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Compare President Hoover and Roosevelt
“THE FOUR FREEDOMS” by FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, 1941 analysis
Compare Hoover and Roosevelt depression
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt is commonly thought of as a liberal and President Herbert C. Hoover as a conservative. To what extent are these characterizations valid?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt is commonly identified as a liberal and President Herbert C. Hoover as a conservative. The validity of these characterizations, however, is conditional upon the definition of these labels. If one adopts the most conventional contemporary definitions of the terms “liberal” and “conversative,” then the characterizations of Roosevelt as a liberal and Hoover as a conservative are valid, but the definitions of liberal and conservative vary and change over time and place.
At the beginning of the Great Depression, the meaning of the term “liberal” was contested. The conventional meaning of “liberal” was articulated by President Hoover, who argued for "political equality, free speech, free assembly, free press, and equality of opportunity." For Hoover, "liberty" was associated foremost with individual freedom and self-determination.By the end of the Great Depression, the content of the term “liberal” included different properties. President Franklin Roosevelt defined liberty as consisting of “Four Freedoms”: the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear.
Today, the definition of the term “liberal” is relatively uncontested, and its content is relatively well defined. A liberal today is someone who advocates for governmental solutions to various problems, not for unaided individual freedom. Liberals today trust and call for governmental action, not for the type of self-determination supported by Hoover. Contemporary liberals believe in individual freedom, but they typically advocate f...
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...reased under Hoover. Similarly, it underwent erratic fluctuations under Roosevelt as well; increasing, decreasing but one evident trend is that despite the efforts by both men, the total public debt continued to increase. Neither economic policy truly “worked.” The difference though was in the delivery. Hoover advocates a change in economy by forcing large corporations to act with “glass pockets” to expose any unethical tactics they might employ. He does not resolve to make any significant government changes but merely more regulations on those corporations directly contributing to the economy. By this, Hoover shows his conservatism. Roosevelt, on the other hand (Doc G), identifies “the most serious threat to our institutions” to be coming from “those who refuse to face the need for change.” He goes on to identify that willingness as both conservative and liberal.
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.
But if there is one thing to say about both men, that they equally accomplished even though both did it different ways and by different means, is that they worked with Congress flawlessly. Both had the undivided support of their Congress in their actions. Whether it be leading Conservatives supporting Reagan and his foreign policy or Roosevelt when it came down to making changes in policies to better the public, they had the full support of those behind them. Both men seemed to be extremely charismatic when it came to this. It was almost as if that instead of choosing their Cabinets, they had managed to pick their Congress.
Hoover’s nation was coming out of a war and was facing an economy plummeting into an unknown Great Depression. Hoover proclaimed a need for reform of the criminal justice system, the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, cooperation of government and businesses, the development of education, organization of the public health services, and maintaining the integrity of the He called for restoration with action, and promised solutions to the economic crisis, unemployment, world policy. He however, does remind the people, “We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed.”
From the description of both classical liberalism and socialism provided above, it is clear that the two are conflicting ideologies where one supports individualism, the other supports collectivism that believes in the wellbeing of all citizens in a community. 2. What is the difference between a.. Franklin D. Roosevelt, president of the United States from 1933 to 1945 (and the distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt), was the first to convert to Keynes’s theories. He implemented massive public works programs to put people to work. Called the “New Deal”, an echo of Theodore Roosevelt’s square deal, it consisted of a series of programs from 1933 to 1938.
Firstly, FDR did not reach the White House the same way that his 5th cousin Teddy did. FDR had campaigned for the Presidency, against the incumbent Herbert Hoover. FDR was a Democrat and felt that the government needed to do more to help its people. Hoover, a Republican, did not believe in direct government intervention. He believed in voluntaryism, asking working corporations to voluntarily improve working conditions and wages.
Because the economy was unstable, Franklin Roosevelt imposed many programs to boost the economy both helping and hindering American citizens through banking and financial reformation with government regulation. After declaring the “bank holiday,” Roosevelt created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in order to put confidence back in the citizens and their ability to trust banks to keep their money. By also separating commercial banks from investment banks, the government was trying to keep the flow of money uniform. This idea is radical in form because of the new government imposed restrictions, and conservatives may argue this movement shows signs of socialism. Many people saw implications that free enterprise was disappearing; Herbert Hoover specifically mentions in his Anti-New Deal Campaign speech that he proposes to “amend the tax laws so as not to defeat free men and free enterprise.” The threat to free enterprise challenged the American economy because u...
