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How did FDR’s response to the Great
Depression differ from Hoover’s response?
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Conservative
Belief in the associative
state (Hoover Dam)
Created the
Reconstruction Finance
Corporation
 Provided loans to
financial institutions
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Bonus Army fiasco
Loses reelection
Distant relative of Teddy
Roosevelt
 Disabled from Polio as a
young politician
 Became governor of NY in
1929
 1932 campaign promised
public works programs
 Won 57% of popular vote
and electoral votes in all but
six states
 Became 32nd president
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Known for his fireside
chats
Ideological philosophy:
liberal that believed in
gov’t intervention to help
alleviate suffering
Power team: wife Eleanor
Roosevelt
Roosevelt declared a bank
holiday
 Pushed through Emergency
Banking Act – gave gov’t the
power to review stability of
banks
 FDR boosts public confidence
in banks again
 Glass Steagall Act created the
Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC) – gov’t
insurance for deposits
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The First Hundred Days is
FDR’s first 100 days in office in
which he implemented parts
of his New Deal program
New Deal Priorities
 Relief for suffering
 Recovery of the economy
 Reforms to prevent future crisis

Long list of
programs
which aimed
to ease the
GD through
R, R, and R.

Examples:
CCC, WPA,
AAA, TVA,
PWA, SSA,
etc.
Passed March 1933
Put men age 18-25 back
to work
 Conservation projects
like planting trees,
improving parks
 Lived in army style
camps
 Sent most of their
money back to their
families
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Government gives $ to farmers to decrease
supply
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Gov’t mandates
businesses in the
same industry set
prices and levels
of production
NRA encourages
minimum wage,
maximum work
weeks
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Companies must share
financial information with
public
This helps investors make
wise decisions
Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) to
watch stock market
Talk to your neighbor:
 How did President Hoover respond to the
Great Depression?
 How were the programs that were
implemented as part of FDR’s New Deal
beneficial for Americans?
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Built dams along the
Tennessee River
Dams controlled
floods, aided
navigation and
shipping along the
river and provided
hydroelectric power

WPA or Works Progress
Administration
 Built roads, subways,
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airports, zoos
Worked in offices,
schools, museums,
factories
Recorded oral histories
Funded efforts of artists,
writers, composers,
actors
At its peak employed 3.4
million

Regular payments for people 65 and older
FDR signing the Social Security Act

Gov’t loaned money
to groups trying to
bring electricity to
rural areas
Courts beginning to
strike down parts of
New Deal as
unconstitutional but
FDR still popular
 Unemployment still
high but cut in ½
 Corporate earnings
steadily climbing
 Significant election:
shift in Af-Am voters
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FDR was frustrated courts had stuck down
several New Deal Programs
Told the Congress of his plan to appoint new
judges and expand the supreme court to
make it more efficient
Most people saw this as an attempt to “pack
the court” and ruin the balance of the
Separation of Powers
Fortunately for FDR, Supreme Court began
ruling in favor of New Deal programs