American Pageant Chapter 33 APUSH Review

[MUSIC] What's going

down beautiful APUSH people?

Today we're taking a look

at the Great Depression and even

more importantly, the New Deal.

So, in 1932 there is an election

for the presidency and the Republican

Party is running Herbert Hoover.

He's running for a second term.

He had the unfortunate luck of being

the president when the stock

market crashes in October 1929.

And for the early part of the depression,

Hoover favored rugged individualism.

He did not want the federal

government to give direct relief.

He does eventually support

the Reconstruction Finance Corporation

based on a trickle-down

theory of economics.

And the Democrats, though,

pick Franklin Roosevelt.

He promises the American

people a new deal.

There is no clear plan laid out.

No one exactly knows, nor does he,

what he's going to do if elected.

But in 1932, the unemployment rate is 25%

and there was a growing frustration

with the limited response under Hoover

and the federal government's failure to

address the needs of the American people.

And this brings

Franklin Roosevelt the victory.

So, who is this guy,

Franklin Roosevelt, FDR?

Roosevelt comes from a wealthy,

privileged family.

He is a distant cousin

of Theodore Roosevelt.

He came up in New York politics.

He was the governor of New York in 1928.

But important to keep in mind is before

that occurred, polio had left Roosevelt

paralyzed from the waist down

and he could not walk unaided.

He needed braces and crutches and very

often in private he used a wheelchair.

It's important you also know about

Eleanor Roosevelt, the wifey.

She will recreate

the position of First Lady.

She's a very active first lady and she is

going to be a very vocal advocate

for various underserved groups,

including African Americans and women.

Roosevelt is not going to come

up with his policies on his own.

In fact, there were a group of advisors,

very diverse group of people known as

the Brain Trust, and many of these were

very intelligent university professors

who will help him as he

develops his New Deal programs.

And as you can see, Secretary of Labor,

Frances Perkins is one of these members

of his cabinet and will be the first

woman in the presidential cabinet.

Now what is this New Deal?

Well, it's important to keep in mind it

was not a organized or

pre-planned set of programs.

A lot of it was based

upon experimentation.

And in effect, the New Deal is nothing

more than the laws and programs

and agencies created

by the federal government.

And what made the New Deal

so popular amongst many Americans

was its willingness to experiment.

The New Deal is characterized

by the 3 R's.

Make sure you know these.

Relief for the people who are struggling

from the impact of the Great Depression.

Recovery to get the economy back on track.

And then reform, so that this economic

crisis would never happen again.

Roosevelt takes office in March of 1933.

At his inauguration, he famously says,

"The only thing we have

to fear is fear itself."

The New Deal is gonna be oftentimes

referred to as the alphabet agencies

because the programs are gonna be

known by their various letters.

And Roosevelt is gonna use the power

of the radio, is gonna give many

"fireside chats" where he uses the radio

to communicate directly

to the American people.

And upon taking office, you have this

period known as the first 100 days.

This starts on March 4th, 1933.

Congress, at the request

of President Roosevelt,

pass a huge number of laws designed

to deal with the Great Depression,

more laws than in any other

period in Congress' history.

And one of the first areas that Roosevelt

wants to address is the area

of banking and finance.

In fact, well into 1933,

many banks were failing.

Depositors had no trust in the banks

and they were quickly withdrawing their

funds, causing thousands of banks to fail.

So, in March of 1933,

Roosevelt wants to stop this panic and he

declares, he calls for a bank holiday.

He wants to close the banks and restore

the confidence of the American people.

He explains his actions in the fireside

chat on March 12th in 1933,

and Congress passes

the Emergency Banking Relief Act,

which basically said only banks that were

financially stable could reopen.

So, the government is gonna check them

and once they're deemed stable,

they would be allowed to reopen.

Another law passed in the first 100 days

dealing with finance and banking

is the Glass-Steagall Act.

This is going to be

intended to regulate banks.

In fact, it restricted how banks

could invest a customer's deposits.

And the intention of this is to stop

that speculation that banks were

taking part in in the 1920s.

Glass-Steagall Act also establishes

the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,

more commonly known as FDIC,

which says that banks that belong to FDIC,

the deposits made would be insured and up

to $2,500 back in 1933 is guaranteed

by the federal government.

And later on in the New Deal,

another law is passed called

the Securities and Exchange Commission,

where the government would

regulate the stock market.

And it's really intended to stop

that speculation that led to the crash.

The government would watch over the stock

market, they would audit

and hopefully eliminate fraud.

Another part of the first 100 days was

intended to deal with the unemployment

problem and provide relief.

In 1933, millions of people

remained unemployed, roughly 25%.

And the New Deal created jobs to provide

relief to the unemployed and the idea was

there was the hope that this job creation

would provide relief

and also lead to recovery.

