Study the following interpretations of the effects of the New Deal. The New Deal helped many Americans and by doing this it gave them self-respect. It gave them confidence to lift the United States out of Depression.

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Pratik Vats 10T

GCSE Coursework: USA

Q7. Study the following interpretations of the effects of the New Deal.

  1. The New Deal helped many Americans and by doing this it gave them self-respect. It gave them confidence to lift the United States out of Depression.

  1. The New Deal wasted a lot of money, it made people dependent on the government and led to the government becoming too powerful. It did not solve America’s economic problems – the Second World War did that.          

Which interpretation is best supported by the evidence in the sources and your knowledge of American history? Explain your answer.                                 (9)

I think that both of the interpretations have support in the sources, but to decide which interpretation is more truthful about how effective, or ineffective the New Deal was will be illustrated in the following essay. The views in the sources are somewhat divided about the New Deal, as some sources support FDR and what the New Deal did greatly, while other sources condemned the actions he took, and the effects that they had. However, other sources have both positive and negative points about the effectiveness of the New Deal.

Source A is an extract from a speech made by FDR during his election campaign of 1932. In it, he talks of how he is personally going to restore America, and how he can only do this if the whole country is united with him. This source is obviously pro New Deal, as FDR would not criticise his own policies when he is trying to get the American public to vote him into office. Therefore, the source is clearly biased, so its reliability can be questioned. As the source is not very reliable, and has an extremely one sided view towards the first interpretation presented in the question itself, it should be disregarded, and should bear no part of any judgement finally made over which interpretation of the New Deal is more correct.

The next source that is clearly pro New Deal is Source B, which was written in 1945 by an American historian making a judgement of the New Deal. This source praises the actions that FDR took, and says that the New Deal was a major success. It gives individual examples of how the New Deal helped America to recover not only economically, but also mentally from a state of despair that the country reached during Hoover’s Presidency. The source talks about how FDR set up the Civilian Conservation Corporation, which employed over 3 million American men between the ages of 18 and 24 to help preserve natural resources that were diminishing at that time, or being destroyed. The CCC helped to plant over ‘17 million acres of new forests and build over 6 million dams to stop erosion’. This source agrees with the first interpretation of how the New Deal gave the American people confidence enough to lift themselves out of the depression by the new jobs that were created. This source is more reliable then Source A, as this one was written by a historian some years after the first, and the historian would have seen what had been achieved during the New Deal, because he was an American. The source also supports what the New Deal did towards moral issues of the time, such as child labour, as the New Deal forbade child labour to be tolerated in America. This source also congratulates FDR on introducing unemployment assistance and old age pensions. This source is suitable to go towards the final conclusion of which interpretation best supports the effects of the New Deal, because it is not written by a clearly biased historian as far as we know.

The next source that clearly supports the New Deal, and FDR in particular is Source F. Source F is a pictorial source that illustrates FDR as being a strong, able, active President, who is disposing of his predecessor’s ideas and mottoes, such as ‘Rugged individualism’ and ‘Prosperity is just around the corner’. The source contradicts with the reality of how FDR was, as he was a man that was crippled by polio, and wore leg braces underneath his trousers in public, as he wanted the American people to see him as a strong President, not a cripple. The cartoon in the source was published in 1933 at the start of FDR’s Presidency. The source is pro FDR, as the caption underneath the picture says ‘Getting rid of the rubbish’, in reference to all things related to Herbert Hoover. FDR is seen to be a trustworthy man, as the picture shows him with a pleasant smile on his face. The source also portrays him as someone who is ready for work and action, as he has his sleeves rolled up. I think that this source is reasonably reliable, as it doesn’t seem to be extremely in favour of FDR and the New Deal, but just seems to have support for him.

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Source H is also clearly in support of the New Deal and FDR, as it is a letter from an American civilian to FDR thanking him for the help that he has given them. However, the source seems to be too much in favour of FDR, and some of the points in it seem a little far-fetched to be deemed believable. Also, the caption underneath the source say that ‘This letter was published by Roosevelt’s supporters as part of his election campaign in 1936’, which shows that this source was trying to sway public opinion into supporting FDR. The ...

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