New Deal Dbq

Starvation, hopelessness, and unemployment are just a few words that describe the hardships of the Great Depression. Americans were desperate for a change, as they were drained from Hoover’s unsuccessful administration. Ed Paulsen, a dayworker during the Depression who was interviewed by Studs Terkel, describes an experience he had one day waiting outside a gate for a job opportunity. He was in a crowd of many men. He said, “a thousand men would fight like a pack of Alaskan dogs to get through that gate” (Paulsen 1971). The election of 1932 was the answer to the prayers of many Americans. Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the election by a landslide, winning people over by promises of change. The platform of his campaign was to give the Americans a new deal. The New Deal was revolutionary to America through its policies for a more involved government, programs for immediate relief, and calls for American reform.
Prior to Roosevelt’s presidency, the government had a less active role in the lives of the citizens. Hoover promoted rugged individualism, meaning that Americans had the ability to help themselves without the intervention of the government. These terms changed, however, when Roosevelt came into …show more content…
He created the Federal Emergency Relief Act, which allowed the government to fund agencies to help fifteen million unemployed Americans (Corbett 767). This helped tremendously with the lack of employment. He also created the Works Progress Administration, which allowed for millions of unemployed citizens to carry out public projects, such as building roads and bridges. In turn, people who were so desperate for jobs had a way to keep living in their homes. Lastly, he created the Civilian Conservation Corps, which provided unskilled manual labor jobs. It was a major success, giving 250,000 men jobs (Corbett