Introduction
President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched several initiatives known as the “New Deal” to revive the American economy during the Great Depression. Roosevelt moved quickly to stabilize the economy, offer jobs to people in need, and give assistance after taking office in 1933 (View et al. 22). The government implemented other experimental New Deal projects and programs throughout the following eight years, including the CCC, the WPA, the TVA, the SEC, and others. Roosevelt’s New Deal significantly and permanently altered it by increasing the size and reach of the U.S. federal government, particularly its involvement in the economy.
The Goals and Strategies of the New Deal
Roosevelt informed Americans that he would face the dark realities of the moment as though wage war against the emergency and that he would move promptly to address the foreign foe that invaded America. In front of 100,000 spectators on Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Plaza, freshly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933, amid the worst days of the Great Depression (View et al. 18). “Let me first state my sincere conviction that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he remarked (View et al. 22). Many people left his speech with the conviction that they had chosen a leader who was not afraid to make risky decisions to address the country’s challenges.
Roosevelt’s campaign to end the Great Depression was only getting started, and it would intensify throughout The First 100 Days. Roosevelt started things off by requesting that Congress make it lawful for Americans to purchase beer again to end Prohibition, one of the more contentious topics of the 1920s. At the year’s conclusion, Congress adopted the 21st Amendment, effectively ending Prohibition.
He signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act into law in May, establishing the TVA and allowing the federal government to construct dams along the Tennessee River to regulate floods and provide residents of the area with reasonably priced hydroelectric electricity. To reduce agricultural surpluses and raise prices, Congress approved a law in the same month that compensated commodity farmers who grew wheat, dairy products, tobacco, and maize for leaving their fields fallow.
The National Industrial Recovery Act, which was passed in June, established a federally sponsored Public Works Administration and guaranteed workers the ability to unionize and bargain collectively for improved pay and working conditions. In addition to the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, and the National Industrial Recovery Act, Roosevelt succeeded in getting 12 other significant laws passed during his first 100 days in office. It included the Home Owners’ Loan Act and the Glass-Steagall Act, a crucial banking law (View et al. 62). In this jumble of bills, almost every American found something to be happy about and unhappy about. Nevertheless, everyone could see that FDR was being “direct, vigorous,” as he had promised in his inauguration address.
Conclusion
President Roosevelt’s New Deal initiatives from 1933 through 1941 did more than merely tweak agriculture subsidies, change interest rates, and implement transitory make-work schemes. Together with African Americans, left-leaning intellectuals, and white working people, they formed a new, albeit shaky, political coalition. Roosevelt increased the number of secretarial positions in government, which encouraged more women to enter the profession. Rarely did these groups have similar interests—or so they believed—but they did hold a firm conviction that an interventionist government was best for their families, the economy, and the country. Although the New Deal programs that had their coalition together, such as Social Security, unemployment insurance, and government agricultural subsidies, are still in place today.
Work Cited
View, Jenice, et al. Teaching the New Deal, 1932-1941. Bern, Switzerland, Peter Lang, 2021.