Chapter Overview

The American People in the Great Depression

The depression was a great leveler, ignoring differences of class, ethnicity, geography, and race. Most people simply lived leaner lives. Some tightened family budgets; others moved to cheaper quarters. A few starved to death, and more than a few foraged for food. For the first time, more people left rather than entered the country. With hard times came shame, self-doubt, and a loss of confidence. Birth and marriage rates dropped, and troubled marriages broke apart. More and more women worked outside the home, and the home itself became an inexpensive center of recreation and companionship. A depression culture emerged that reinforced the basic tenets of American culture: middle-class morality and family life, capitalism, and democracy.

An ecological disaster transformed 1,500 square miles into a gigantic "Dust Bowl" and led 3.5 million farmers to leave the Great Plains. A growing migration of rural refugees wandered the country in search of work.

Mexican- and African-Americans suffered more than their share of hardship. In addition to economic problems, the Great Depression aggravated racial prejudice; reported lynchings tripled between 1932 and 1933.

The Tragedy of Herbert Hoover

The depth of the crisis soon exhausted private and municipal resources. Only the federal government possessed resources to meet the manifest need, but President Herbert Hoover proved unable to mobilize recovery. Despite doing more than any of his predecessors to combat a downturn, Hoover could not bring himself to do more; he was afraid that too much government activity would unbalance the budget, impede the return of business confidence and recovery, create an unwieldy and intrusive bureaucracy, and undermine individual freedom and initiative. What Hoover tried was too little and too late.

Resentment grew. Unrest peaked in the disastrous march of the Bonus Army on Washington in 1932. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt won nearly 58 percent of the popular vote. The Democratic victory laid the foundation of a powerful coalition that would dominate politics for decades to come.

The Early New Deal (1933-1935)

Central to this shift to the liberal state was the warmth, dynamism, and willingness to experiment of Franklin Roosevelt, augmented by his wife Eleanor's advocacy for the underdog. Roosevelt's first "hundred days" were marked by an unprecedented flood of legislation.

Despite these measures of reform and relief, recovery was actually a more important theme in the early New Deal. Here Roosevelt combined new federal planning with associational techniques to try to revive the economy. The National Recovery Administration promoted industrial cooperation and self-regulation, while the Agricultural Adjustment Administration similarly relied on private cooperation. But both were struck down by the Supreme Court.

A Second New Deal (1935-1936)

In the 1934 off-year elections, Democrats increased their majorities in Congress. New Deal critics, too, experienced success, as progress failed to keep pace with public expectations. Among the most potent voices of protest were Huey Long, Charles Coughlin, and Dr. Francis Townsend. They helped, along with Congress and the public at large, to push Roosevelt farther to the left in 1935.

A second "hundred days" of legislation signaled a break from the earlier partnership with business, stressing greater regulation, long-term relief, and more sweeping reform. The Social Security Act institutionalized a welfare state with a social insurance program for the aged, infirm, and dependent children. The National Labor Relations Act gave a powerful boost to organized labor. Legislation also strengthened federal control over the private sector.

Roosevelt's 1936 reelection was built on a powerful coalition of the traditionally Democratic South, big city ethnics, and labor, and it reflected the wide impact of the New Deal on the American people.

The New Deal and the American People

New Deal programs changed the lives of ordinary folk. Minority groups found friendlier federal officials. As a result, African-Americans turned toward the Democrats. On the other hand, Latino folk culture sometimes undercut federal efforts to help. Indian tribes enjoyed a more sympathetic federal government. New Deal welfare agencies offered unprecedented opportunities for women. Organized labor probably benefited most of all. By the end of the decade independent unions were firmly a part of American industry.

Of all the New Deal programs, none touched more Americans than WPA arts programs, such as the Federal Writers Project, which produced popular state guides, and the Federal Arts Project, which brought scenes of ordinary American life to the people in the form of murals in public buildings.

The End of the New Deal (1937-1940)

The New Deal effectively ended in 1936. Some of Roosevelt's troubles were brought on by the president himself. When a conservative Supreme Court invalidated several New Deal measures, FDR fought back. His plan to "pack" the courts with new judges, badly formulated and ineptly handled, angered the public and bolstered a conservative coalition of Republicans and rural Democrats. FDR's effort to balance the budget in 1937 led to a deep recession, and his vindictive attempt to unseat opponents failed.

Although Roosevelt's New Deal never achieved recovery, it created mechanisms to compensate for future swings in the economy, modernized the presidency, established a limited welfare state, added new groups into the fold of democracy through "broker" politics, and transformed the Democratic party into a dominant force in American politics.