glass-Steagall Act created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) • The Hundred Days: Banking was beginning of Roosevelt’s program called the “New Deal”

7. The New Deal • phrase came from a campaign speech in which Roosevelt promised “a new deal for the American people.” • wide range of measure to accomplish 3 goals: relief for those suffering the effects of the Great Depression, recovery of the depressed economy, reforms that would help help prevent serious economic crises in the future

8. More New Deal • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): planting trees/improving parks • Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA): subsidy for growing less crops • National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA): businesses working together to set prices and production • Federal Securities Act: major reform effort to share financial info with public • Public Works Administration (PWA): new agency managing public works programs • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): government watchdog over stock markets • Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA): ambitious program that built dams in Tennessee R.V.

9. Beyond the Hundred Days • Civil Works Administration (CWA): Nov. 1933-built highways, sewer lines, airports; created 4 million jobs • 1934: Indian Reorganization Act- limited the sale of Indian lands and provided assistance to native groups

10. 2. The Second New Deal: The Second Hundred Days • Second Hundred Days-spring of 1935, laws extended government oversight of the banking industry, raised taxes for wealthy, funding new relief programs • Second New Deal was a shift from Roosevelt’s earlier programs, towards work relief rather than just direct aid • Emergency Relief Appropriations Act largely did away with direct payments to Americans in need • Works Progress Administration (WPA) (1935) largest peacetime jobs program in U.S. history, employed 8.5 million on all kinds of public-works projects, cost $11 billion. Built roads, subways, airports, zoos (Jackson Pollack), employed nearly 25% of unemployed • Social Security-August 1935

11. Reviving Organized Labor • Wagner Act, AKA National Labor Relations Act, established new National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) • Unions: American Federation of Labor (AFL), John L. Lewis split away and organized the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) later changed to Congress of Industrial Organizations • GM Sit Down Strike: Dec. 1936-United Auto Workers part of CIO, 6 week strike major victory for labor and CIO

19. The Election of 1936 • Rural electricity: Rural Electrification Act: Roosevelt signed in 1936 empowering the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) to provide electricity to rural areas, homes with power rose from 10% to 90% in a decade • Americans re-elect Roosevelt in 1936: unemployment cut in half in first term; African Americans shifted from Republican, party of Lincoln, to Democrat during this election, a shift that continues today

20. A Troubled Year • The court-packing plan: Roosevelt wanted to pack the supreme court with 6 more justices to move his New Deal programs forward; Congress debated for much of 1937, many in president’s party deserted him; Roosevelt lost the battle. • Moving forward: Farm Tenancy Act aided poor sharecroppers. March 1937 court upheld minimum wage law in Washington State, signaling a new willingness to let legislatures regulate the economy; in May court declared Social Security constitutional. • Recovery in doubt: fall 1937 stock market dropped, 2 million lost jobs, hurting economy; Roosevelt feared providing aid would create a deficit; new theory by British economist John Maynard Keynes was embraced-that deficit spending could stimulate economy, led to recovery in summer of 1938, but positive feelings about Roosevelt and New Deal beginning to fade.

21. 3. Life during the New Deal: New Roles for Women and African Americans • Women in the New Deal: Roosevelt was ahead of his time-Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, first woman to head an executive department; Ruth Bryan Owen, daughter of William Jennings Bryan minister to Denmark; women still faced challenges with pay, jobs. • African Americans in the New Deal: William Hastie appointed first black federal judge in U.S. history; Black Cabinet unofficial advisors to president; southern democrats resisted aiding blacks, Roosevelt needed their votes for New Deal programs

22. Telling the Story of the Depression • The work of Dorothea Lange: photographer, celebrated chronicler of the Great Depression, provided relief for farm workers • Agee, Evans, and Famous Men: writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans depicted lives of sharecroppers in lower south

27. Popular Entertainment in the 1930s • Movies: very popular during depression, 5,000 movie made, about 75% went to the movies each week; most movies featured glamour rather than reality of times. • Radio: very important to keep Americans connected; Roosevelt’s ”fireside chats”, 1938 Orson Wells’ The War of the Worlds; swing music, a form of jazz, swept the country. • Sports in the 1930s: very popular, baseball-Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig boxing-Joe Louis

28. 4. Analyzing the New Deal • New Deal had mixed results • Many received financial relief from programs enacted in 1933 &1938 • Social Security and unemployment insurance became fixtures of government • New Deal less successful in economic recovery, many claim Roosevelt’s policies hurt business confidence and slowed recovery. • Reforms were long lasting: FDIC, roads, public buildings • Government grew • New Deal ended in 1938 due to economic downturn of 1937-1938 and court-packing • 1938: Fair Labor Standards Act-minimum wage law • 1939-1940: factories geared up to sell supplies to those fighting in WWII, ending the Great Depression.