Themes in American History: Capitalism, Slavery, Democracy

Blog Post 4

       In the reading “Reflation and Relief ” what really had me analyzing was

how Franklin Delano Roosevelt inherited a fundamentally broken economy.

Well banks, farms, factories, and trade had all failed. Over the next few

years, “Reflation and Relie”’ tracked  the new President’s decisive, and

constitutionally problematic actions. In some way Roosevelt tried to fix the

finance, agriculture, andmanufacturing. But then again he would give less

attention to other stuff like “overseas economic affairs”. Roosevelt offered

the “new deal” which consisted of a fresh start but it stated “it was nothing

specific”. Roosevelt really affected people but in a bad way. In addition,

Roosevelt controversial Emergency Banking Act, which ended the gold

standard just days after he took office, his radio broadcast fireside chats to

reassure and communicate with the people, his formation of the Civilian

Conservation Corps to create jobs, and the massive sums he approved for 

relief and public works are just a few examples. The new deal which

Roosevelt was making people actually liked it because  a 1939 institute of

public opinion poll found that 28 percent of Americans picked “Relief and

the WPA,” making it the most popular New Deal measure.  (WPA) was a

program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 to boost

employment and the purchasing power of cash-strapped Americans.

Despite the controversy surrounding them, these measures were successful

in reviving the economy, government, and people of the United States.

 

 

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