New Deal Dbq

Superior Essays
The Great Depression was a time of economic downfall that began in 1929 and lasted until 1939. It was triggered by the 1929 Stock Market Crash and is known as the most dreadful depression experienced in Western civilization. Two long term causes of the Great Depression were agriculture and industry. The farmers had begun to overproduce during WW1 to feed Europe corn and wheat. In order to do so, many farmers retrieved loans to expand their farming land. However, after the war, the amount of crops needed decreased by 40% since WWI ended. Yet farmers still continued to overproduce goods,which resulted in the decrease in value of the crops. The industry in America started to fall when railroads lost to newly built trucks, buses, and cars. People began to use automobiles as a use of transportation instead of trains, which drove the railroad industry out of business. The coal industry also lost 50% of its business due to hydroelectric gas, natural gas, and oil used by the people to heat their homes. Finally, fewer homes were being built, which caused the glass, lumber, landscaping, and housing companies to go out of business since they were not needed in the housing industry. Just before the Depression began, Herbert Hoover was elected as president in 1928. Hoover believed in rugged individualism, voluntary cooperation, and the “wait and see” approach. Rugged individualism was the idea of people succeeding through their own efforts without any government handouts. Voluntary cooperation was the principle of businesses and workers finding a solution together without any government regulations or control. Hoover believed the “wait and see” approach was crucial because he believed the economy had natural cycles of up and down. This prolonged the depression because he was waiting for the economic cycle to go back up and took no action to try and end the depression. The next president had a different approach. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and had a plan to end the depression known as the New Deal. He supported the “try anything” approach and Relief, Reform, and Recovery. The New Deal was a series of programs to help boost the economy out of its depression by offering to employ almost anyone and providing handouts and grants to those in need. FDR acted fast to try to end the depression. The New Deal was a success because of Relief and Reform. The New Deal was successful because it provided relief to the unemployed, elderly, and youth. The unemployment rate during the New Deal drastically decreased. Document 5 shows how in 1933 the unemployment rate was at 25% and by the end of the New Deal, the unemployment rate had decreased by 9%. Therefore, it clearly shows the effects of the New Deal on the rate and with new employment, people are able to buy food, move …show more content…
The total debt after the New Deal had substantially risen and more than doubled. Based on Document 3, the government owed a beginning of $16.9 billion and an end of $44 billion after the New Deal. Hence, the government continued their regular spending without any income tax from jobless citizens, therefore the programs of the New Deal were not efficient and government debt increased. Also, the New Deal often discriminated against minorities. Document 7 described how most blacks received separate and lower pay scales by the National Recovery Administration and were segregated into different camps by the Civilian Conservation Corps. This is important because most New Deals programs did not benefit all citizens, therefore the New Deal was a failure since it didn’t apply to all the people. Finally, the New Deal was a failure because businesses were limited to growth and expansion. Document 2 states how it was difficult for businesses develop and hire new workers due to many new laws and regulations. This promoted higher wages, continuous labor disputes, and shorter hours, which meant less profits and failures for businesses. Failure for businesses would lead to the loss of employees then loss of jobs, and no money for food, shelter and family. This is important because the expansion of governmental relief activities lead to the downfall of the economy, which proves the failure of the New

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Great Depression Dbq

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Great Depression was a huge deal during the war. It made several people suffer for long periods of time. Going through these hard times they where very poor. The people during this time didnt have jobs, money to get food, or even places to live. They suffered greatly and where never treated fairly and lost a lot during this time, even people close to them.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Roosevelt Administration and the New Deal were economically ineffective in overcoming the Great Depression and rebuilding the U. S. economy. As it stated in document two, Congress gave the Public Works Administration 3.3 billion dollars to create jobs and public work projects. The evidence supports that the government wasted 3.3 billion dollars to try and rebuild the United States economy. This example in economically ineffective because the government is now in debt. This corporation didn’t successfully help America, so it was a complete bust in trying to get out of the Great Depression.…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    New Deal Dbq

    • 152 Words
    • 1 Pages

    In 1936, Roosevelt implemented is “New Deal” program to promote relief, recovery, and reform in the United States. Furthermore, the Rural Electrification Act was one component of relief, that was established to aid our rural economy during the dreadful Great Depression. Not only did it improve the quality of life for farmers, and rural people everywhere in the US; it also made it possible for farmers to use more technology in their farming. Before 1936, only 10% of rural dwellers had access to electricity, causing production and workdays, to not reach their full potential. In addition to this, without power it was impossible to update farmer’s equipment to swifter, up to date, more efficient procedures.…

    • 152 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    New Deal DBQ

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages

    If the New Deal was truly a successful program, they would put in extra effort to help those in need. The New Deal barely scratched the surface when dealing with unemployment. Document 5 is a table and graph showing the unemployment rates from 1933 to 1945. Although the New Deal did decrease unemployment rates, it never got it back to the average 4%. The only time unemployment rates did return to normal was at the start of World War 2, which is too late for the New Deal to be called a “success”.…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The New Deal Dbq Essay