As people had some money in their pocket,

they would start spending it

and the economy would jumpstart.

So, during the first 100 days,

you get the Federal Emergency Relief Act.

This is headed by Harry Hopkins

and the federal government gave money

to states and local governments

so that they could provide relief

services, such as

running of soup kitchens.

Another program is

the Civilian Conservation Corps, the CCC.

This program employed jobless men,

young men, in reforestation projects,

park maintenance, and other

kind of conservation roles.

These young men would live

on government-run camps and the idea would

be they would be doing these important

jobs while also sending

money home to their families.

And then you also have the PWA,

the Public Works Administration,

in which federal money would be sent

to state and local government

for public works projects.

So, this money would be used to build

things like roads, bridges,

dams, and other public works.

Another aspect of the first 100 days is

industrial and agricultural recovery.

Remember, one of the big

problems was overproduction.

To deal with this,

the National Recovery Act, the NRA,

was created, headed by Hugh Johnson,

and its job was, one,

to produce industrial recovery and, two,

to allow for fair wages

and hours for workers.

To do this, the federal government

and business drafted codes for industries

and these codes, for example,

would set production limits so they could

limit the possibility of overproduction,

there would be codes for wages and hours

worked, and there was a special Section 7(a)

in the NRA which allowed

workers to form unions.

So, no more yellow-dog contracts and this

is one of the first instances

of the federal government guaranteeing the

rights of workers to form and join unions.

Another important program

deals with agriculture.

This is the Agricultural

Adjustment Act, the AAA.

This paid farmers to cut production.

So, you wanna kind of limit production so

that prices could increase

and the government would pay farmers,

farmers would receive subsidies, payments,

in return for cutting production.

So, both the NRA and the AAA are trying

to stimulate recovery in the economy.

It's important to note,

we're going to cover this in just

a moment, both of these acts will be ruled

unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Keep in mind there was also something

called the Dust Bowl

going on at this time.

Horrible drought in the 1930s added

to the farmers problems

on the Great Plains and you have a number

of states, such as Oklahoma, having these

severe dust storms known as the Dust Bowl.

And really, this is the result of overuse

of the land and high winds causing these

dust storms and thousands of "Okies,"

as they were derogatorily called,

fled to places like California

looking for work and a fresh start.

And this is documented in the famous book,

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

He talks about one family's journey

from Oklahoma trying to start over.

Another program in the first 100 days you

should know about is

the Tennessee Valley Authority, the TVA,

and this is really a government agency

which built dams, electric power plants,

and attempted to control flooding

and erosion in this Tennessee Valley area.

And as you could see on the map,

it's not just in Tennessee,

but a whole area of the country that was

very poor and without electricity.

And this is a huge change

from previous policy since the TVA was

the federal government

helping develop a region and selling

electricity at very reduced rates.

And this TVA gave thousands of people jobs

and developed this poor region

by providing hydroelectric power.

It's important to note that in the first

couple years of the New Deal,

the primary focus was on recovery

and there was some success.

The unemployment rate was dropping,

there was some recovery taking place

in some industries, but there

still needed to be more done.

And starting in 1935,

the second New Deal goes further

with reform and direct relief and you can

really see that with the

Works Progress Administration, the WPA.

The WPA spent billions of dollars,

the federal government is employing

millions of unemployed workers.

And under the WPA, instead of unemployed

people getting relief from the local

and state government,

this time it's the federal government

and workers are building roads, bridges,

and other public works projects.

The WPA also employs artists, writers,

painters, actors, photographers under

sub-programs such as

the Federal Writers' Project,

the Federal Arts Project,

and even the National Youth Administration

for young people.

Another program under the second New Deal

is the Resettlement Administration.

This provided assistance, really loans,

to sharecroppers, tenant farmers,

and other small farmers that were left

out of assistance in the first New Deal.

And if you recall, the AAA actually paid

farmers to take land out of production

and this hurt non-landowning farmers.

So, the Resettlement Administration seeks

to address the plight

of those individuals.

One of the most important programs

of the New Deal is going to be social

security and the Social Security Act

of 1935 would have the greatest

impact on future generations.

Reason being the Social Security Act

established the principle of federal

responsibility for social welfare.

Here's what it does.

Money would be taken out from the payroll

of employee and employers and people over

the age of 65 and above would receive

money (pensions) upon retirement.

Under social security,

others were eligible for assistance such

as mothers with dependent children,

unemployment insurance for those

individuals who lost their jobs,

or for the disabled.

And this is a huge

program still around today and it provides

a safety net for those

individuals who need assistance.

Another important program of the second

New Deal is the National Labor

Relations Act or the Wagner Act.

The Wagner Act guaranteed

the rights of organized labor.

It protected the right to join a union

and to bargain collectively,

and this is a huge change because it is

the first time that the federal government

is protecting the rights

of workers to form unions.

