IGCSE History

• Home
• Introduction to IGCSE
• The Road to Affluence: USA 1917 - 1941 (A9)
  • 1917 - 1929
    • The impact of the First World War
    • Immigration
    • Henry Ford and mass production
    • Farming in the 1920s
    • The Stock Market Boom
  • 1929 - 1941
    • The Wall Street Crash
    • The Depression
    • The policies of Hoover
    • Roosevelt and the New Deal
    • Reactions to the New Deal
• International Relations 1919-1939 (A8)
  • Collective Security
    • The Versailles Settlement
    • The Foundation of the League of Nations
    • Strengths and weaknesses of the League of Nations
    • Successes and failures of the League of Nations
    • Locarno and the Kellogg-Briand Pact
  • Appeasement
    • Manchuria
    • The Disarmament Conference
    • Abyssinia
    • Hitler and the League
    • Appeasement in action
• Revolution in China 1949 - 1996 (A14)
  • 1949 - 1976
    • China under Mao
    • Reform under Liu and Deng
    • The reasons for the Cultural Revolution
    • The impact of the Cultural Revolution
    • China 1971 - 1976
  • 1976 - 1996
    • The defeat of the Gang of Four
    • China under Deng Xiaoping
    • Reforms of the economy
    • The Democracy Movement
    • China in the 1990s
• South-East Asia 1945 - 1900 (A15)
  • Indo-China
    • The end of the French Empire
    • Vietnam 1954 - 1965
    • US involvement in Vietnam
    • The unification of Vietnam
    • Laos and Cambodia
  • South-East Asia
    • The struggle for control of Malaya
    • The creation of Malaysia
    • Singapore
    • Suharto and Indonesia
    • Sukarno and Pancasila
• Conflict and Crisis is the Middle East 1946 - 1996 (A16)
  • Unit overview
  • 1946 - 1967
    • The creation of Israel
    • The impact of the war of 1948 - 1949
    • The Suez Crisis
    • Superpower involvement in the Middle East
    • The Six Day War
  • 1967 - 1996
    • International terrorism
    • The war of Yom Kippur
    • The Palestinian Liberation Organisation
    • Lebanon and the occupied territories
    • Successes and failures from Camp David to Oslo
• The First World War (B4)
  • The Schlieffen Plan
  • Deadlock on the Western Front
  • Gallipoli
  • The Somme and Passchendaele
  • The War at Sea
  • The defeat of Germany
• The USA 1917-1929 (B7)
  • The Roaring Twenties
  • Advertising and consumerism
  • New forms of entertainment
  • Prohibition
  • Gangsterism
  • Hollywood
• China under Mao Zedong 1949 - 1959 (B10)
  • The creation of the Communist State
  • Land Reform
  • Communist society
  • The First Five Year Pan
  • The 100 Flowers
  • The Great Leap Forward
• The Changing Nature of Warfare (C3)
  • Unit overview
  • Warfare at the beginning of the 20th Century
  • Land warfare
  • Sea and aerial warfare
  • Atomic and nuclear weapons
  • Warfare at the end of the 20th Century
• Links

Reactions to the New Deal

The Supreme Court has the power to decide if the president is acting constitutionally. If the nine justices decide that he is exceeding his powers, they can declare his actions unconstitutional. That means that he is acting illegally. The Supreme Court had decided that the NRA exceeded the powers of the president and infringed the rights of the states. 

In 1937 Roosevelt decided to prevent the Supreme Court from blocking his policies in the future by increasing the number of justices from nine to fifteen. This would allow him to appoint six new justices, all of whom would be loyal to him. This was a mistake. Even Roosevelt’s supporters felt that it was going too far and the attempt failed. However, after 1936 the Supreme Court did not block any of the President’s plans.

Roosevelt had other opponents. Republicans complained about deficit spending. This meant that he was spending more money than he had coming in from taxes - borrowing made up the difference. The Republicans claimed that the New Deal was spending money the country did not have. They said the New Deal was only dealing with unemployment by turning millions of people into government employees. Republicans also complained that the New Deal extended federal government power.

Big business also attacked Roosevelt because he was giving too much power to trade unions. In 1937 and 1938 there was a wave of serious strikes, which led to confrontations between workers and employers. Some employers used strike breakers to attack the workers. Henry Ford opposed the New Deal and even refused to meet Roosevelt when he visited one of his factories during the Second World War. His son found him hiding in his office and forced him to come out and shake hands. Many rich people treated Roosevelt as a traitor to his class because he increased taxes. They refused to speak his name.

The Left complained that he did not go far enough. The Wall Street Crash had shown that the system was rotten and the New Deal was just propping it up. Even big ideas, which the Left liked, such as the TVA, were not extended to other areas of the USA> Huey ‘Catfish’ Long was by far the most dangerous leftwing opponent that Roosevelt faced. He was elected Governor of Louisiana and set up the ‘Share our wealth’ movement. This planned to take over the fortunes of the rich and use them to help the poor. Everyone with an income of more than $5,000 would be taxed more heavily and a guaranteed income would be given to every family in the country. Long planned to stand against Roosevelt in the 1936 election, but was shot and killed in September 1935.
Despite the opposition, Roosevelt was very popular. He could communicate with ordinary Americans through ‘fireside chats’ on the radio. He restored confidence. He was re-elected President in 1936, 1940 and 1944, the only President to serve four terms. Above all he restored people’s confidence in the Federal government and the financial system.

Roosevelt did not have a worked-out scheme. Some of his plans were inconsistent, e.g. putting up food prices to help farmers hit poor workers.  But he did bring energy, enthusiasm and a belief that things could be done. His main idea was to use government money to set up recovery. Even if it were money the government did not have now, it would get it back when recovery took place. The money was used to put people to work, in jobs, which were useful, rather than just giving them handouts. This way the country would benefit, people would feel worthwhile again, and they would spend their wages, helping to get the economy moving again.

By 1940 unemployment in America had fallen by about 40% since 1933. Black Americans were given access to CCCs, although they had separate camps. Roosevelt gave people hope and restored their confidence in the government and the financial system. But it was the Second World War, which really made the difference. When America joined the war in December 1941, unemployment fell to almost nothing.
Recovery was only partial. In 1937 industry was still only working at 75% of its 1929 levels.  Many of the schemes that Roosevelt started only lasted for a few months. The CCC provided work for six to nine months only. Some men went on a whole series of CCC camps, as they were called, and still could not find a job at the end.

Black Americans gained little improvement in their civil rights. FDR was dependent on the votes of Democrats from the South to get his laws though. New Deal laws allowed blacks to be paid less than whites. The AAA led to the eviction of poor black share-croppers. Women made little progress towards equality. They were still paid less than men for the same work. Only 9,000 women were included in the CCC camps.

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