The New Deal

The Great Depression began on October 29, 1929, on day which is now known as “Black Tuesday,” when the American stock market crashed, plunging the country into its most severe economic fall yet. This stock market crash was especially surprising since it had been moving steadily upward for almost a decade. Banks failed, the country's money supply diminished, and companies went bankrupt and as a result also began to fire their workers. Meanwhile, President Herbert Hoover urged patience and self-reliance, he thought the crisis was just “a passing incident in our national lives” that it wasn’t the federal government’s job to try and resolve it. By 1932, one of the worst years of the Great Depression, at least 1/4 of the American workforce was unemployed. When President Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933, he tried to stabilize the economy and provide jobs and bring relief to those who were suffering. Over the next eight years, the government instituted a series of projects and programs, which were collectively known as the New Deal, that aimed to restore some prosperity to many Americans. More than that, the New Deal permanently changed the federal government’s relationship with the U.S. people.

Source: http://www.history.com/topics/new-deal

There were multiple attempts at making a New Deal to help the American people out of their current economic states. In the "First New Deal" Congress passed many bills in an attempt to aid the American people. Some included a bill that paid commodity farmers to leave their fields in order to end agricultural surpluses and boost prices. June’s National Industrial Recovery Act guaranteed that workers would have the right to unionize and fight together for higher wages and better working conditions; it also established a federally funded Public Works Administration. In addition to the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, and the National Industrial Recovery Act, Roosevelt created 12 other major laws, including the Glass-Steagall Banking Bill and the Home Owners’ Loan Act, both in his first 100 days in office. Pretty much every American found something good and bad in his collection of bills, but it was clear to all that Roosevelt was taking the direct and vigorous action in helping to aid the American people.

Despite the best efforts of President Roosevelt and his cabinet, however, the Great Depression continued. The nation’s economy continued to weaken; unemployment persisted; and people grew angrier and more desperate. So, in the spring of 1935, Roosevelt created a second, more aggressive series of federal programs, known as the Second New Deal. In April, he created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to provide jobs for unemployed people. WPA projects focused on building things like post offices, bridges, schools, highways and parks. The WPA also gave work to artists, writers and musicians. In July 1935, the Wagner Act, created the National Labor Relations Board to prevent businesses from treating their workers unfairly. In August, Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act of 1935, which guaranteed pensions to millions of Americans and set up a system of unemployment insurance.