New Deal and the Great Society the Term Paper

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New Deal and the Great Society

The stock market crash of 1929 brought an economic crisis worldwide, and unemployment in the United States rose from 3% in 1929 to 25% in 1933 (New Deal pp). When Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated as the Democratic nominee, in July 1932, he promised "a new deal for the American people" and thus this phrase came to label his administration and its many domestic achievements (New Deal pp).

The Great Society was a phrase used by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, to announce his goal of social reforms to end poverty and racial injustice (Great pp). Johnson said, "We have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society ... The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all ... It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice" (Great1 pp). Much like Roosevelt's era when the country was suffering from the effects of the stock market crash and looking for compassion, the country in May 1964 was still in mourning from the assassination of President John Kennedy just six months before in November 1963 and were needing to hear optimism about the future (Legacy pp).

The New Deal drew heavily on the experiences of its leaders, reflecting the ideology of programs that Roosevelt and others had absorbed during their political careers (New pp). Their goal was to move from monopoly toward government regulation of the economy, and dispel the myth that poverty was a personal failure rather than a product of social and economic forces (New pp).

The Emergency Banking Act provided for Treasury Department inspection of all banks and assistance to failing large institutions, resulting in billions of dollars in hoarded currency and gold to flow back in, thus stabilizing the banking system (New pp). The Economy Act reduced salaries of government employees and pensions to veterans by fifteen percent, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act provided subsidies to farmers (New pp). To oversee the stock market, the Securities and Exchange Commission was established to set up a system of insurance for deposits (New pp). To aid unemployed workers, a series of relief measures and welfare agencies was established, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Civil Works Administration, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (New pp). In an effort to curb flooding and generate electricity in the impoverished region, the Tennessee Valley Authority was established (New pp). The National Industrial Recovery Act guaranteed workers the right of collective bargaining and helped spur major union organizing drives within the major industries (New pp).

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The NIRA also created the Public Works Administration, a program of public works spending designed to alleviate unemployment and pump funds into the economy (New pp).

The Great Society was also a series of domestic initiatives that focused on poverty and racial discrimination (Great pp). The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited literacy requirements of voters and provided for federal registration of African-Americans voters in areas that had less than fifty percent of eligible voters registered (Great pp). The Department of Housing and Urban Development was established to develop and execute policy on housing and cities, and VISTA was a domestic version of the Peace Corps (Great pp). Job Corps provided at-risk youth jobs and training and the Upward Bound program provides academically successful children who are economically disadvantaged the tools need to apply, finance and succeed in college (Great pp). The Head Start program was established to focus on assisting low-income children up to five years of age to prepare them for school (Great pp). The Social Security Act of 1965 established Medicare, a health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, and Medicaid, a state and federally funded health insurance program for low-income individuals and families (Great pp).

The Great Society was never fully funded due to the Vietnam War that drained available resources (Great pp). Although its momentum came from the sentiments of Kennedy's death and efforts to heal the country, the new programs soon caused disillusionment when most failed to achieve the proposed outcomes (Legacy pp). The success of the New Deal varied, however, there were enough successes to establish it as the most important episode of the twentieth century, and although some historians have denounced its revolutionary nature, others have denounced it as a conservative, reactionary phenomenon (New pp). Roosevelt's New Deal was certainly more successful than Johnson's Great Society.

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