In the late1960’s American politics were shifting at a National level with liberalism being less supported as its politics were perceived as flawed, both by people on the left who thought that liberalism was not as effective as more radical political enterprises and by conservatives who believed that liberal politics were ostensibly crippling the American economy.
Laissez-faire ideas were considered liberal during the 1920s, but the coming of the Great Depression in 1929 altered the American view of liberalism. The American people began to view Hoover’s ideas of the ideal small government to be conservative, while Roosevelt’s progressive policies became the representation of liberalism. Therefore, it can be said that the Great Depression was a major contributing factor in changing the way in which American differentiated between liberalist and conservative beliefs. As a result of this shift in America’s perception of these policies, Roosevelt became a liberal in the eyes of the people, whereas Hoover gained the reputation of a conservative. However, these former presidents are noted for occasionally supporting similar policies.
Priest Coughlin, once said “Roosevelt or ruin” but at the end he understood it was “Roosevelt and ruin”. After the Stock Market Crash on October 29, 1929, a period of unemployment, panic, and a very low economy; struck the U.S. Also known as The Great Depression. But in 1933, by just being given presidency, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) would try to stop this devastation with a program, that he named New Deal, design to fix this issue so called The Great Depression.Unfortunately this new program wasn’t successful because FDR didn’t understand the causes of the Great Depression, it made the government had way too much power over their economy and industry, it focused mostly on direct relief and it didn’t help the minorities.
The election in 1912 brought a new Political Party to the ballot. Americans were used to Democrats and Republicans, but they now had the Bull Moose Party or Progressives. The Progressives were those who “firmly believed that they could change society for the better, and even come close to a state of perfection” (Bowles, M.D., 2011). The Progressives were “committed to the principle of government by a self-controlled democracy expressing its will through representatives of the people,” (Bull Moose Party, 1912). Theodore Roosevelt was and is the most famous of the Progressives and Woodrow Wilson who was a Progressive Democrat, would go head to head for election as President of the United States. Roosevelt had been President of the United States from 1900-1907. Each of them had their strong points and ideals of what needed to be accomplished to build a stronger nation, but what those ideals were and how to go about enacting them was very much different. Even though both were leaders of the Progressive Movement, Roosevelt and Wilson were very different men.
Thesis: Because the Great Depression quickly changed America's view of liberalism, Roosevelt can be considered a liberal and Hoover a conservative, despite occasionally supporting similar policies.
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.
Because the economy was doing so well during the “Roaring 20s”, there wasn’t much of a dispute over this type of leadership. While President Hoover kept that same mindset in his approach to economic recovery, his successor President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took a completely different and pragmatic approach, willing to think outside of what was accepted at the time. President Hoover continually reminded Americans that things would get better if they kept working hard and pushed through. “Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced programs between 1933 and 1938, designed to help America pull out of the Great Depression by addressing high rates of unemployment and poverty. An array of services, regulations, and subsidies were introduced by FDR and Congress, including widespread work creation programs.
One of the most fundamental concerns throughout mankind have been the subject of a fully free emancipated humankind. Throughout history, philosophers have been in constant discussion in figuring out a way to respect human rights, while at the same time, preserve a well-ordered society. One of the schools of thought that demonstrate this type of society is liberalism. Liberalism is defined as “a political or social philosophy advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary systems of government, nonviolent modification of political, social, or economic institutions to assure unrestricted development in all spheres of human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties” (Dictionary, 2017). Although most
It is worth examining how the New Deal period represented a significant departure from US government and politics up to then. From the start of Roosevelt's period in office in 1932, there was a widespread sense that things were going to change. In Washington there was excitement in the air, as the first Hundred Days brought a torrent of new initiatives from the White House. The contrast with Herbert Hoover's term could not have been more striking. By 1934, E.K. Lindley had already written about The Roosevelt Revolution: First Phase. Hoover, meanwhile, denounced what he saw as an attempt to "undermine and destroy the American system" and "crack the timbers of the constitution." In retrospect, it was only a "half-way revolution", as W. Leuchtenburg has written. Radicals have been left with a sense of disappointment at the "might have beens", in P. Conkin's words.