The rest of Roosevelt’s New Deal aimed at the goals of relief, recovery, and reform. The pause calmed people’s fears, and when the banks reopened, customers deposited more than they took out. He used the medium of the radio to speak to the American people on Sunday, March 12, 1933, explaining the legislation and appealing for confidence when the banks reopened the next day. Still, Roosevelt was taking a tremendous gamble. On its first day, Congress passed a bill for the phased reopening of the banks.

Relying on suggestions from holdover officials of the outgoing Hoover administration, Roosevelt shut the remaining banks and called Congress into special session. Roosevelt and his advisers had no plans to deal with the collapse of the banking system, which was the most immediate and pressing problem they faced. But Roosevelt had few details worked out for his legislative or recovery programs when he took office, despite the four months during the interregnum between the election and his inauguration. His progressive faith in the role of government to assist the poor and unemployed appealed to the rural southern and western wings of the Democratic Party and the lower-income immigrant voters of the northern cities. When he accepted the Democratic nomination for president in July 1932, Roosevelt pledged a “new deal for the American people,” reversing his predecessor’s approach. Roosevelt president with his promise of bold, persistent experimentation. In the face of the president’s perceived failings and the ongoing economic catastrophe, voters elected governor of New York Franklin D. Their need stretched and even exhausted the resources of private charities and local and state governments, and they turned to the national government and the president to provide a solution. They were losing their farms, homes, jobs, and life savings. Many Americans blamed the president for their suffering during the Great Depression. Hoover increasingly pinned his faith on a balanced budget as a precondition of securing international stabilization. But these appeals to voluntarism failed, and the downturn continued remorselessly. He worked tirelessly to persuade businesses to maintain employment levels, to cajole private citizens to provide relief for the unemployed, to encourage farmers to control their production, and to renegotiate their loans and debts with other nations. President Herbert Hoover was an activist executive with a deserved reputation as a humanitarian for his earlier efforts to alleviate hunger in war-torn Europe. To this economic calamity, still the worst in the nation’s history, government had had little effective response. Roosevelt was sworn in as president on March 4, 1933, in front of the U.S. In the cities, 1,000 homeowners a day were losing their homes.įranklin D. Everywhere, indebted farmers lost their farms when they could not pay their taxes or repay mortgages. In some areas, conversely, drought had destroyed what crops there were (see the The Dust Bowl Narrative).

World commodity prices had collapsed, and cotton and wheat farmers found themselves with huge surpluses that sold well below the cost of production, if at all. Agriculture, which employed one-third of the nation’s workforce, was stricken. Between one-quarter and one-third of the industrial work force was out of a job, and many of the rest were working only part-time. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) had fallen by one-third since 1929. On the morning Roosevelt took office, the governors of New York and Illinois had closed the great financial centers of New York City and Chicago, the culmination of six weeks during which state after state had closed its banks to halt the runs as desperate customers lined up to withdraw their money. However, the economic collapse called the Great Depression meant the American people had every reason to be fearful. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933 Primary Source). Roosevelt told the nation “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” (see the Franklin D. On Saturday, March 4, 1933, newly inaugurated President Franklin D.

Compare the relative significance of the major events of the first half of the 20th century in shaping American identity.

participation in World War II transformed American society

Explain how the Great Depression and the New Deal impacted American political social and economic life over time.

Explain the causes of the Great Depression and its effects on the economy.

Explain the context in which America grew into its role as a world power.

Rough draft essay of world war 2