Impact of the Great Depression The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, written by Amity Shlaes, gives a lengthy detail of the Great Depression. According to her viewpoint the government handled the situation of the economic crisis very poorly, which led to the Great Depression lasting longer than it suppose to. In this book, Shlaes wrote about observed action taken by Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. She gave a detail of the years from 1927 to 1940 and in the beginning of every chapter she mentioned the unemployment rate and the average of Dew Jones Industry.
Even though Hoover wasn’t re-elected after 1933, his failed attempt at laissez-faire still affected the American people. An example of this is Roosevelt’s attempt at counteracting Hoover’s Rugged individualism. During Roosevelt’s campaign he promised a ‘New Deal’ for the American people, where, especially in comparison to Hoover’s: ‘laissev-faire’, the US government would be more involved with businesses and the country’s citizens. Summed up, the ‘New Deal’ was about doing everything to keep the country from disaster.
Hoover is often blamed for not doing anything to end the Great Depression, but he actually did try to use the government to create infrastructure projects, thus creating jobs. Like the Hoover Dam and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to try to end the Depression. There are two major differences between their approaches. One is that President Roosevelt was willing to do more than President Hoover to combat the Great Depression. Roosevelt was willing to let the government become more involved in the economy.
The wealth during the 1920s left Americans unprepared for the economic depression they would face in the 1930s. The Great Depression occurred because of overproduction by farmers and factories, consumption of goods decreased, uneven distribution of wealth, and overexpansion of credit. Hoover was president when the depression first began, and he maintained the government’s laissez-faire attitude in the economy. However, after the election of FDR in 1932, his many alphabet soup programs in his first one hundred days in office addressed the nation’s need for change.
Hoover was not interested in the affliction caused by the Great Depression. In fact, people’s way of life started deteriorating as they had no support from the government. His inability to face national upcoming crisis was a mistake to the US economy and the way down to massive depression. Hoover marked into law the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which prompted an emotional decrease in global exchange; and also consenting to impose increments on homes, organizations, and checks. His business profession, and individual convictions, made him ill-suited to giveaway effectively with a monetary calamity as desperate as the Great Depression.
Eventually, people started to realise this and turn against Hoover, blaming him for the deteriorating state of their country. In 1932, a new president was elected, Franklin D Roosevelt or more commonly known as FDR.
The transition between presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt marked the transformation from a weak, to a strong form of government, which became directly involved in the lives of the people. This was primarily caused by the difference in the executive leaders ideologies, where Hoover was more focused on individual responsibility and capitalism, Roosevelt was more concerned with immediate action based on government intervention. Overall, the New Deal sacrificed the amount of personal responsibility that the people had with their own economic security. The power of the federal government was strengthened, but the long-lasting effects based on the social and economic policies was beneficial for the United States. Herbert Hoover began
Before Herbert Hoover served as America’s 31st president during the years 1929 to 1933, Hoover accomplished global success as a mining engineer and worldwide gratitude as “The Great Humanitarian” who fed worn torn Europe during and after World War I. President Hoover brought to the presidency an outstanding reputation for public service as an engineer, administrator, and humanitarian. When the Republican convention in Kansas City began in the summer of 1928, the fifty-three-year old Herbert Hoover was an the boarder line of winning his party 's nomination for president. He had won many primaries in California, Oregon, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Maryland. Among important Republican supporters he had the help of women, progressives internationals, the new business elites, and corporate interests party regulars grudgingly supported Hoover,but they never trusted him. The convention voted Hoover on the first ballot teaming him with Senate Leader Charles Curtis of Kansas.
Roosevelt was the president after Hoover, he served from 1933 to 1945. He thought it was best to have the government take care of the people in this crisis with social programs. “ Instinctively we recognized a deeper need-the need to find through government the instrument of our united purpose.” Hoover's idea did not work he thought more people would try to help out however they did not.
His upbeat, positive approach and personal charm helped him defeat Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover in November 1932. By the time Roosevelt took office in March of 1933, there were 13 million unemployed Americans, and hundreds of banks
The 1932 election of Franklin Roosevelt led to the implementation of his programs titled The New Deal, and caused a shift in Americans views. Carl Degler stated that the New Deal was revolutionary. The government’s role increased and became present in the lives of citizens. Americans began to expect the government to help with economic problems and intervene when necessary, instead of expecting market forces to solve economic problems. Degler believed that the nation accepting the government’s new permanent role in the economy represented a significant change in the citizens’ views.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s public image has been nothing short of superb. He was the charismatic man who overcame polio and brought back America from the Great Depression and led them to victory in World War II. But, in actuality, Roosevelt was not as great as the history books make him seem. Where he succeeded in some areas, he failed in others. FDR’s lack of moral principles and abuse of federal power, as well as his inept handling of the Great Depression and failure to retain any foresight of his actions, results in an evaluation of a 3 out of 10 rating.
In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the president of the United State after President Herbert Hoover. The Great Depression was also at its height because President Hoover believed that the crash was just the temporary recession that people must pass through, and he refused to drag the federal government in stabilizing prices, controlling business and fixing the currency. Many experts, including Hoover, thought that there was no need for federal government intervention. ("Herbert Hoover on) As a result, when the time came for Roosevelt’s Presidency, the public had already been suffering for a long time.
Franklin was narrowly elected and gave him confidence that his political star was rising. He believed in progressive government and instituted a number of new social programs and by 1930 Republicans were being blamed for the Great Depression. Franklin sensed opportunity and began his run for presidency, Calling for intervention in the economy to provide relief, recovery and reform. His upbeat, positive approach and natural charm helped him defeat Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover, in November 1932. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first impact was that he worked with Congress to get budgets approved and systems modernized to have greater Military forces.
The Republican party was on the rise. Harding and Coolidge both were Pro business, wanted to lower taxes, have high tariffs and more. They appealed to so many people because they showed they were going for change after the war. Being pro-business gained Harding many more votes because of the way our country was going. The United States was beginning to look like a business country meaning that many people owned businesses or were a part of large corporations for their job.
