The New Deal: Crash Course US History #34

Episode 34 – The New Deal

Hi, I’m John Green, this is CrashCourse U.S. history, and today we’re going to get

a little bit controversial, as we discuss the FDR administration’s response to the

Great Depression: the New Deal.

That’s the National Recovery Administration, by the way, not the National Rifle Association

or the No Rodents Allowed Club, which I’m a card-carrying member of.

Did the New Deal end the Depression (spoiler alert: mehhh)?

More controversially, did it destroy American freedom or expand the definition of liberty?

In the end, was it a good thing?

Mr. Green, Mr. Green.

Yes.

Ohh, Me from the Past, you are not qualified to make that statement.

What?

I was just trying to be, like, provocative and controversial.

Isn’t that what gets views?

You have the worst ideas about how to make people like you.

But anyway, not EVERYTHING about the New Deal was controversial.

This is CrashCourse, not TMZ.

intro The New Deal redefined the role of the federal

government for most Americans and it led to a re-alignment of the constituents in the

Democratic Party, the so-called New Deal coalition.

(Good job with the naming there, historians.)

And regardless of whether you think the New Deal meant more freedom for more people or

was a plot by red shirt wearing Communists, the New Deal is extremely important in American

history.

Wait a second.

I’m wearing a red shirt.

What are you trying to say about me, Stan?

As the owner of the means of production, I demand that you dock the wages of the writer

who made that joke.

So after his mediocre response to the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover did not have any

chance of winning the presidential election of 1932, but he also ran like he didn’t

actually want the job.

Plus, his opponent was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was as close to a born politician as the

United States has ever seen, except for Kid President.

The phrase New Deal came from FDR’s campaign, and when he was running FDR suggested that

it was the government’s responsibility to guarantee every man a right to make a comfortable

living, but he didn’t say HOW he meant to accomplish this.

Like, it wasn’t gonna come from government spending, since FDR was calling for a balanced

budget and criticizing Hoover for spending so much.

Maybe it would somehow magically happen if we made alcohol legal again and one thing

FDR did call for was an end to Prohibition, which was a campaign promise he kept.

After three years of Great Depression, many Americans seriously needed a drink, and the

government sought tax revenue, so no more Prohibition.

FDR won 57% of the vote and the Democrats took control of Congress for the first time

in a decade.

While FDR gets most of the credit, he didn’t actually create the New Deal or put it into

effect.

It was passed by Congress.

So WTFDR was the New Deal?

Basically, it was a set of government programs intended to fix the depression and prevent

future depressions.

There are a couple of ways historians conceptualize it.

One is to categorize the programs by their function.

This is where we see the New Deal described as three R’s.

The relief programs gave help, usually money, to poor people in need.