Chapter 21

1. Chapter 21 Norton Media Library Give Me Liberty! An American History Second EditionVolume 2 by Eric Foner

2. I. First New Deal (the “Hundred Days”) • Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) and the election of 1932 • Roosevelt background • “New Deal” promise • Vagueness • Popular reception • Outcome • FDR landslide victory over Hoover • Strong Democratic Congressional gains

3. I. First New Day (the “Hundred Days”) • Initial approach to economic crisis • New Deal as alternative to socialist, Nazi, and Laissez-faire solutions • Lack of initial blueprint • Circle of advisors • Leading figures • Outlooks • Roots in Progressive reform • Dominant preference for regulated “bigness”

4. I. First New Day (the “Hundred Days”) • FDR inaugural • Financial program • Initiatives • “Bank holiday” • Emergency Banking Act • Glass-Steagall Act • Removal of United States from gold standard • Aim: reversal of banking crisis • Outcome: rescue of financial system

5. I. First New Day (the “Hundred Days”) • National Recovery Administration (NRA) • Elements • Business-government cooperation • Industry codes for output, prices, working conditions • Recognition of labor’s right to organize • Blue Eagle campaign • Aims • Restoration of economic vitality, stability • Labor-management peace

6. I. First New Day (the “Hundred Days”) • National Recovery Administration (NRA) • Outcomes • Ebbing of public enthusiasm; growth of controversy • Corporate domination • Weak enforcement • Minimal effectiveness • Relief and jobs programs • Initiatives • Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) • Public Works Administration (PWA) • Civil Works Administration (CWA) • Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

7. I. First New Day (the “Hundred Days”) • Relief and jobs programs • Aims • Direct relief for needy (FERA) • Public employment (CCC, PWA, CWA, TVA) • Improvement of nation’s infrastructure (CCC. PWA, CWA, TVA) • Outcomes • Mass participation • Widespread relief • Emerging opposition • Long-term effects

8. I. First New Day (the “Hundred Days”) • Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) • Elements • Production quotas • Subsidies for removal of land from cultivation • Destruction of crops, livestock • Aims: revival of farm prices and income • Outcomes • Revival of farm prices and income • Uneven impact on farmers • Gains for landowning farmers • Exclusion and displacement of tenants, sharecroppers

9. I. First New Day (the “Hundred Days”) • Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) • Worsening of rural hardship • Dust Bowl and mass displacement of farmers • John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath • Housing program • Initiatives • Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) • Federal Housing Administration (FHA) • Federal construction of low-rent housing • Aims • Protection of homeowners from foreclosure • Expanded access to home ownership • Inexpensive rental housing • New construction

10. I. First New Day (the “Hundred Days”) • Housing program • Outcomes • Preservation or attainment of home ownership for millions • Affirmation of “security of the home” as a fundamental right • Further initiatives • Repeal of Prohibition • Federal Communications Commission • Securities and Exchange Commission • Overall impact • Transformation of role of federal government • Scale of relief, public projects • Failure to end Depression

11. I. First New Day (the “Hundred Days”) • Gathering Supreme Court assault • Invalidation of NRA; Schecter Poultry case • Invalidation of AAA; United States v. Butler

12. II. Grassroots revolt • Reawakening of American labor movement • Preconditions • Encouraging signals from federal government • Election of FDR • Section 7a of National Industrial Recovery Act • Wagner Acts • Receding of ethnic differences • Militant leadership • Aspirations • Better Wages • Check on employer power • Labor rights • Union recognition

13. III. Second New Deal • Triggering factors • Persistence of Depression • Popular unrest • Democratic gains of 1934 • Underlying aims • Economic security • Redistribution of income; broadening of purchasing power • Central initiatives • Tax on wealth, corporate profits • Rural Electrification Agency • Electric power to farmers • Soil conservation • Minimal benefits for non-landholders

14. III. Second New Deal (cont’d) • Central initiatives • Works Projects Administration (WPA) • Mass participation • Impact on national life • Infrastructure • The arts • Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act) • Provisions • Rights to organize, union representation, collective bargaining • Federal enforcement; National Labor Relations Board • Democratization of the workplace; “Labor’s Magna Carta”

15. III. Second New Deal (cont’d) • Central initiatives • Social Security Act • Provisions • Unemployment insurance • Old-age pension • Aid to disabled, elderly poor, and families with dependent children • Key features • System of taxes on employees and workers • Mix of national and local funding, control, and eligibility standards • Significance: launching of American welfare system • In comparison with European versions

16. IV. Reckoning with liberty • Contested meanings of freedom • New Deal version • Expanded power of national state • Social and industrial freedom • Economic security of liberty of contract • FDR and modern liberalism • Anti-New Deal version • Freedom from government regulation, fiscal responsibility • Individual freedom • American Liberty League • Hoover’s The Challenge to Liberty

17. IV. Reckoning with liberty (cont’d) • Election of 1936 • FDR vs. Republican Alf Landon • Sharp divisions between classes, conceptions of freedom • Outcome: Roosevelt landslide • Significance • Seeds of anti-government conservatism • “New Deal coalition” • FDR’s second inaugural • FDR’s court-packing plan • Motivations • Widespread alarm over • Ultimate success

18. IV. Reckoning with liberty (cont’d) • FDR’s court-packing plan • Ultimate success • New receptiveness of Supreme Court to New Deal regulation • Chief justice Charles Evans Hughes conversion • Winding down of Second New Deal • Last major New Deal Measures • United States Housing Act • Fair Labor Standards Act • 1937 economic downturn • Shift in New Deal approach to economic crisis • Adoption of Keynesian, public spending tool • Discontinuation of economic planning, redistribution

19. VI. New conception of America • Absorption of new immigrants into public mainstream • Prominence among framers and supporters of New Deal • “Little New Deals”: Fiorello LaGuardia • Cultural assimilation • Americanization via labor and political activism • Ascendancy of American left • Elements • Communists • Socialists • Labor radicals, CIO • New Deal liberals

20. VI. New conception of America • Ascendancy of American left • Growth • In numbers • In impact on political culture, conceptions of freedom • Activities and appeal of Communist Party • Range of causes • The unemployed • Industrial unionism; CIO • Civil rights; Scottsboro case • Civil liberties

21. VI. New conception of America • Ascendancy of American left • Activities and appeal of Communist Party • Popular Front vision • Coalition with wider left • Broadening and energizing of New Deal liberalism • Promotion of social and economic radicalism, ethnic and racial diversity, unionism and social citizenship • Growing size, respectability • Breadth of Popular Front vision • FDR and the “common man” • Manifestations in the arts • Militant, inclusive unionism of CIO • Spreading condemnations of racial, ethnic, religious intolerance