Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies and programs

¶ … President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal. To combat the Great Depression when he took office in 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) implemented the New Deal. This program helped get America back on its feet and back to work, and had a lasting affect on American history. In fact, this program was one of the most revolutionary and forward thinking in American history.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only American president elected to four terms in office. Born in Hyde Park in 1882, FDR was a politician nearly his entire life. As a Democrat, he was elected to the New York Senate in 1910. He also served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson, and was elected governor of New York in 1928. His first presidential election occurred in 1932; he took office in January 1933, and remained in office until his premature death from a stroke in 1945.

In 1921, Roosevelt was struck with adult polio, which affected his legs. He used a wheelchair for the rest of his life, and sometimes managed to walk with crutches. He was married to Eleanor Roosevelt, who became a stateswoman and public leader after his death. He created the New Deal policy shortly after he took office to help combat the staggering unemployment throughout the country due to the Great Depression.

The Great Depression began in 1929 after the drastic stock market crash in October 1929. Banks closed, people lost all their savings, and jobs began disappearing. By 1933, which Roosevelt took office; there were nearly 1,000,000 people unemployed with little hope of finding work. During his first 100 days in office, FDR implemented many forward thinking plans for reconstruction and rehabilitation throughout the country. They included work and art projects created to add to the country's infrastructure while putting people back to work.

The New Deal affected the growth of the U.S. In many ways. First, it helped hundreds of thousands of unemployed people find employment. The Works Progress Administration, which Roosevelt created early in 1935, managed projects in the arts, including theater, writing, photography, and music. The program helped put thousands of artists back to work while beautifying buildings, cataloging historic documents and records, and creating programs for the public.

Including the arts and culture in the rebuilding of the nation was forward thinking and exceptionally successful, at least through the first years of the New Deal. It gave unemployed artists dignified employment again and added to the cultural foundations of the country.

Of course, the New Deal did much more than simply affect the arts. Other programs including building dams and highways, and the Public Works Administration (PWA) built many of these projects, including about 25,000 homes across the nation for displaced and low-income workers. One PWA historian notes, "During its four years of operation, from 1933 to 1937, the PWA Housing Division built approximately 55 housing developments around the country. The complexes contained a total of 25,000 units of housing."

Besides housing, the New Deal encompassed a number of other programs and ideas that Roosevelt and his advisors came up with to aid in the country's recovery from a major disaster.

While many New Deal programs were immensely successful, some were not, and the programs were not without their share of critics. Many experts felt Roosevelt's ideas were often haphazard, and if one idea did not work, he would quickly reject it and come up with another. Many banks and financial businesses were critical of the New Deal because it did away with the long-term Gold Standard and ran up a Federal deficit. In fact, many critics believe much of the New Deal was a failure, and the only thing that truly revived the American economy was the advent of World War II.

However, most historians agree the New Deal was an extremely progressive and effective set of programs that helped America when it was vulnerable.

The long-term impact of the New Deal is almost impossible to measure. Many of the programs FDR put in place are long gone, but their results, such as Hoover Dam, federal highways, and WPA books and photographs are lasting reminders of the New Deal policies and programs. In addition, the New Deal created many agencies to ensure something like the Great Depression could not happen again. Later in the New Deal Roosevelt created Social Security, and program that continues today. In addition, the New Deal also created the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). All of these government agencies still exist to ensure safety and security at work, on the farm, and in the stock exchange and financial institutions. These agencies are insurance for the public and for business, and they are some of the most important agencies Roosevelt created.

Many critics felt these programs created too much of a dependence on American government, a criticism which lingers today as the government has become even more involved in the health and welfare of the people. However, these programs reassured the people at the time, and gave them hope some tragedy like the Great Depression could not cripple the country again. In fact, the economy was not adversely affected by these programs, and around the globe, American gained strength as the programs began to take effect and turn the country's workforce around.