New Deal Dbq

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One of the worst economic catastrophes in the history of the United States, the Great Depression, fell into the hands of Franklin D.Roosevelt’s administration. It began around 1929 with the collapse of the stock market during Herbert Hoover’s term. Hoover vastly underestimated the severity of the Great Depression and barely assisted the economy, favoring to keep the government uninvolved for the most part. This was where FDR stepped in in 1932 with his set of solutions, the New Deal. The responses of Franklin D.Roosevelt’s administration to the Great Depression were very effective in some aspects but barely helped in others. Many people continued to suffer in poverty. The New Deal programs greatly improved life through lowering unemployment and bettering the environment in America. Although it also grew the power and influence of the federal government. It had become extremely influential to the economy through new administrations run by the executive branch. …show more content…

The rapid increase of the unemployment rate was slowed and eventually reversed during FDR’s term. In a graph of the unemployment rate of nonfarm workers from 1920 through 1945, it is evident that starting around 1929 until about 1933 the unemployment rate was drastically increasing. Aside from an increase in 1936-1937, the unemployment rate dropped back down and even was lower than that of the 1920s for a bit. Poverty was so extreme during the start of FDR’s term that people couldn’t afford to buy quality food and were forced to resort to alternatives. In an article by the Senate Committee on Manufactures in 1932, the author explains how people in Philadelphia struggled to find food. “Another family did not have food for two days. Then the husband went out and gathered dandelions and the family lived on them”(Senate Committee on

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