Title: New Deal - Programs, Social Security & FDR - HISTORY
Headings: New Deal
New Deal
Contents
New Deal for the American People
“First of all,” he said, “let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
The First Hundred Days
Second New Deal
The End of the New Deal?
The New Deal and American Politics
PHOTO GALLERIES
New Deal Programs
Farm Security Administration’s Resettlement Administration Photographs

Content: Meanwhile, the New Deal itself confronted one political setback after another. Arguing that they represented an unconstitutional extension of federal authority, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court had already invalidated reform initiatives like the National Recovery Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. In order to protect his programs from further meddling, in 1937 President Roosevelt announced a plan to add enough liberal justices to the Court to neutralize the “obstructionist” conservatives. This “ Court-packing ” turned out to be unnecessary – soon after they caught wind of the plan, the conservative justices started voting to uphold New Deal projects – but the episode did a good deal of public-relations damage to the administration and gave ammunition to many of the president’s Congressional opponents. That same year, the economy slipped back into a recession when the government reduced its stimulus spending. Despite this seeming vindication of New Deal policies, increasing anti-Roosevelt sentiment made it difficult for him to enact any new programs. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II. The war effort stimulated American industry and, as a result, effectively ended the Great Depression. The New Deal and American Politics
From 1933 until 1941, President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs and policies did more than just adjust interest rates, tinker with farm subsidies and create short-term make-work programs. They created a brand-new, if tenuous, political coalition that included white working people, African Americans and left-wing intellectuals.