New Deal programs
New Deal programs refer to a series of initiatives implemented in the United States during the Great Depression, primarily between 1933 and the early 1940s, under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Designed to address the severe economic crisis that followed the stock market crash of 1929, these programs aimed to reduce unemployment, support economic recovery, and provide relief to those in need. Key initiatives included the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), which provided direct relief, and the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which created millions of jobs through public works projects. Other programs, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), focused on environmental conservation while employing young men.
Several New Deal measures sought to regulate banking and agriculture, including the establishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). While many programs were phased out or suspended during World War II due to improved economic conditions, some, like the Social Security Act of 1935, had lasting impacts and continue to influence American social policy today. The New Deal remains a significant chapter in U.S. history, reflecting the government's response to economic hardship and the complex interplay between relief efforts and regulation.
New Deal programs
Laws and regulations enacted under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration during the 1930’s
Public works programs, business regulations, and agricultural programs were enacted during the 1930’s to provide stability to the American economy and increase employment among Americans during the Great Depression. With the onset of the 1940’s and World War II, many public works programs were ended, but most business regulations and many agricultural programs remained intact.
Most historians date the onset of the Great Depression as October 29, 1929, the date of the stock market crash. When Roosevelt took office as president in early 1933, the unemployment rate was almost 25 percent. Roosevelt and his advisers immediately began fashioning public works programs to put what Roosevelt termed “the forgotten man” back to work. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), one of the first public works programs, began in 1933 and ended in 1935. FERA created the Civil Works Administration in 1933, but it lasted only one year. The National Recovery Administration, which was established in 1933 as a first attempt to regulate business and industry, was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1935.
Several public works programs continued into the 1940’s. For example, the Works Progress Administration, which had been created in 1935, provided more than 8 million jobs to unemployed workers. This program built infrastructure in the form of public buildings and roads, and it operated arts and literacy projects, among other programs. It was suspended by Congress in 1943 because of the low levels of unemployment during World War II. One of the most popular programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps, employed young men conserving natural resources in national and state forests, parks, and other federal public landholdings. The program began in 1933, was extended in 1939, and formally concluded its operations in 1943, although liquidation appropriations did not end until 1948. The Public Works Administration, created in 1933, also was abolished in 1943. One public works program that survived the Great Depression was the Tennessee Valley Authority, which remained the largest provider of electricity in the United States.
The first Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) was designed to restrict agricultural production and raise the value of crops, but it was declared unconstitutional in 1936. The Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act was passed in 1935, and a second AAA law was passed in 1938.
Most business regulation and agencies survived the Great Depression, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which had been created in the aftermath of the near failure of the American banking system. The Federal Housing Administration, created in 1934, also survived and helped spark the building boom of the World War II era. The Fair Labor Standards Act, which had been enacted in 1938, was amended in 1949 and remained in effect into the twenty-first century. The Social Security Act of 1935 is one of the most far-reaching programs of the New Deal. This social welfare and social insurance program provided unemployment and retirement benefits as well as assistance to needy, aged, and disabled individuals.
Impact
By 1940, most of Roosevelt’s domestic programs were under attack by congressional conservatives. The bulk of these programs had their budgets slashed during the early 1940’s as they were gradually phased out. With the onset of World War II, unemployment virtually disappeared as industry retooled for war and men were drafted into the armed forces. Some of the social programs, notably Social Security, survived the 1940’s and expanded. Much of the banking regulation passed in the aftermath of the bank failures of the 1930’s remained in effect for decades, with widespread bank deregulation not occurring until the 1980’s. The federal government continued various agricultural price support programs.
Bibliography
Himmelberg, Robert F. The Great Depression and the New Deal. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000.
McElvaine, Robert S. The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941. New York: Times Books, 1994.
Rosenof, Theodore. Economics in the Long Run: New Deal Theorists and Their Legacies, 1933-1993. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
Smith, Jason Scott. Building New Deal Liberalism: The Political Economy of Public Works, 1933-1956. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.