Roosevelt and the Great Depression Essay -- History Politics Historica

Roosevelt and the Great DepressionThe Great Depression of the 1930s was a great blow to America especially by and by the seeming prosperity of the mid-twenties. The depression was a result not of false prosperity in the twenties, although the distribution of wealth was real uneven the affluence was very real, but rather from a lack of economic and policy-making maturity to address the problems either before 1929 or as a cure broadcast 1929. The Great Depression is often seen as a result of the twenties when rather it was a failure of the thirties. If the necessary policies had been drawn up in the twenties there would have been widespread hatred for these policies by the wealthy ruling class. This would have made them impossible to implement. It is only during the depression that they became a remote political possibility. Since most of these measures were never tried by either Hoover or Roosevelt we can only speculate as to the level of political acceptance such(prenominal) mea sures would have encountered. Roosevelts main measure in combating the Great Depression was the implementation of the New Deal. When Roosevelt excepted the presidential nomination he said I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people. The New Deal, which was never clearly defined, became the label for the measures undertaken to combat the depression. This New Deal sparked off one(a) of the most concentrated bursts of legislation in American history. In 1933 Roosevelt took up office in the face of an economic crisis. Massive unemployment had swept the country and a banking sector in crisis. The New Deal was already in the oven, only half-baked, but it had to be served quickly it was perhaps for this reason that the barrage of legislation lacked a cohe... ... reversing the policy of fiscal conservatism into one of increased defence spending which brought a boom to many industries. Many of the gains of Roosevelts actions are in the unyielding term. Even though many of his government agencies ceased to exist some key reforms were made, especially with regard welfare and the banking sector. The New Deal, though of dubious economic value, perform in motion long-range trends toward governmental expansion and modernisation. Works CitedBurns, J.M. 1956, Roosevelt the Lion and the Fox 1882-1940 Volume One, Harcourt, Brace & World, New York Conkin, P.H. 1968, The New Deal, Routledge American History, London. Graham, O.L. 1967, An Encore for advance The Old Progressives and The New Deal, Oxford University Press, New York. Hill, C.P. & Fell, G.H. (eds), 1975, Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, Edward Arnold, London