AP® United States History · Unit 7 · Topic 7.10
The New Deal
The New Deal was Franklin Roosevelt's rapid, experimental attack on the Depression through dozens of federal programs aimed at relief for the suffering, recovery for the economy, and reform to prevent future collapse.
By 1933 a quarter of workers had no job and banks were collapsing nationwide. Roosevelt took office without one master plan. Instead he pushed Congress to pass roughly fifteen major bills in his first hundred days, betting that fast, visible action would restore public confidence even if individual programs were imperfect or overlapped. The Emergency Banking Act closed and inspected banks before reopening the sound ones. The Agricultural Adjustment Act paid farmers to cut production and raise crop prices. The National Industrial Recovery Act set codes for wages, hours, and prices in industry. The Civilian Conservation Corps put young men to work planting trees and building trails. Money moved from Congress to a new federal agency, which hired workers directly, loaned funds to states, or paid individuals and businesses to change behavior, putting cash into hands fast.
Historians sort New Deal programs into three buckets. Relief meant immediate aid to the suffering: the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and Works Progress Administration handed out direct payments and paychecks for government jobs. Recovery meant jolting the broader economy back to normal activity: the NIRA and AAA tried to raise prices and restart production. Reform meant permanent changes to prevent another collapse: the Securities and Exchange Commission policed stock markets, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insured bank deposits, and the Social Security Act created old-age pensions. Many programs did more than one job at once, which is exactly the point of the three-bucket framework.
The Tennessee Valley Authority shows how far the government was willing to go. It built dams along the Tennessee River system that controlled flooding, generated electricity, and brought industry to a poor, multistate region, all run directly by a federal agency rather than handed off as relief checks. That willingness to build infrastructure itself, not just distribute aid, carries into wartime production and the expanded federal government that follows after 1941.
Key terms
- Hundred Days
- The first roughly one hundred days of Roosevelt's presidency in 1933, when Congress passed a burst of major New Deal legislation.
- Relief
- New Deal programs that gave immediate aid, cash, or jobs to people suffering directly from the Depression.
- Recovery
- New Deal programs aimed at restarting normal economic activity, such as raising prices or production levels.
- Reform
- New Deal programs that made lasting structural changes meant to prevent a future economic collapse.
- Tennessee Valley Authority
- A federal agency that built dams along the Tennessee River to control flooding, generate electricity, and develop the region.
Watch it explained
- How it worksWalk me through the first hundred days as a sequence of bills and what each one grabbed.
- How it worksHow does money actually route from Washington through a New Deal agency to a worker's hand?
- How it worksCompare relief, recovery and reform and sort the major programs into the three buckets.
- Worked exampleTrace the Tennessee Valley Authority's dams down one river system and what each one does.
Check yourself
End of topic.