History11 - Capitalism: The American Experience 1907-1941: FDR & New Deal

In his speech accepting the Democratic Party nomination in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt pledged "a New Deal for the American people" if elected. Following his inauguration as President of the United States on March 4, 1933, FDR put his New Deal into action: an active, diverse, and innovative program of economic recovery.

The economic collapse of 1929 known as the Great Depression caused widespread hardship throughout the United States. When President Franklin Roosevelt took office in January 1933, 15 million Americans were unemployed. Many had lost not only their jobs, but their also their savings and homes and were dependent on relief money from the government to survive.

Opposed to the traditional American political philosophy of laissez-faire, the New Deal generally embraced the concept of a government-regulated economy aimed at achieving a balance between conflicting economic interests.

Roosevelt followed up on his promise of prompt action with “The Hundred Days”—the first phase of the New Deal, in which his administration presented Congress with a broad array of measures intended to achieve economic recovery, to provide relief to the millions of poor and unemployed, and to reform aspects of the economy that Roosevelt believed had caused the collapse.

National Recovery Administration (NRA), U.S. government agency established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to stimulate business recovery through fair-practice codes during the Great Depression.

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), in American history, major New Deal program to restore agricultural prosperity by curtailing farm production, reducing export surpluses, and raising prices.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), (1933–42), one of the earliest New Deal programs, established to relieve unemployment during the Great Depression by providing national conservation work primarily for young unmarried men.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), U.S. government agency established in 1933 to control floods, improve navigation, improve the living standards of farmers, and produce electrical power along the Tennessee River and its tributaries.