Blog #49 – Was the New Deal too radical?
On p. 799, the textbook gives us an analysis of the New Deal and how historians have evaluated FDR’s program.
1. Some historians feel that a reform movement like the New Deal would have happened whether there was a depression or not. This is because of the cycles of reform that America has endured throughout its history. A new reform movement would have tried to address the huge gap between rich and poor, the strong grip that business had on the American government, and the abuses of the stock market. Stronger measures were needed than what was done during the Progressive Era (1900-1915).
2. Contemporary historians who wrote during the 1940s – 1960s believed that the New Deal was a “revolutionary response to a revolutionary situation” and that only World War II was able to pull the country out of the Depression. FDR broke from the laissez-faire government tradition and pushed reforms through a Democratic Congress to reform America. Except for a few historians who called the New Deal “socialistic”, most historians praised the program and its accomplishments.
3. Leftist historians felt that FDR didn’t go far enough to redistribute the wealth of the nation, improve race relations, and control giant corporations and their power. For the most part, FDR left big businesses relatively alone in order to transform a “corrupt capitalist order.” It appears that leftist historians would have been happier if FDR has presided over a more socialist government and economy with some central planning. Businessmen had vilified FDR because of the effects that the New Deal had on American business – seeing him as a traitor to “his class,” essentially, that he’s rich and he’s not taking care of the wealthy interests in the country.
4. Historians in the last 40 years, including the authors of our textbook, felt that FDR acted within the American political and economic system to fix the country. When FDR overreached with the Supreme Court and tried to add 6 new Supreme Court justices after they had overturned the AAA and the NRA in 1935, public opinion and Republican Congressmen pushed back to foil his plans. Afterwards, laws were written by Congress that had to conform to existing political traditions – like the Wagner Act, the Social Security Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Americans saw that something was very wrong, and that they wanted “to reform capitalism, not overthrow it.” A sign that these laws have worked has been their longevity. New Deal / FDR historian William Luechtenburg has called this time period a “half-way revolution,” neither radical or conservative, but somewhere in between that reflected what the American people wanted.
Your job: which assessment do you agree with and why? Try to keep in mind that we should judge the New Deal from the time period and not from our time period. Was the New Deal radical, too radical or not radical enough?