THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II

Roosevelt and The New Deal

In 1933 the new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, brought an air of confidence and optimism that quickly rallied the people to the banner of his program, known as the New Deal. The New Deal merely introduced social and economic reforms familiar to many Europeans for more than a generation. Yet its actions provided tangible help for millions of Americans, laid the basis for a powerful new political coalition, and brought to the individual citizen a sharp revival of interest in government.

The First New Deal

Banking and Finance. In this era, the banking and credit system of the nation was in a state of paralysis. With astonishing rapidity the nation’s banks were first closed and then reopened only if they were solvent. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured savings-bank deposits up to $5,000. Federal regulations were imposed upon the sale of securities on the stock exchange.

 Unemployment. Roosevelt faced unprecedented mass unemployement. By the time he took office, as many as 13 million Americans, more than a quarter of the labor force were out of work. An early step for the unemployed came in the form of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a program that brought relief to young men between 18 and 25 years of age. It enrollees worked in camps administered by the army.

Agriculture. In the spring of 1933, the agricultural sector of the economy was in a state of collapse. It there by provided a laboratory for the New Dealers’ belief that greater regulation would solve many of the country’s problems. In 1933, Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) to provide economic relief to farmers. The AAA proposed to raise crop prices by paying farmers a subsidy to compensate for voluntary cutback in production. And this congress had been mostly successful.

Industry and Labor. The National Recovery Administration (NRA), established in 1933 with the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), attempted to end cutthroat competition by setting codes of fair competitive practice to generate more jobs and thus more buying. The NIRA had guaranteed to labor the right of collective bargaining through labor unions representing individual workers, but the NRA had failed to overcome strong business opposition to independent unionism.

The Second New Deal

In its early years, the New Deal sponsored a remarkable series of legislative initiatives and achieved significant increases in production and prices, but it didn’t bring an end to the Depression. Vocal attack also mounted from the political left and right as dreamers, schemers, and politicians alike emerged with economic panaceas that drew wide audiences. The New Deal’s cornerstone, according to Roosevelt, was the Social Security Act of 1935. Social Security created a system of state-administered welfare payments for the poor, unemployed, and disabled based on matching state and federal contributions.

A New Coalition

In the 1936 election, Roosevelt won a decisive victory over his Republican opponent, Alf Landon of Kansas. A broad new coalition aligned with the Democratic Party emerged, consisting of labor, most farmers, most urban ethnic groups, African Americans, and the traditionally Democratic South.   

War and Uneasy Neutrality

The United States, disillusioned by the failure of the crusade for democracy in World War I, announced that in no circumstances could any country involved in the conflict look to it for aid. Neutrality legislation, enacted piecemeal from 1935 to 1937, prohibited trade in arms with any warring nations, required cash for all other comodities, and forbade American flag merchant ships from carrying those goods. America was now neutral in name only.

Japan, Pearl Harbor, and War

Talking advantage of an opportunity to improve its strategic position, Japan boldly announced a “new order” in which it would exercise hegemony over all of the Pacific. On the morning of December 7, Japanese carried-based planes executed a devasting surprise attack against the U.S Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Soldiers, sailors, and civilians were killed. However, the U.S aircraft carriers that would play such a critical role in the ensuing naval war in the Pacific were at sea and not anchored at Pearl Harbor.

War, Victory, and Bomb

In June 1944, the Battle of the Philippine Sea effectively destroyed Japanese naval air power, forcing the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Tojo. General Douglas MacArthur who had reluctantly left the Philippines two years before to escape Japanese capture, returned to the islands in October. Next, the U.S set its sight on the stategic island of Iwo Jima in the Bonin Islands, about halfway between the Marianas and Japan. In November 1945 at Nurremberg, Germany, the criminal trials of 22 Nazi leaders, provide for at Potsdam, took place. The trials lasted more than 10 months. Twenty two defendants were convicted, 12 of them sentenced to death. Similar proceedings would be held against Japanese war leaders.

Family Institution

Things seemed to be especially difficult for unemployed and underemployed male heads of families. Traditional conceptions of gender roles prevailed during the 1930s; accordingly, men were expected to be the breadwinners of their families. Unemployed men often found themselves hanging around their homes, irritating their wives; quarrels became more frequent between husbands and wives. At times, men withdrew emotionally and even physically from their families and friends.

Features that could be considered symptoms of family disorganization, especially the employment of women and children outside the home, can perhaps best be regarded as ways in which families actively adapted to and coped with economic deprivation. In order to help provide economic support for their families, married women increasingly came to work outside the home during the 1930s, generally in low-status, low-paying jobs, often in the service and light manufacturing sectors.

Children contributed to their families as well. Boys worked, usually on a part-time basis, in activities such as delivering newspapers, doing janitorial tasks, and assisting as store clerks. Girls, on the other hand, tended to stay home and help with domestic tasks, especially when their mothers worked outside the home.

Education Institution

Early public schools in the United States did not focus on academics like math or reading. Instead they taught the virtues of family, religion, and community.

Girls were usually taught how to read but not how to write in early America.

By the mid-19^th century, academics became the sole responsibility of public schools.

In the South, public schools were not common during the 1600s and the early 1700s. Affluent families paid private tutors to educate their children.

Economic Institutions

Economic Collapse and a Slow Recovery

These controversies, largely political in scope, occurred against the backdrop of a collapsing economy. Beginning in the fall of 1937, industrial production fell by 33 percent, national income dropped by 12 percent, and industrial stock prices plummeted by 50 percent. Nearly 4 million people lost their jobs, and the total number of unemployed increased to 11.5 million. The "Roosevelt recession" occurred largely because the President, along with some of his advisers (led by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau) were determined to balance the federal budget and had, as a result, reduced government spending. In 1936, the government contributed $4.1 billion to consumer purchasing power, versus less than $1 billion in 1937.

Religion Institution

Up until the 1960s, the "Protestant establishment" (the seven mainline denominations of Baptists, Congregationalists, Disciples, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians) dominated the religious scene, with the occasional Catholic or Jewish voice heard dimly in the background. Traditional Christianity faced some challenges in the first half of the century, especially from the literary elite of the 1920s, but after the second great war, the populace seemed eager to replenish its spiritual wells.

Political Institution

Franklin Roosevelt, brought an air of confidence and optimism that quickly rallied the people to the banner of his program, known as the New Deal. The New Deal merely introduced types of social and economic reform familiar to many Europeans for more than a generation.

Conclusion

Franklin D. Roosevelt as the president at this era, has a very important role in the New Deal and World War II. The New Deal and World War II brought much destruction but also gives a big change in the world.