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages

    1) From Document B : Most New Deal programs were discriminatory, offering jobs to whites first and not allowing home loans for blacks in upscale white neighborhoods. . 2) From Document B : The President didn’t support any anti-lynching bills or bills to abolish poll taxes in the New Deal. . 3) From Document F :…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    New Deal Dbq

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This lead to a tremendous increase in demand for labor. Within months of the the United States entering the war, the national unemployment rate nosedived an astonishing 10% the level just a year before. The war effort created a massive increase in the production of equipment and weapons for the military. Combine this with the increase in defenses along American borders and the draft and suddenly there was a shortage in labor. Companies worked frantically to bring in new help and fill positions in order to meet the increased production demands.…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Document 4 also emphasizes the fact that the U.S was being thrown further into debt and that FDR’s programs were not quite doing the job. America was still in a record-breaking recession even with New Deal programs, so how much of a difference were they actually making? All of the job programs and changes to inefficient industries actually gave millions of Americans a place to start; those who found work were able to continue developing in a healthy way that would set up a stable foundation for their own life. Lastly, document 5 depicts the unemployment rates from 1933-1945 and that it took nearly a decade to bring the unemployment rate to under 5%. While it took that long to bring down the…

    • 1536 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many argued that the authority of the government was seen as extreme [DOC F] within the New Deal acts and that the federal government seemed more concerned with controlling business and industry with the thought of keeping it that way. A reason why people tend to be upset about the New Deal is because they believe it didn’t do what it was supposed to. In [DOCUMENT D], “often contradictory” was how the New Deal was described. This document expresses that industrial recovery was all over the place because there were programs that would help recover certain areas, and then repress the recovery at the same time. [DOCUMENT J] shows that the unemployment of those who were not farmers, also known as the people who relied on industry and business in their line of work, had spiked exponentially during the Great Depression.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    New Deal Dbq

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Furthermore, after the program was executed, a whopping 100,000 African Americans were coerced into abandoning the land, and the American government provided these now unemployed tenant farmers and sharecroppers with no compensation, conveying the monumental disregard to African Americans by FDR during his New Deal initiatives. Moreover, for the majority of African American households, the mere income obtained from laboring arduously as sharecroppers and tenant farmers was the only source of funds flowing within residences, permitting meager nourishment to be purchased. Unfortunately, with the Agricultural Adjustment Act, African Americans lost what minor income was previously barely supporting themselves and their families, and likely experienced significant difficulty acquiring clean drinking water and warm meals, because of the minimal consideration African Americans relating to the devastating factors endured because of the…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    New Deal Dbq

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The great depression started with the stock market crash of 1929 and the country just kept sinking lower, never finding the end. That is until a new president was elected, Franklin D. Roosevelt, a man with a plan called The New Deal. The Stock Market crash of 1929 tanked the U.S. economy, but The New Deal saved it with construction projects, labor relations, social security, global trade, and government departments. All construction…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The New Deal Dbq Essay

    • 1647 Words
    • 7 Pages

    These new found jobs required government money, money that the government did not have, which caused a big deficit. FDR also introduced the Social Security Act of 1935; this act provided a monthly check for people over the age of 65. 1935 brought the final efforts of the New Deal to reform the Great Depression before the war. Roosevelt ended his first term with the Revenue Act of 1935; this act place a tax on the rich and a tax break on the middle class. Roosevelt’s first term as president and his New Deal alleviated some of the problems found in the Great Depression but was not the answer to solve the Great…

    • 1647 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The New Deal involved the creation and maintenance of many federal agencies, it’s goal was to fix the economy by the “Three R’s.” Those three steps were relief, recovery, and reform. First he wanted to relieve the poor and unemployed, then he wanted to recover the economy with temporary programs, finally he wanted to reform the whole economic system to insure that it would stay stable for years to come. Some of the programs created were very beneficial, others caused some…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    New Deal Dbq Analysis

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages

    During the late 1920s to the late 1930s, the United States was impacted by the Great Depression, in which the US economy reduced the amount of job opportunities and increased the amount of poverty in the nation. The Great Depression was an economic depression that affected the US economy severely during the 1930s. The Stock Market Crash of 1929, Overproduction in farms and factories, Conflicts with the international economy and the Inequality of income in the US were all key parts that caused the Great Depression. The Depression took place at the end of Herbert Hoover’s presidency and carried into Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. FDR stepped into office with several problems that affected everyone in the nation.…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    According to Document 2, the New Deal was a huge step towards both Socialism and Communism. The New Deal contained many programs which allowed the government to exert its control over corporations and is continually promoting labor troubles, highers wages, shorter hours, and less profit for business. If the government continues executing the New Deal, it will ultimately fail and would end in disaster for the entire country. Not only would the New Deal end in disaster, it also costed the U.S. government billions of dollars. As shown in Document 3, the government started with only 16.9 billion dollars in debt in 1929, but ended with 44 billion dollars in debt in 1941.…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The collapse of the European economies was linked to the ongoing debt from World War I as well as the unfavorable balance of trade. C. As the depression lingered thousands of tons of unmarketable crops sat rotting while farm income plummeted and thousands of families were forced to abandon their estates. D. To top it all off, over 5,000 banks failed raising unemployment up 25%! 1.…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays