From Depression to Prosperity: Roosevelt's Era of Change

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States exclaimed, "It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." The time period outlined from the 1930 's to the 1950’s is the movement from the Great Depression to an era of economic prosperity. The Great Depression was marked with excessive financial collapse. Gradually, new policy, innovative programs, economic affluence, and financially stability emerged. Additionally, the Second World War and the Cold War surfaced. The New Deal, admission into World War Two, and Cold War policy, gave rise to an affluent society that benefit Caucasians and stagnated the progress of the Japanese and African Americans. …show more content…

Roosevelt, Roosevelt enacted the New Deal, a series of programs and initiatives that assisted many Americans in bringing stability back to the American economy and society. The First New Deal was launched in 1933. As many Americans lost their homes, jobs and life savings due to the Great Depression, the First New Deal focused on economic recovery (Foner, 815). President Roosevelt believed it was the government’s responsibility to guarantee every man the right to make a comfortable living (Foner, 810). Successively, he created many governmental jobs to assist the unemployed. In 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created (Foner, 805). This program set young men up to work on forest preservation projects, flood control, and improving national parks and wildlife (Foner, 805). This program helped over 3 million American men, by paying governmental wages to the workers (Foner, 805). Following the CCC, the Public Works Administration (PWA) was formed (Foner, 806). This program contracted with private construction agencies to build useful infrastructure around the United States, and was appropriated $3.3 billion to carryout the plan (Foner, 806). Trailing the PWA, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) was constructed. This program was much like the PWA, instead of contracting with private businesses, the CWA directly hired workers for construction projects (Foner, 806). These programs worked to get men back to …show more content…

World War II began in 1939. America declared isolationism to avoid any association concerning the war (Foner, 845). Big businesses however, did not stick to the idea of anti-entanglement. Henry Ford, of Ford Motor Company did business with Germany, by allowing Germany to employ slave labor to Ford Plants (Foner, 845). Shipments of American trucks, planes, and oil were sent to Japan (Foner, 845). However, the government attempted to stay neutral. In 1941, Japan led an airstrike on Pearl Harbor, American soil, and America then declared war on Japan. With the mobilizing efforts taking place in America, President Roosevelt took order to turn America into a country ready for war. Roosevelt created federal agencies to regulate various wartime expenses (Foner, 852). With these agencies, 3 million federal jobs were created, which drastically decreased the unemployment rate (Foner, 852). The Roosevelt administration also demanded industries to reassemble for wartime production (Foner, 852). With the numerous amount of manufacturing goods being produced for the war, the gross national product rose from $91 billion to $219 billion (Foner, 852). As people became employed, labor union memberships skyrocketed. Unions became greatly established during the war. While many men were deployed to fight in the war, women picked up the jobs that men left behind. While women worked, they

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