It creates the National Labor Relations

Board to enforce the labor laws and what

you're gonna see is after 1935,

a huge boost to the labor movement.

You're gonna have the rise

of the CIO under John L.

Lewis.

You're gonna have the sit-down strikes

in General Motors and labor union

membership is going to increase.

There were challenges to the New Deal

and it's important to note

that by 1936, the New Deal did improve the

economy but it still remained unstable.

In spite of these limitations

to the New Deal, Roosevelt

remained enormously popular.

He easily crushes Alfred Landon

in the election of 1936 but still

there were critics

of Roosevelt and the New Deal.

One of the most vocal critics were

conservatives and business owners.

They tended to dislike

Roosevelt's New Deal programs.

Couple reasons why,

they did not like the increase

of government regulation and the increase

in the size of the federal government

and they were very critical

of deficit spending.

For Roosevelt and his brain trust,

they justified these policies

because they were following

the policies of British

economist John Maynard Keynes.

And Keynesian economics

says deficit spending was needed during

times of economic crisis to stimulate

economic growth, so you're gonna jumpstart

the economy by spending money

and running these deficits.

There were some liberal

critics of the New Deal.

They felt that the New Deal was not doing

enough for minority communities

and the poor,

and you get the rise of various demagogues

who are challenging

Roosevelt and the New Deal.

Two of the big ones is

Dr. Francis Townsend, actually before

the Social Security Act is passed.

Townsend's plan said that every person

over the age of 60 would receive $200

a month and that money would have to be

spent immediately which would then

stimulate the economy while also providing

assistance for the elderly.

And the other big guy is the senator

from Louisiana, Huey Long, who advocated

for the program "Share Our Wealth."

This program slogan was "Every Man A King,"

and what it would do was tax the wealth

and give that money to the poor.

So, it was a redistribution of money and he

had a lot of followers, but unfortunately

for Long, he will be assassinated.

In Roosevelt's mind,

one of the biggest threats to his New Deal

was the Supreme Court, so a little

background on the court-packing plan.

Remember, the Supreme Court ruled two

key New Deal programs unconstitutional.

They also ruled some others,

but the two that you should know about is

the National Recovery Act ruled

unconstitutional in 1935

and the Agricultural Adjustment Act.

And Roosevelt decides that he is gonna

propose a plan that it would allow

him to appoint additional judges.

And under his plan,

for every judge over the age of 70,

Roosevelt would be able to appoint

an additional judge, so the Supreme Court

would go from 9 to 15 judges.

Critics accuse him

of trying to pack the court.

This is seen as his court-packing plan

because it's very clear, Roosevelt wants

to put people in the Supreme Court who

will support his New Deal policies.

There's a huge amount of opposition

from both Republicans and Democrats as

they see Roosevelt's court-packing plan as

an assault on the principle of checks

and balances, and Roosevelt suffers a rare

political defeat over this issue

of the Supreme Court.

And finally, some impacts

that are important to know about.

One is the change that happens

politically, the New Deal Democratic

coalition of farmers, urban immigrants,

union members,

African Americans, and women.

The Democratic Party gets a lot of support

because of its New Deal programs

from these different groups,

and key is the change of voting

patterns amongst African Americans.

All the way back until Lincoln,

African Americans tended

to support the Republican Party.

This change is under Franklin Roosevelt

because of his New Deal policies.

The New Deal established the federal

responsibility for society.

It created the safety net,

the welfare state.

And in spite of the numerous programs,

the New Deal does not

end the Great Depression.

It would not be until World War II

that the Great Depression will finally

end, but it does provide huge amount

of relief to numerous people

throughout the 1930s.

There continues to be a debate about

deficit spending and the creation

of the welfare state and the growth

of the federal government, so it opens up

these discussions that will not go away.

In fact, in 1937, a recession takes place,

the so-called Roosevelt Recession,

when reduced government spending on public

works and reduction in relief programs

causes the economy to decline.

And remember the idea of Keynesian

economics, that government spending

helps promote economic growth.

Following the recession in 1937,

Roosevelt continues the spending

and that boosts the economy back up.

And it's important to note

that the New Deal is going to have

a limited impact on racial

and gender issues.

Roosevelt, for example,

did nothing on the very huge problem

of lynching, and the reason being is he

did not want to jeopardize support for his

New Deal programs by coming out in favor

of an anti-lynching law.

He knew if he did that, he would lose

the support among Southern Democrats.

So, when it came to issues of civil rights,

Roosevelt was a [BLOWS RASPBERRY].

All right, hopefully we got

you ready for this next test.

If the video helped you

out at all, click Like.

If you haven't done so, subscribe.

Tell all your classmates to do the same,

and if you have any questions,

post a comment in the comment box.

Have a beautiful day.

Peace!