`Old wine in new bottles' is this an accurate description of the New Deal? "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a New Deal for the American people." Franklin D. Roosevelt, accepting the Democratic nomination for President, July 2, 1932 With those words Roosevelt gave birth to an idea that gave the majority of the American people hope enough to elect him president, it also coined a phrase that will forever be synonymous with his administration as its flagship policy for the recovery and betterment of America. At the time Roosevelt did not outline his plan or further go into the minutiae of the New Deal, but if he had would people have seen it as a collection of imaginative and revolutionary responses to the crisis that beset America at the time? Or perhaps they would have seen it as the next step in an evolutionary process that found it origins earlier in time in populist and progressive doctrine. Or would they rather have seen it as change couched in reformist rhetoric to veil the true purpose of maintaining and preserving conservative institutions and values. It is those questions which lay beneath the metaphor of the New Deal as `old wine in new bottles' the latter two leaning towards the positive while the first is clearly negative. To determine where the ideas behind the New Deal fit this paper will examine core areas within the new deal ranging from American Politics to economic roles of the New Deal including `Big Government' and `Big Labour'. It will also examine the New Deal's ideas concerning the environment, states, agriculture and social welfare. In terms of the New Deal in American politics there is the view that the New Deal is something of an original and daring act of reform on behalf of the... ... middle of paper ... ...ts Press, 2002 p.135 Ruth O'Brien, Workers Paradox (Book Review), Journal of Labor, 2000, vol. 21, issue 4. p. 1 Jerold Auerbach, New Deal, Old Deal, or Raw Deal; Some thoughts on left Historiography, The Journal of Southern History, Vol 35, no.1, (feb 1969) p.22 Jerold Auerbach, New Deal, Old Deal, or Raw Deal; Some thoughts on left Historiography, The Journal of Southern History, Vol 35, no.1, (feb 1969) p.22 Roger Biles, A New Deal for the American people, Northern Illinois university, press, 1991 p.226 Roger Biles, A New Deal for the American people, Northern Illinois university, press, 1991 p.226 Richard Kinderdall, The New Deal as Watershed: The Recent Literature, The Journal of American History, Vol 54, No.4 March 1968 p.845 Roger Biles, A New Deal for the American people, Northern Illinois university, press, 1991 p.226
Biles, Roger. A. "A New Deal for the American People" Taking Sides Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History. eds. -. Larry Madaras et al.
What arises from these stories is a New Deal that was hostile to business, very experimental in its policies, and failed in reviving the economy, making the depression last longer than it should. The reason for some of the New Deal policies was due to the President’s need to punish businessmen for their alleged role in bringing about the stock market crash of October 1929 and, therefore, the Great Depression. Shales does not support the politics of Hoover and Roosevelt; however, she supported Wendell Willkie’s vision. As the president of Commonwealth and Southern, a private electric company, Willkie fought against Tennessee Valley Authority(TVA), a government-owned electric company, over the degree to which the TVA would compete with the private sector in the sale and distribution of electric power.... ... middle of paper ...
Due to severe discrimination in the South, aid from New Deal programs often did not reach blacks. Many blacks were also fearful for their life and the wellbeing of their families and refrained from signing their names when writing to officials and President Roosevelt. African-americans wrote letters to President Roosevelt complaining about conditions they faced when trying to participate in New Deal programs. One writer complains that, “som gets a little and some gets none” whenever a shipment of food arrives in the town (McElvaine, 83). Another african-american complains that provisions never reach them and that the officials in Georgia are using everything that is sent for themselves (McElvaine, 83).
"America's Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal."DPLA. Digital Public Library of America. Web. 20 Nov 2013. .
...y new ideas, presidents after him felt they had a lot to live up to. Franklin D. Roosevelt “cast a long shadow on successors” with his New Deal program. Conservatives were constantly worried about the loss of their capitalist economy, but it is possible that Roosevelt’s greatest New Deal achievement is the fact he never allowed America to completely abandon democracy or turn to socialism or communism. Many New Deal programs fixed economic problems but did not completely solve social ones surrounding equality and discrimination. New Deal programs took radical steps while moving toward government regulation and intervention causing conservatives to fear concentrated power, but the steps and transformations Roosevelt made while in office preserved conservatives’ need of capitalism and democracy in government, defining the New Deal as both radical and conservative.
