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A Great Depression and a New Deal
Overview
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President Herbert Hoover took office at one of the most prosperous times in America’s past. Indeed, Hoover and many others believed they would witness the end of poverty. Almost a year after his election optimism was no longer a certainty. Instead of prosperity, President Hoover’s administration is remembered for its widespread unemployment, hunger, and homelessness. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, promised the American people a "New Deal." The phrase defines his legislative and policy programs for dealing with the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression. The programs introduced by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democratic Congress came in two waves and they have been referred to as the first and second New Deals. The New Deal programs and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s energetic personality reversed the collapse of the nation’s financial system, instituted relief programs, and addressed the crisis in agriculture and industry. The first New Deal was extraordinary by any standard. The plan and regulation of the economy stopped the hemorrhage. But even though successful, much of what Franklin Delano Roosevelt attempted was met with criticism from all directions. Roosevelt reacted to the criticism and judicial setbacks by keeping Congress in session with another set of reforms known as the Second New Deal. What a difference a year can make -- from landslide victory in 1936 to paralysis in 1937. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s opponents finally found a topic they could use to beat Roosevelt. That topic was his plan to "pack the Court."
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