There are many similarities and differences between Germany and the U.S. in the 1930’s such as, the economy, social climate, and the decisions of leaders.
To start off, Hitler’s famous piece of work, “Mein Kampf”, a compelling and wicked book, gained popularity when he became chancellor in the 1933 in which his intentions for war were stated within the book. In fact, many copies of the book were sold and translated into numerous languages. Unfortunately, Germany and Austria banned Hitler’s book because the countries were skeptical of Hitler’s love for war and his venomous plans for violence. “‘Mein Kampf’ was a clear-cut warning to the world of Hitler's intentions for war and genocide, which may have been recognized and prevented had more people
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For example, Hitler could not have been able to pursue his scheme if more people from countries like the U.S. and Great Britain read the book. In addition, his acute proposal to end Germany’s suffering exhilarated everyone from his promises to the way he spoke. As a matter of fact, Hitler assured his people that he will cater jobs to the unemployed and nurture Germany into a powerful country. On the other hand, the U.S. had peaked its point in the economy with homelessness, starvation, and bankruptcy. Moreover, Herbert Hoover could have helped hundreds of sullen Americans, hungry and fatigued, if he hadn’t vetoed the bills that would have provided relief. “He believed in a limited role for government and worried that excessive federal intervention posed a threat to capitalism and individualism. He felt that assistance should be handled on a local, voluntary basis. Accordingly, Hoover vetoed several bills that would have provided direct relief to struggling Americans.” - Herbert Hoover by History staff. Not to mention, his actions and response to the situation angered numerous citizens. As a result, Herbert Hoover was not viable in the 1932 presidential election against Franklin D. Roosevelt. Almost immediately, President Roosevelt created the “New Deal” in order to help those suffering however, it did not end the Great Depression. This was because he did not realize the government was the
Historians claim that Hoovers term during the depression was filled with false promises and accuse the president of doing nothing while the depression worsened. Along with worsening the debt and a fairly aggressive use of government it is clear his approach towards the situation was not the best. FDR’s approach would prove during his administration to suffice in the augmentation of the crisis. Although it seemed like a completely opposite presidency, many ideas came from his predecessor. Roosevelt’s team of advisors understood that much of what they produced and fashioned into the New Deal owed its origins to Hoover’s policies.
The region later became known as the dust bowl. The election of Franklin D Roosevelt and the introduction of the new deal in 1932 helped restore the confidence in the United States and marked the beginning of the end of the depression there. In many countries the great depression resulted in a big shift in public attitudes and in government policy towards welfare provision. The second reason was the unpopularity of Hoover. Hoover was the 31st president of the United States and held office during the great depression.
The stock market crash of 1929 set in motion a chain of events that would plunge the United States into a deep depression. The Great Depression of the 1930's spelled the end of an era of economic prosperity during the 1920's. Herbert Hoover was the unlucky president to preside over this economic downturn, and he bore the brunt of the blame for the depression. Hoover believed the root cause of the depression was international, and he therefore believed that restoring the gold standard would ultimately drag the United States out of depression by reviving international trade. Hoover initiated many new domestic works programs aimed at creating jobs, but it seemed to have no effect as the unemployment rate continued to rise. The Democrats nominated Franklin Roosevelt as their candidate for president in 1932 against the incumbent Hoover. Roosevelt was elected in a landslide victory in part due to his platform called "The New Deal". This campaign platform was never fully explained by Roosevelt prior to his election, but it appealed to the American people as something new and different from anything Hoover was doing to ameliorate the problem. The Roosevelt administration's response to the Great Depression served to remedy some of the temporary employment problems, while drastically changing the role of the government, but failed to return the American economy to the levels of prosperity enjoyed during the 1920's.
Because of the plague known as the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover is often seen as one of the worst presidents in American history. He enacted policies such as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff that flushed America deeper into the depression. Hoover didn't understand that to solve a crisis such as a depression, he needed to interact directly with the people by using programs such as social security and welfare. Instead, Hoover had the idea that if he were to let the depression run its course, it would eventually end. There are three things that can be used to define Hoover's presidency during the depression, his actions, his mentality toward fixing things, and the fact that he helped pave the way for the “New Deal”
Hoover is also vilified repeatedly for his inaction with the Depression. His personal policy and his party’s policy were designed to let the country find its own way, for if it became dependent on government aide, it would be a weaker nation that if it found it’s own way. This was a flawed assumption on their behalf though, because even in the 1920’s, there was a movement from many of the nation’s younger voters advocating change.
“To kill the Jews, the Nazis were willing to weaken their capacity to fight the war. The United States and its allies, however, were willing to attempt almost nothing to save them” (Pp 5). If we would have put half as much energy into loving the Jews as Hitler spent hating the Jews we could have made a great difference.
