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49. The New Deal

The bank holiday and what followed: work programs, the farm problem, Social Security, the alphabet agencies, the critics, and an assessment.

49. The New Deal

Within days of his inauguration, President Roosevelt presented the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, which quickly approved the legislation. Here, Roosevelt s…

49a. A Bank Holiday

Before the Banking Reform Act of 1933, keeping your money in a bank was not a sure way to save. If the bank made unwise investments, the bank could fail and de…

49b. Putting People Back to Work

Over 9,000,000 Americans were involved in a multitude of Works Progress Administration projects, from building roads to beautifying government buildings. The a…

49c. The Farming Problem

Years of plowing and planting left soil depleted and weak. As a result, clouds of dust fell like brown snow over the Great Plains. Farmers faced tough times. W…

49d. Social Security

Social Security not only directly aided those who had retired and widows and orphans of insured workers, but it also encouraged states to provide more far-reac…

49e. FDR's Alphabet Soup

In addition to setting a minimum wage and the maximum hours a person could work in a week, the National Recovery Administration outlawed child labor. The New D…

49f. Roosevelt's Critics

Father Charles Coughlin's fiery radio broadcasts reached an estimated 40,000,000 listeners and attempted to sway popular opinion away from Franklin D. Roosevel…

49g. An Evaluation of the New Deal

At the time of its construction during the Great Depression, the Hoover Dam was the largest in the world. To this day, it uses the power of the Colorado River…