The New Deal :: American America History

The untried Deal The New Deal period has generally - but not unanimously - been seen as a turning point in American politics, with the states relinquishing much of their autonomy, the President acquiring unfermented authority and importance, and the role of government in citizens lives increasing. The extent to which this was planned by the architect of the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been greatly contested, however. Yet, while it is instructive to note the limitations of Roosevelts leadership, there is not much sense in the claims that the New Deal was haphazard, a jumble of expedient and populist schemes, or as W. Williams has put it, undirected. FDR had a clear overarching vision of what he wanted to do to America, and was prepared to drive through the structural changes required to achieve this vision. It is worth examining how the New Deal period represended a significant departure from US government and politics up to then. From the start of Roosevelts period in offi ce in 1932, there was a widespread sense that things were going to change. In majuscule there was excitement in the air, as the first Hundred Days brought a torrent of new initiatives from the White House. The contrast with Herbert Hoovers term could not work been more striking. By 1934, E.K. Lindley had already written about The Roosevelt Revolution First Phase. Hoover, meanwhile, denounced what he saw as an attempt to undermine and destroy the American organization and crack the timbers of the constitution. In retrospect, it was only a half-way revolution, as W. Leuchtenburg has written. Radicals have been left with a sense of disappointment at the might have beens, in P. Conkins words. But Roosevelt never intended to overthrow the constitution, nor did he wish for an end to capitalism and individualism. He harboured the American Dream just like the millions of people who sent him to the White House a record four times. That, indeed, was precisely why they loved him so much beca use the American Dream had turned sour in the Great Depression, and they trusted that he would be able to find a way back towards it. As Europe gave in to totalitarianism, the New Deal determine out to show that democratic reform represented a viable alternative. Roosevelts enthusiasm for his role as head of state established a new convention that the President would lead from the front, and in his First Inaugural he warned that he intended to ask Congress for greater powers to enact his policies.