President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal was a program designed to deal with the ravages of the Great Depression, and to help those Americans who could not help themselves. It provided a framework for public policy for the next several decades.
The New Deal, beginning with Roosevelt’s inauguration in 1933, extended government aid into many facets of society that had not seen government assistance or control before. It included measures to help farmers and workers, relief and recovery programs, and legislation to reform American society. The Social Security program, for example, provided unemployment insurance and pensions. New
Deal legislation was extremely controversial, as it expanded the government’s role in society, and it caused controversy within the government. Republicans and southern Democrats, who favored small government and wanted to leave the main centers of power at the state level and within the private sector, avidly opposed the legislation.
The New Deal legacy continued after Roosevelt’s death in 1945. The Fair Deal, under President Harry S. Truman, constituted a legislative extension of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Truman introduced measures such as a national health care program, civil rights legislation against lynching, and measures to establish fair employment practices. Under the Fair Deal, Truman raised the minimum wage, endorsed the Housing Act of 1949 promoting public housing, expanded Social Security coverage, and supported a permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC).
When the Republican Party gained executive power under Dwight D. Eisenhower, the president did not attempt to roll back growth in the powers of the national government. Eisenhower upheld both the New Deal and the Fair Deal legislation. When President John F. Kennedy came into office, he patterned his presidency after Roosevelt’s, establishing his New Frontier programs.
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s idea of a Great Society, created during his presidency, was yet another extension of the New Deal and Fair Deal. Johnson, like Roosevelt and Truman, wanted to better conditions of life for the underprivileged part of American society. With his Great Society, Johnson was able to build upon the legislation of the New and Fair Deals. Medicare was enacted under Social Security, providing financial medical assistance to the elderly, and Medicaid was established to help the poor. The War on Poverty extended economic reform initiatives of the New Deal and continued the commitment of the government to help those who could not help themselves.
The New Deal and its successors promoted aggressive approaches to federal public policy. Programs extended the powers of the federal government into many different parts of American society that had never witnessed federal legislation before, leaving a legacy still visible today.
Further reading: William Leuchtenberg, In the Shadow of FDR: From Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1985).
—Jennifer Howell
World History
