Unit 7 - Period Review (Part C)
Part C - The Great Depression and World War II
After six years of Republican prosperity, Herbert Hoover easily won the presidency in 1928 against Al Smith. Although Smith was Catholic and an urban “wet” (he wanted Prohibition repealed), he lost the election because of the good economy, which ended in October 1929, when the stock market crashed, signaling the beginning of hard times. Neither Hoover nor the American people understood, however, that this downturn would become the greatest depression in the nation’s history. Beginning as an inventory recession in 1928, conditions snowballed into an economic calamity by 1932. The causes of the Great Depression were numerous and complex: poor distribution of income, manufacturing sector imbalances, inadequate banking regulations, a farmers’ depression, ill-timed Federal Reserve actions, and shortsighted trade policies (Hawley-Smoot tariff among them). All this brought the economy to a shuddering standstill. The Gross National Product fell from $104 billion in 1929 to $77 billion in 1932; some 9,000 banks failed; and unemployment reached 25 percent, with many large cities ringed by Hoovervilles, shantytowns of the unemployed.
Hoover and the Depression
Instead of balancing the budget and allowing the business cycle to complete its downward trend, Hoover initiated a series of actions to restore prosperity. He held White House meetings to reassure business leaders and made pronouncements about the soundness of the economy. Moreover, the government ran deficits as Hoover asked Congress to increase spending for public works and to provide assistance to farmers. He also prodded Congress to create the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which loaned money to banks, railroads, and other large businesses. By past standards, Hoover was very active in fighting the downturn.
Hoover’s program failed, however. Conditions continued to worsen even as the deficit hit $500 million in 1932, and Hoover pulled back from his activist stance. He cut spending and tried to balance the budget. Most significantly, he clung to “rugged individualism,” a philosophy that would not allow direct government payments to individuals. Millions suffered starvation and deprivation as Hoover preached about the strengths of America’s past and its frontier tradition of self-reliance.
The New Deal
The nation repudiated Hoover in 1932 and elected Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency. Although he was uncertain how to solve the Depression, FDR realized the people wanted action, and he offered a New Deal to energize the nation. Drawing on liberal and conservative ideas, including those of his Brain Trust, FDR presided over the most remarkable Hundred Days in American political history. Congress approved thirteen major bills including the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corp, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, and National Recovery Administration. Slowly the country pulled back from the precipice of economic disaster.
Over the next five years, Roosevelt transformed the government and the nation. Although his program did not end the Depression, it provided recovery and restored confidence to the country. Through his three Rs of relief, reform, and recovery, FDR provided direct relief to the people, built roads and bridges, regulated financial institutions, and instituted a limited retirement system for the elderly (Social Security Act).
Friends and Foes
As things improved in the mid 1930s, opposition to Roosevelt’s New Deal emerged. The American Liberty League claimed Roosevelt’s programs were heading toward socialism and communism. Others such as Huey Long, Charles Coughlin, and Francis Townsend said FDR had not done enough for the poor and elderly. Roosevelt responded to these criticisms with a Second New Deal in 1935–1936. Adopting an antibusiness and populist tone, the president promoted legislation that regulated utilities, raised taxes on the rich, implemented Social Security, and assisted organized labor.
After his landslide reelection in 1936, Roosevelt lost his political compass. In 1937, he proposed his politically disastrous court-packing plan, which tried to expand the Supreme Court from nine to fifteen justices. This appeared to be a grab for power by FDR, and Congress rejected the idea. Further, economic recovery faltered when Roosevelt reduced spending to balance the budget. During the “Roosevelt recession,” four million workers lost their jobs, and by 1938, the New Deal seemed tired and confused.
Neither women nor African Americans found their lives directly changed by the New Deal. Roosevelt did not have programs designed for either group; yet his agenda targeted disadvantaged people, many of whom were women and blacks. The New Deal also indirectly helped blacks as the expanding government bureaucracy employed many African Americans, some in relatively high positions (Black Cabinet). Moreover, the president’s wife Eleanor was a friend to African Americans and a mentor for many women in the 1930s. She served as a voice for both groups as they struggled for equality.
Isolationism vs. Internationalism
While Roosevelt’s main concern in the 1930s was economic recovery, he watched with alarm as the Axis Powers seized territory and prepared for war. Roosevelt was an internationalist, but he was also a realist. He could not act against overseas aggression when 15 percent of Americans were unemployed, and other countries would not stand against Hitler and Hirohito. Consequently, FDR signed the restrictive Neutrality Acts in the mid 1930s, as the nation hoped to avoid foreign entanglements. This mood changed on September 1, 1939, when Germany attacked Poland. Hitler’s armies quickly overran Europe. By 1941, America had repealed the Neutrality Acts and extended aid to England. In East Asia, the United States tried to protect China, but after years of economic pressure and haggling, America and Japan reached a diplomatic crisis. Japan decided to break the stalemate by attacking Pearl Harbor, which brought America into World War II.
The Grand Alliance
America, allied with Britain and the Soviet Union, fought the war in two theaters—Europe and Asia. Hitler was the most immediate threat and became the prime target. The Soviets carried the brunt of the fighting until the United States and England established a second front in France in June 1944. By May 1945, the Allies overwhelmed Hitler but not before his Nazis destroyed 85 percent of Europe’s Jewish population and decimated much of central and eastern Europe. In Asia, the U.S. suffered months of defeats before it began island hopping toward Tokyo. By 1945, America was poised for an invasion of Japan. New president Harry Truman hoped to avoid a bloody invasion and ordered the use of two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both cities were destroyed, along with 200,000 residents. Within days, Japan surrendered.
The Home Front
World War II transformed the American home front. The Depression ended when fifteen million men and women went into the military, and government spending exploded from $9 billion to $100 billion from 1939 to 1945. Women assumed new working and domestic roles, and A. Philip Randolph demanded fairer treatment for African Americans. The greatest domestic injustice was the internment of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans during the war. While the Supreme Court upheld this action in 1944, it was a lingering stain on America’s civil liberties record.