The Great Depression was a major economic downturn in American history in the 1930s, which affected the entire globe. The primary cause was the burst of the stock market bubble, which led to its crash. It took place during Herbert Hoover’s presidency, which started in 1929. During his presidency, he undertook multiple attempts to minimize the impact of depression on Americans, but Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was more transformative.
Herbert Hoover’s influence was not significant, and the public blamed him for the economic problem. In 1929, Hoover convinced business leaders to maintain wages and initiate new construction projects to stimulate the economy with significant tax cuts. In 1930, the president launched the President’s Emergency Committee for Employment (PECE), which was insignificant. The latter was changed to the President’s Organization on Unemployment Relief (POUR), which also failed. In 1932, Hoover signed the Emergency Relief Construction Act, but improvements were not noticeable during his presidency. The public blamed Hoover and was hopeful about Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His two-part New Deal established numerous programs, agencies, laws, and policies. There were major short-term improvements at the cost of higher involvement of the federal government in the social and economic affairs of the US.
In conclusion, although both presidents tried their best to counter the Great Depression, it was something that could not be reverted easily. America climbed out of the depression due to World War II, which increased the demand for American commodities. It should be noted that both of them were able to mitigate the damage received by the public, and Roosevelt was more successful in this regard. However, FDR’s policies reshaped the federal government’s role to become more involved in many aspects of American society.