In the 1930s, America faced the most significant crisis known as the Great Depression which harmed economic development and infrastructure. By 1933, more than fifty-five hundred banks had closed, and unemployment stood at 25 percent or 13 million workers, having a bad influence on people’s well-being and the general mood of American society. In such circumstances, there was a need for a new policy, which was the New Deal Liberalism.
The New Deal is a socio-economic program aimed at overcoming the effects of the Great Depression, and structural reforms in industry, agriculture, finance, energy, and labor relations through the intervention into the social sphere. The New Deal was created to provide equality and protect the citizens from poverty and the rival communist ideology. This political course was enacted in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who “outlined six initiatives: expanded public-work programs, assistance to the rural poor, support for organized labor, benefits for retired workers and other at-risk groups, tougher business regulation, and heavier taxes on the well-to-do” (8-742). One of the projects was the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that in eight years “employed more than 8 million Americans and constructed or improved vast number of bridges, roads, post offices, and other public facilities” (8-742). Overall, the program was well-received by the community and was a success.
However, the initiatives could not maintain the same course for long due to the changing political environment. The impetus for the New Deal’s decline was the growth of racial disintegration and the diminishing influence of labor unions by the late 1960s. Thus, the WPA and the Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) were abolished by the coalition of conservative Republicans and Southern Democrats (8-778). After all, President Johnson surpassed New Deal with his vision of the Great Society, which aimed to provide an end to poverty and racial injustice, declaring “unconditional war on poverty in America” (8-868). The New Deal, therefore, could not be expanded and eventually gave way to other policy initiatives.
For Hispanics and Native Americans, the crisis brought hard times encouraged organized resistance, and brought new initiatives. In the new realities, they faced many problems: “By 1937 over half of Arizona’s cotton workers were out-of-staters who had supplanted Mexican-born laborers” (8-754). This inevitably led to strikes demanding better living and working conditions. Besides, “a labor organization called the Confederation of Unions of Mexican Workers and Farm Laborers emerged from a 1933 grape workers’ strike” (8-754). Therefore, attention was drawn to the problems and needs of this minority.
Native Americans were also becoming a factor that could not be ignored. For example, “the Indian Reorganization act of 1934 halted tribal land sales and enabled tribes to regain title to unallocated lands” (8-754). In the second half of the 20th century, minority issues began to play an even greater role due to immigration. “President Johnson proposed and Congress enacted The Immigration Act of 1965, abolishing the national origin quotas of the 1920s” (8-866). As a result, the share of legal immigration has increased, and minorities have become more organized and active, finding a charismatic leader — Cesar Estrada Chavez, who “led his followers in the Delano vineyards of the San Joaquin valley to strike in 1965” (8-866). Additionally, Chavez, together with the “United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta organized consumer boycotts of table grapes to dramatize the farm workers’ struggle, often referred to as La Causa” (8-866). From this, it could be inferred that the resistance and activity of these groups became increasingly organized. Hence, the minority groups became more effective in defending their rights and promoting their interests.
The New Deal’s second phase was aimed at the workers, the poor, and the dispossessed. This is evident from Roosevelt’s attempt to introduce steeper taxes on the rich to combat the “unjust concentration of wealth and economic power” in 1935 (8-744). This attempt was successful since “Congress responded with a “Wealth Tax Act, raising taxes on corporations and on well-to-do” (8-744). This course demonstrates a radical spirit of reforms that provided the general population with better conditions.
Simultaneously, social initiatives were combined with political goals. This is evident from the fact that in the middle of the 1930s, “New Deal strategists crafted legislation to aid sharecroppers, migrant workers, the disabled, the elderly, and others largely ignored by politicians of the past” (8-745). What is more, the area of social justice progressed regarding child labor. More precisely, in 1938, child labor was banned by the Fair Labor Standards Act (8-748). There also was a success in the area of racial and gender equality: “In 1936 Dewson’s Democratic Platform reflected 50-50 gender balance” (8-746), and many African-Americans held high positions.
Nonetheless, despite the implemented measures, the previously mentioned social problems remained far from being resolved. Success in these areas had prospects for further development already in the new era when President Johnson made a speech “for fairer rights for all Americans” (8-882). Thus, the New Deal laid the foundation for development in these areas and was a success for its time, but many issues needed time and new ideas to resolve.
The importance of the New Deal for American history cannot be underestimated. The Government’s activities’ scope was significantly expanded, as it included the fight against poverty and unemployment. By noticeably strengthened the actions of the previous Hoover administration and helped American society recover from the Great Depression. Generally, although the post-war realities did not give the New Deal a wide space for development, it laid a solid foundation for further social and economic initiatives that had a long-term effect.