Imagine it is 1933, although Thomas Edison had created the light bulb more than 50 years earlier, rural areas across the country were still without power. Flash-forward eight years later, the lights are on and you can see your fellow neighbors being uprooted from their homes and communities by the military. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was a visionary leader, but he was also an unethical leader who permitted both events to occur. In this essay, the claim that FDR was a visionary leader will be supported. In particular, how he overcame tragedy, learned to empathize with Americans, and how his New Deal polices employed millions will be discussed. Afterwards, the allegation that FDR was an unethical leader will be …show more content…
During FDR’s rehabilitative travels to Warm Springs, Georgia he met and spoke with some of America’s most underprivileged citizens. The town of Warm Springs gave him healing waters and a first-hand perspective of his future constituents. FDR observed the hardships of poor southerners and it was in Warm Springs that the privileged born New Yorker was able to empathize and put himself in shoes of the common man. By 1932, although he had become handicapped to leg braces and required assistance when walking, FDR had completed two terms as Governor of New York. In 1933, FDR triumphed over disability and had become the 32nd President of the United States. When FDR took office, the Gross National Product had been slashed by more than 50%. Donald Holley, the author of the article Great Depression explains that during this time in our history an estimated 16 million Americans were out of work. To put things in perspective, 25% of the labor force was unemployed (Holley & Trescott, 2014). Comparable in name with the Great Depression, the majority of attitudes across the country were that of despair. Many families relied on charitable organizations for their next meal. Nevertheless, FDR remained optimistic, by doing so he created a sense of hope. FDR had promised Americans jobs during his campaign, and he wasted no time in his first days in office. Although he had no specific plan prepared to create jobs, he
In February 1933, “the Senate passed a resolution calling for the newly elected president, Franklin Roosevelt to assume unlimited power” (Bailey, Beth, et al. “Chapter 22: The Great Depression and the New Deal.” A People and A Nation: Brief Tenth Edition. Vol. 2. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. 632-667. Book. [Further: Bailey, Blight, and Chudacoff]). Through the New Deal, Roosevelt sought to “revive the economy through economic planning and relief programs” (Bailey, Blight and Chudacoff). These relief programs helped many Americans find jobs and ultimately restore the economy.
“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” Franklin D Roosevelt, an American political leader who served as the President of the United States from 1933-1945 who brought the country out of The Great Depression. Although some critics say that FDR worsened the country, he put an end to the problems of the country and helped escape the troubled situations of their rough time period especially while the citizens were dealing with the stock market crash, causing unemployment and money loss which then led to struggle of many families. The response of FDR’s administration to the problems of the Great Depression was effective because he established many New Deal programs,
The great depression left the United States in a horrendous position with it's economic standing. The American people looked for help from a president who could propose solutions to help rebuild the economy. This president was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who promised to ensure to improve the well being for all men for a comfortable living economically. This sounds great, a lot better than the depression, but his democratic supporters didn’t necessarily know or understand how he was going to achieve the tall order. FDR achieved this through the new deal which helped the economy a great deal and lifted the U.S. out of the depression. However, this deal left a large portion of his supporters angry.
Shortly after the Great Depression began, society began to fail quickly. The stock market crashed, the unemployment rate skyrocketed, business’ and banks were closing and people were losing their homes they had worked so hard for. Although President Hoover was attempting to help society, he believed that instead of governmental interventions you should be self-reliant and would not fund welfare programs that may incentivize not working. Hoover’s “attempts” to aide the economy were not enough to turn it around, and people began to set their sights on Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the oncoming election. FDR made it his goal to ensure relief, recovery and reform were provided for the country to counteract the Great Depression and to make up for all of the years of negligence and non interference from the government, collectively called the “New Deal” 15 major laws were created in just the first 100 days he was in office, and his “New Deal” was coming into fruition and the governments role was now to step in and take care of it’s people, and to neglect them no longer.
The election of 1932 focused primarily on the Great Depression, the recent economic crisis that had swallowed the nation. At this time, thirteen million people were unemployed and 774 banks were shutting down annually. Economically unstable, Americans turned to Franklin Delano Roosevelt who claimed, “better days were ahead” with his New Deal reformation. He promised economic “recovery, job creation, investment in public works, and civic uplift” (Harvey 88). Immediately upon entering the white house, he began his 3 R process: relief, recovery, and reform (Bateman and Taylor 73). While this revolution would bring reform to U.S banking systems and help improve unemployment, the restoring of economic stability would go unmet; therefore, we must question the true effectiveness of this reformation. Roosevelt is considered to be one of the nation’s greatest and most influential presidents, yet he did not end the great depression as he was expected to. Was FDR as potent as we credit him to be? By exploring society before the depression, comparing presidents prior to FDR, as well as dissecting the success and failures of his New Deal reconstruction, we can analyze and conclude FDR’s true role in healing the nation.
Faced with the Great Depression and World War II, Franklin D Roosevelt, or “FDR”, brought America through its hardest times. Franklin Roosevelt was brought into to office during one of America's greatest domestic crisis’s, The Great Depression, this was a time when America's economy had a rigorous decline. Roosevelt acted swiftly during these times, and did what he believed was best for America. The United States changed during Franklin Roosevelt's presidency by the creation of a new role for the government in the economy, the nature of presidency changing, and the establishment of the social security act, which is an act that set up a pension system for people who have retired, established unemployment insurance, and created insurance for victims who were involved in work related accidents. This act also provided aid for mothers and children who were in poverty, the blind, and the disabled.