Source E gives a very strong opinion and argument against the New Deal. It describes how "men lost there confidense in themselves" because Roosevelt gave them soup. It says how "welfare kills a man's initiative". This is all evidense to support Interpretation II. The man who wrote source E was a self-made business-man, who was, no-doubt, a republican.
In his book, A New Deal for the American People, Roger Biles analyzes the programs of the New Deal in regards to their impact on the American society as a whole. He discusses the successes and failures of the New Deal policy, and highlights the role it played in the forming of American history. He claims that the New Deal reform preserved the foundation of American federalism and represented the second American Revolution. Biles argues that despite its little reforms and un-revolutionary programs, the New Deal formed a very limited system with the creation of four stabilizers that helped to prevent another depression and balance the economy.
The New Deal provided Americans with the assurance that things were finally changing. People were being employed, acts were passed, discrimination was addressed and women's opportunities were restored. Roosevelt's New Deal reshaped both the economy and structure of the U.S, proving it to be an extremely effective move for the American society with the economic security and benefits still being used
In order to protect people’s benefits and provide a easeful life to people, Roosevelt started the New Deal followed his first inaugural address. When FDR gave his campaign speech at M...
Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke in his presidential campaign promising the citizens of America a “New Deal” . This New Deal brought new ways to handle the Great Depression. The country was desperate for a new leader, and Roosevelt won them over. The New Deal created organizations to provide relief to the people in need. Programs like the Public Works Administration, Civil Works Administration, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act helped to provide jobs for those that were left jobless during the early years of the depression. As helpful as these organizations were they also created controversy. People who were aided by these institutions, like Jane Yoder’s father, were seen by the wealthier people as “lazy people, the shovel leaners” . Those who had kept their jobs through the depression degraded the people who received the government’s aid for work. Among the wealthy people who kept their jobs was Martin DeVries. A man upset because he was paying taxes while “everybody else was asking for relief, for our money to help them out” . DeVries was afraid that more people in the American society didn’t feel the need to work, that the government would take care of them. The controversy over whether those seeking opportunities through the government aid weren’t lazy jobless people haltered the progress of many programs. Diana Morgan saw this for herself through working for the office of a program. The rich southern
In the articles by Kieffer, Nelson and Moore all discuss the impact of the New Deal on different types of programs and inspiration to todays society. Kieffer takes a complete different approach then both Nelson and Moore focusing on the art history of the New Deal. Nelson and Moore discuss both the NYA and the CCC. The articles have a complete different spectrum to the New Deal, allowing for all three articles for an interesting read and different perspectives.
The New Deal sought to create a more progressive country through government growth, but resulted in a huge divide between liberals and conservatives. Prior to the New Deal, conservatives had already begun losing power within the government, allowing the Democratic Party to gain control and favoring by the American people (Postwar 284). With the Great Depression, came social tensions, economic instability, and many other issues that had to be solved for America’s wellbeing. The New Deal created a strong central government, providing the American people aid, interfering with businesses and the economy, allowing the federal government to handle issues they were never entrusted with before.
In his presidential acceptance speech in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed to the citizens of the United States, “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.” The New Deal, beginning in 1933, was a series of federal programs designed to provide relief, recovery, and reform to the fragile nation. The U.S. had been both economically and psychologically buffeted by the Great Depression. Many citizens looked up to FDR and his New Deal for help. However, there is much skepticism and controversy on whether these work projects significantly abated the dangerously high employment rates and pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression. The New Deal was a bad deal for America because it only provided opportunities for a few and required too much government spending.
The New Deal period has generally - but not unanimously - been seen as a turning point in American politics, with the states relinquishing much of their autonomy, the President acquiring new authority and importance, and the role of government in citizens' lives increasing. The extent to which this was planned by the architect of the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been greatly contested, however. Yet, while it is instructive to note the limitations of Roosevelt's leadership, there is not much sense in the claims that the New Deal was haphazard, a jumble of expedient and populist schemes, or as W. Williams has put it, "undirected". FDR had a clear overarching vision of what he wanted to do to America, and was prepared to drive through the structural changes required to achieve this vision.
Smith, T. General Liberalism and Social Change in a Post-WWII America, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00287217#close, November 30th 1999