United States History
An Assessment of the New Deal
The New Deal era represents a period of compressed and complex change. Its relief and reform programs produced mixed results, but the majority of Americans supported Franklin Roosevelt and the programs associated with him. Like any government effort to address a complex problem, the New Deal produced winners and losers.
African Americans in the segregated CCC watering newly planted trees.
African Americans in the segregated CCC watering newly planted trees.
American wage earners benefited from the New Deal. Presidential support for unionization transformed the relationship between employees and employers. Despite strikes, violent repression and other forms of resistance, organized labor …show more content…
Banks saw renewed consumer confidence in their services, generated in no small part by federal depositor’s insurance. Consolidation encouraged by the government improved banking system stability. Farmers who owned large amounts of land, already at a competitive advantage, benefited most from government subsidies and increased mechanization as they removed unneeded manpower. Large industrial enterprises received government loans through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (born under Hoover, but greatly enhanced under Roosevelt), contracts through public works programs, and temporary protection from competition from the NIRA.
American women found increased opportunities for employment, personal expression, political activism, and greater financial security. Though most New Deal aid reflected contemporary views concerning work and gender, many New Deal employment and arts programs included women. In 1936, the Democratic Party reformed its rules to require parity between men and women on the party’s national committee. The Republican Party eventually followed suit. Along with their children, women often suffered most from economic hard times. The New Deal’s efforts to aid the poor eased the lot of many, but not …show more content…
Fearful of offending powerful Southern congressmen and senators, Franklin Roosevelt acquiesced in measures that limited blacks’ access to relief and offered relief on an unequal basis. He never acted or spoke against segregation. He demurred when supporters of federal anti-lynching legislation begged him to speak up on its behalf. As a result these bills died in Congress.
Small farmers and small business also lost under the New Deal. Agricultural programs such as the AAA, aimed in part to help tenants and sharecroppers remain on the land while gaining financial independence, actually made it easier for landlord mistreatment. Mechanization, plow-under, and production reduction measures were to produce direct benefits to tenants. But landowners ignored federal regulations that provided help to tenants with impunity. Small businessmen sometimes found their competitive opportunities limited by measures such as the NIRA.
Despite this mixed record, the New Deal by 1936 succeeded in establishing a political coalition that powered Democrats to victory in six of the next ten presidential elections and control of Congress for most of six decades. That coalition weakened through the late 1960s and into the 1980s, when internal tensions caused it to fracture and break
An Assessment of the New Deal
The New Deal era represents a period of compressed and complex change. Its relief and reform programs produced mixed results, but the majority of Americans supported Franklin Roosevelt and the programs associated with him. Like any government effort to address a complex problem, the New Deal produced winners and losers.
African Americans in the segregated CCC watering newly planted trees.
African Americans in the segregated CCC watering newly planted trees.
American wage earners benefited from the New Deal. Presidential support for unionization transformed the relationship between employees and employers. Despite strikes, violent repression and other forms of resistance, organized labor …show more content…
Banks saw renewed consumer confidence in their services, generated in no small part by federal depositor’s insurance. Consolidation encouraged by the government improved banking system stability. Farmers who owned large amounts of land, already at a competitive advantage, benefited most from government subsidies and increased mechanization as they removed unneeded manpower. Large industrial enterprises received government loans through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (born under Hoover, but greatly enhanced under Roosevelt), contracts through public works programs, and temporary protection from competition from the NIRA.
American women found increased opportunities for employment, personal expression, political activism, and greater financial security. Though most New Deal aid reflected contemporary views concerning work and gender, many New Deal employment and arts programs included women. In 1936, the Democratic Party reformed its rules to require parity between men and women on the party’s national committee. The Republican Party eventually followed suit. Along with their children, women often suffered most from economic hard times. The New Deal’s efforts to aid the poor eased the lot of many, but not …show more content…
Fearful of offending powerful Southern congressmen and senators, Franklin Roosevelt acquiesced in measures that limited blacks’ access to relief and offered relief on an unequal basis. He never acted or spoke against segregation. He demurred when supporters of federal anti-lynching legislation begged him to speak up on its behalf. As a result these bills died in Congress.
Small farmers and small business also lost under the New Deal. Agricultural programs such as the AAA, aimed in part to help tenants and sharecroppers remain on the land while gaining financial independence, actually made it easier for landlord mistreatment. Mechanization, plow-under, and production reduction measures were to produce direct benefits to tenants. But landowners ignored federal regulations that provided help to tenants with impunity. Small businessmen sometimes found their competitive opportunities limited by measures such as the NIRA.
Despite this mixed record, the New Deal by 1936 succeeded in establishing a political coalition that powered Democrats to victory in six of the next ten presidential elections and control of Congress for most of six decades. That coalition weakened through the late 1960s and into the 1980s, when internal tensions caused it to fracture and break