At the peak of the Great Depression in 1932 over 12,060,000 citizens were unemployed and the rate of deflation exceeded 10% (John C. Williams1). Millions of individuals were starving on the streets and billions were lost on the stock market (History.com2). When Franklin Roosevelt released the New Deal in 1933, a plan to provide relief, reform, and recovery to the distressed country, Americans were in dire need of relief. President FDR acted quickly and implemented a series of programs aimed towards providing an immediate stop to the economic free fall and providing relief to his people (DPLA3). In his effort to reduce the severity of poverty and unemployment, FDR released programs to aid business and labor, farmers, housing and homeowners,
"No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country," - Franklin D. Roosevelt ("Thinkexist.com"). In the middle of the deepest economic recession in the history of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt took office and did everything in his power to try and turn the country around. Roosevelt was a very intelligent man and the country believed he would lead them out of the Great Depression (Brinkley). Roosevelt inspired the nation to make drastic changes during the Great Depression with his extensive knowledge, understanding of the people's suffering, and new government reforms.
FDR has impacted and changed American history. One of the many ways he impacted the course of history was how he led us through the Great Depression. The Great Depression first started in 1920s. When the stock market collapsed, it led to factories being shut down, shops closing because they were bankrupt, and unemployed workers gradually sank into the Great Depression. Factories laid off workers and the biggest companied began to collapse. An example of this is stated in Chapter Five, “By 1930, four million Americans who wanted work could not find it.”(Freedman, page 74). This shows how the stock market caused companies to be shut down because the stocks cost them all their money and people were becoming unemployed because of this. People began to lose all their money and homes which led them to camp out in empty lots, public parks, tents, etc. An example of this was shown in Chapter Five when it stated, “A growing population of the homeless poor camped out in empty lots and public parks, sleeping in tents, abandoned automobiles, and makeshift shanties.”(Freedman, page 74).
On March 4th, 1933 one of the most successful and influential individuals in history took presidential office in the United States of America. “Franklin Delano Roosevelt stands with Abraham Lincoln as a founder of the modern American nation.” President Roosevelt took office immediately after the what was arguably the worst financial collapse in history coined, The Great Depression. With astronomical levels of unemployment and extreme poverty, FDR’s New Deal policy was established to restore production and stability. He promised change and allowed for a Democratic union to form. During the Great Depression, the labor movement experienced exponential growth and tremendously favorable influence; the federal government passed legislation legally
FDR does not beat around the bush when it comes to what has been happening in America for the past three years. In the second paragraph of his speech he states “Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment” (Inaugural Address). He does this so that the audience sees his realization of the issue facing America and that he will not stand to watch it continue. The audience he is addressing are the American people affected by the depression that want change to happen. The first step in fixing something is recognizing that there is a problem which Roosevelt does and does well. He states the goal of his presidency being “Our greatest primary task is to put people to work”(Inaugural Address). Not only does he state his goals he has actual evidence of how he plans to complete them. “It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we should treat the emergency of a war but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.” Him backing up this claim with reason helps the audience gain some trust within him seeing that he has a plan. He continues doing this throughout his speech making his speech more
This quote shows some of the ideas that Roosevelt used during his run for president. They improved America substantially because these reforms were able to change America’s social and political conditions. Roosevelt was very passionate in trying to become president. While Wolraich may describe Roosevelt as unreasonable, he recognizes his passion and his progress that he made in reforming
Many places such as banks, movie theatres, religious activities, and small neighborhood stores failed. These palces failed not because the population had a decrease in desire to go there, but because they realized these places could no longer give them comfort and maintain stability. Workers were forced to move their families and property elsewhere, seeking jobs. The citizens looked to the government, not because they had lost hope and had given up, but because they viewed the government as their protector and provider when in dire need (Nawsaw 348). Employees expected many benefits from their employer, but was disappointed when they failed to provide it to them (Nawsaw 348). As citizens, the people believed they had every right to ask for government assistance (Nawsaw 348). President Roosevelt gave hope to the American People by staying positive. “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” This quote by President Roosevelt during his inaugural speech reached many Americans and gained him support. He managed to rally the people by promising a program to help the financial crisis called “The New Deal.” Roosevelt tried many different things to improve the nation's economic status but nothing was working. He then created the “Second New Deal.” “This created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to provide jobs for unemployed people. “From 1933 until 1941, President Roosevelt’s
It was the year of 1934. America was fighting to come out from the worst economic crisis that the world would ever witness. It was also the year of high crime rate, low Gross Domestic Product and the lowest unemployment rate America had experienced. The Depression had paralyzed American labor forces, but there was a hope still alive in every American including J.D. Rockefeller when he said, “These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come and gone. Prosperity has always returned and will again” (Rockefeller). At that time, the next president named Franklin D. Roosevelt, famous as FDR, brought Americans back to work through his confident efforts and new series of programs called ‘the New Deal’.
In 1932, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office, the citizens of the United States had possessed sufficient time to realize that they could no longer be proud, but they must take anything they could get. Therefore, the programs set up by FDR’s New Deal program were perfect for the country at the time. These programs helped the people directly, providing relief, recovery, and reform. FDR based his plans on the philosophy of Keynesian economics, where the government spends money to make money. The government gave money and jobs to those in need, who in turn, had money to spend in the marketplace. The demand for products increased, and businesses were able to hire more workers and produce more products, as well as pay more money in taxes. FDR’s plans worked because they gave money not to those who would take advantage of the government, but to those who would use it in the way the government intended it to be used. During FDR’s first term in office alone, the unemployment rate dropped 4%. Because of FDR’s success in bringing the country out of the Depression, I give him an A.