Roosevelt's New Deal
Franklin D. Roosevelt, inaugurated in March 1933 with banks failing across the country, launched the New Deal — a sweeping programme of federal intervention unprecedented in American history. The First Hundred Days saw the Emergency Banking Act stabilise the financial system, the Civilian Conservation Corps put 3 million young men to work in national parks, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act attempt to raise farm prices. The Second New Deal (1935) created the Works Progress Administration, employing 8.5 million people in public works, and the Social Security Act established the principle of federal insurance against unemployment and old age. Though the New Deal did not end the Depression — unemployment still stood at 14 percent in 1937 — it restored confidence, prevented the kind of political radicalisation that destroyed Weimar Germany, and permanently expanded the federal government's role in managing economic and social risk.
- Year: 1933 CE
- Category: Political
