Even a member of FDR's administration, the committed New Dealer Alvin Hansen, admitted in 1940 that "I really do not know what the basic principle of the New Deal is." Part of this mystery came from the President himself, whose political sensibilities were difficult to measure. One thing is clear: the New Deal was, and remains, difficult to categorize. In other words, significant continuities existed between the first and second New Deals that should not be overlooked. But the boundaries between the first and second New Deals should be viewed as porous rather than concrete. The idea of a "first "and "second" New Deal is useful insofar as it reflects important shifts in the Roosevelt administration's approach to the nation's economic and social woes. (Some scholars believe that a "Third New Deal" began in 1937 but never took root the descriptor, likewise, has never gained significant currency.) These terms, it should be remembered, are the creations of scholars trying to impose order and organization on the Roosevelt administration's often chaotic, confusing, and contradictory attempts to combat the depression Roosevelt himself never used them. In trying to make sense of FDR's domestic policies, historians and political scientists have referred to a "First New Deal," which lasted from 1933 to 1935, and a "Second New Deal," which stretched from 1935 to 1938.
Upon accepting the Democratic nomination, FDR had promised a "New Deal" to help America out of the Depression, though the meaning of that program was far from clear. A new wave of bank failures hit in February 1933. Unemployment grew to over twenty-five percent of the nation's workforce, with more than twelve million Americans out of work. Economic conditions had deteriorated in the four months between FDR's election and his inauguration. FDR's mandate as a first-term President was clear and challenging: rescue the United States from the throes of its worst depression in history.
0 kommentar(er)
