Fdr's Response to the Great Depression Essay Example
FDR's Response to the Great Depression The stock market crash of 1929 set in motion a chain of events that would plunge the United States into a deep depression. The Great Depression of the 1930's spelled the end of an era of economic prosperity during the 1920's. Herbert Hoover was the unlucky president to preside over this economic downturn, and he bore the brunt of the blame for the depression. Hoover believed the root cause of the depression was international, and he therefore believed that restoring the gold standard would ultimately drag the United States out of depression by reviving international trade. Hoover initiated many new domestic works programs aimed at creating jobs, but it seemed to have no effect as the unemployment rate continued to rise. The Democrats nominated Franklin Roosevelt as their candidate for president in 1932 against the incumbent Hoover. Roosevelt was elected in a landslide victory in part due to his platform called "The New Deal". This campaign platform was never fully explained by Roosevelt prior to his election, but it appealed to the American people as something new and different from anything Hoover was doing to ameliorate the problem. The Roosevelt administration's response to the Great Depression served to remedy some of the temporary employment problems, while drastically changing the role of the government, but failed to return the American economy to the levels of prosperity enjoyed during the 1920's. When Roosevelt took office on March 4, 1933, the nation faced a desperate situation, but the first 100 days of his presidency indicated how his administration would combat the depression. As a graph indicating unemployment of nonfarm workers shows, nearly 40% of the workforce was out of a job in 1933. This period was a bleak time for American families as men and women suffered equally. Meridel Lesueur stated in New Masses, that "there must be as many women out of jobs in cities and suffering extreme poverty as there are