One of Hoover’s famous quotes was “if a man has not made a million dollars by the time he is forty, then he is not worth much” (Egan, 2006) before the Great depression. How disheartening this would be to hear as a farmer struggling to make ends meet being sold worthless land provided within the United States and then less than a year later the depression starts. Hoover during the depression believed in patience and self-reliance. He felt that the depression and the change in the economy was something that will come and go and it wasn’t the government’s responsibility to intervene. Luckily when a leader was elected, President Roosevelt came up with the new deal. The new deal effected American history by setting forth programs between the years 1933-1938. Roosevelts addressed that there wasn’t enough circling money. While on the radio for the first time which changed the way America does business he told listeners “they could pull their savings out of mattresses and beneath the floor. The government would back there dollars”, If they put it in the bank. He also advocated for the local farmers and ended free-market agriculture economics which would put money back into the farmer’s pockets and less wasted food. Roosevelt would have the government buy a surplus of corn, meat and distribute it to the poor, unlike Hoover. Roosevelt didn’t want to take away the American peoples dignity so he came up
“I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people,” was the famous slogan of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. After long periods of continuous downfall, the people of the nation were consumed with negative feelings due to the lack of effort put forth by President Hoover during the Great Depression. Not only were the people agitated with his poor effort, but more with his method to resolve the situation they were in. Hoover believed in the concept of rugged individualism. This was a term he used during his presidency in the stages of the depression. The idea of rugged individualism was created in order so that the government would be less depended on and that the people of the nation should fend for themselves more in times of distress. It would be obvious that during this era, a majority of the United States would not appreciate or accept the concept of rugged individualism. In fact, there was much tension and turmoil that was set out against President Hoover in the later stages of his presidency due to this factor. It was more so that the people were ready for a change. The nation needed the help and support of a dedicated government. It was more of a need that they longed for to be put out of the economic and social depression that they were in. It was certain that Hoover was not the right man to help them get out of it (Kingsbury). Luckily, the nation soon did find that there was someone out there who would be dedicated enough to get it out of its distress. There was no greater man for the job than Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Being a Democratic politician, Roosevelt would not only win the nation over with his social tactics, but more so with his political party. With...
...pression. It was this that created Hoover’s conservative image. Moreover, Hoover's opinions changed from being against any government interference in the economy to being in support of the government encouraging employment by creating more jobs. Hoover differed from most presidents represented in Schlesinger's theory because touched upon private interest, transition, and public purpose, all within the one term of his presidency. Roosevelt was falsely credited with ending the Great Depression as a result of the success of his many programs instituted with the purpose of fighting against unemployment. He is therefore recognized by many as the more effective of the two presidents, which would then indicate that liberalism was more effectual than conservative ideas. However, in reality, Roosevelt was little more successful than Hoover in ending the Great Depression.
During the Great Depression, Hoover worked endlessly trying to fix the economy with different kinds of proposals. He formed government agencies to encourage labor harmony, supported local aid for public works, fostered cooperation between government and business in order to stabilize prices, and as well to struggle to balance the budget. Hoover refused to involve the federal government in forcing fixed prices, controlling businesses, or manipulating the value of the currency, because he felt it was stepping towards socialism. He also was inclined to give indirect aid to banks or local public works projects, but he refused to use federal money for direct aid to citizens, believing the dole would weaken public morale. Instead, he believes in volunteerism to raise money.
As Document A suggests, Hoover did not want to be considered completely laissez-faire. He seemed less determined to preserve the extremely capitalistic society of the 1920's which was run, often corruptly, by political machines, such as Tweed. However, the success of the American economy under the private interest beliefs of Harding and Coolidge required him to ensure that the lack of intervention ... ... middle of paper ... ...ca afloat as shown in Document D. Roosevelt immediately gained the public's favor with his liberal ideas.
President Herbert Hoover was the conservative Republican president of America when the Great Depression occurred, and was given the burden of rebuilding the economy. He believed the federal government should not intervene, and instead believed that helping the needy was the obligation of private organizations and donors, whom he pressured. In addition, Hoover granted loans to big businesses, hoping that the money would “trickle down” and that more employees would be hired.
The era of the Great Depression was by far the worst shape the United States had ever been in, both economically and physically. Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and began to bring relief with his New Deal. In his first 100 days as President, sixteen pieces of legislation were passed by Congress, the most to be passed in a short amount of time. Roosevelt was re-elected twice, and quickly gained the trust of the American people. Many of the New Deal policies helped the United States economy greatly, but some did not. One particularly contradictory act was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was later declared unconstitutional by Congress. Many things also stayed very consistent in the New Deal. For example, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and Social Security, since Americans were looking for any help they could get, these acts weren't seen as a detrimental at first. Overall, Roosevelt's New Deal was a success, but it also hit its stumbling points.
Hoover underestimated the severity of the Great Depression. Although, he believed it would get better it progressively got worse. Approximately 13 million Americans lost their jobs, and thousands of businesses had failed, and the number of farm foreclosures increased. Provided that the plan worked, which entailed keeping money in people’s pockets and to keep people working, he contacted business leaders and urged them to not lay off workers and not to cut wages. The plan failed and as a result, Hoover watched as Americans drowned into poverty. He signed The Smoot-Hawley Act into a law, which raised taxes on imports; but it was a huge mistake because it induced foreign nations to turn the other cheek on American-made goods when the country desperately needed sales.Furthermore, in order to deal with the Depression, Hoover encouraged volunteerism. Volunteerism was a collaboration between private sectors and public sectors of the economy, meaning that, Americans should volunteer to help one another. Unfortunately, it was not good enough for many people. The people struggled to survive and needed immediate help in big ways. Communities known as shantytowns were named “Hoovervilles”and which were a settlement of improvised housing. The people named shantytowns after the president as a way to appoint blame and express anger.
“ Hitler used propaganda and manufacturing enemies such as Jews and five million other people to prepare the country for war.” (Jewish Virtual Library), This piece of evidence shows Hitler’s attempt of genocide toward the Jewish race a...