Why has there been so much disagreement in the USA over the effects of the New Deal?

History Question 8

In 1932 the newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt, democratic leader, promised the American people a New Deal. However, by 1937 people could not agree whether the New Deal was a success or not. All of the sources in the booklet show this. They do not agree because of the following reasons; The New Deal itself had varied successes and no natural end. Historians, eyewitnesses and politicians all have different motives for assessing the effects of the New Deal. In addition, it is impossible to compare the New Deal to any other policies, as Roosevelt’s policy was so different to Hoovers.

The following sources are all positive about the New Deal, source A was written by Roosevelt himself, therefore it is very positive about the New Deal, it was written when he was first introducing to New Deal to the American people. It has quotes such as “I pledge to you. I pledge my self to a New Deal for the American people.” He describes the depression as the enemy, and he will fight, and win the war against it. “ Win the crusade to restore America”. Sources B and F are similar as they are both positive about the New Deal because they focus first part of it. An American historian writing in 1945 wrote Source B. he talks about all the good points of the New Deal he talks about how the beginning of the new deal was successful. “The restoration of self confidence”. Source F is a cartoon of Roosevelt tossing out all the rubbish that Hoover left behind such as “prosperity is just around the corner” and “car in every garage”. In the background is Hoover walking off looking at a train timetable, this is ironic, as he is not driving a car after his promise to have a car in every garage in America. Source H is positive about the new deal from a personal point of view. It was written by a family who have obviously have been positively effected by the New Deal. In the opening line is the statement “just to let you know everything is alright now”. And it ends with the line “god bless you” this source is obviously being very supportive of the New Deal, the authors were properly democratic as in their experience the New Deal did help them. Sources I and J are also very supportive of the New Deal, this is because source I was a very popular song in the 1930s and praised the new deal and Roosevelt saying, “Since Roosevelt’s been re-elected we’ve not been neglected. Source k is written by Frances Perkins in 1947 in her book “ the Roosevelt I knew” she was also his sectary of labour in the new deal government. Therefore writes positively about the New Deal, as she was involved in it.

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The above sources contradict Sources C, E and J; they all focus on the end of the new deal. Source C is written bye an American historian, it focuses on all the bad things that the New Deal has done or failed to achieve, “every one in four have to depend on employment by the government.” Source E is a cartoon of Roosevelt using a pump and pumping loads of money, which is, represented by water into a see of 16 billion spent, and in the eyes of the artist who drew this cartoon wasted. Source J is written bye a self made businessman speaking in 1980 and remembering the time of the New Deal. There are quotes such as “He didn’t understand that when you give to people you hurt them” this meant the more Roosevelt gave money to people, it lowered there self-esteem. Source D focuses on the racial inequality and on the amount of unemployment at the time of the New Deal. It is a cartoon showing a white family looking very happy in a car, and below them is a queue of black Americans queuing for government relief. This shows unemployment was still high and America was still very racist.

The new deal was both a success and a failed and it is this that makes it hard to analyse. It had initial success but unemployment only reduced by 10%in the first 5 years and in 1937 the budget was cut and the country went into recession and in 1941 there were six million unemployed. However the deal did have a lot of successes here is a list of some; the new deal created millions of jobs, it established the American banking system, it cut the number of business failures, projects such as the TVA brought work and an improved standard of living to deprival parts of America, the new deal projects provide the USA with schools, roads and power stations.

However there were bad points these were; the new deal never solved any underlying economic problems, the US economy took longer to recover than most European countries, confidence remained low- throughout the 1930’s Americans only spent and invested about 75% of what they had before 1929. the USA’s entry into world war II brought an end to unemployment. In 1937 recession damaged Roosevelt badly. Middle-class voters lost some confidence in him. As a result, in 1938 the Republicans once again did well in the congressional elections. Now it was much harder for Roosevelt to push his reforms thought congress. However he was still enormously popular with most ordinary Americans. Roosevelt tried to introduce six new democratic Supreme Court judges.

However thought all of this evidence for and against the new deal historians still cannot agree. They make five main criticisms of the New Deal; Roosevelt kept changing his mind about how to solve the problem of depression, big business remained to powerful in the USA, and rich people resented paying taxes because they felt there hard earned money was going into the taxpayers pocket just to go back out on be given to people who cannot be bothered to get up and get a job, the New Deal did not help the poorest people like blacks and farm labourers, the New Deal did not restore confidence in the American people, which they had in the 1920’s they were not investing as much in the stock market, and finally unemployment had remained high at about 19% of the total workforce unemployed. The main successes of the New Deal were it stopped depression from getting any worse, it helped farmers stay in there property and helped them beat the dust bowl, it brought about better social security, it provided a strong foundation for the future because it built schools roads etc, it saved democracy and finally it improved co-ordination between local and central governments.

In conclusion there is no clear answer to the success of the New Deal, as everybody manipulates the facts for there own devises.