1. The Gains & Limits of the New Deal
FDR

2. Outline Dorothea Lange Eleanor Roosevelt
1936 election and the New Deal Coalition
FDR and the Supreme Court
Critics on the Left and Right
The End

3. Dorothea Lange
Lange was paid by the federal government to travel around the country photographing migratory farm labor. Her photographs helped draw attention to the desperate conditions in rural America and the need for direct relief.

4. The Migrant Mother (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).
I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.
(From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).

5. Eleanor Roosevelt More active than any previous first lady
Outspoken advocate for women’s rights, minorities, and those who suffered most from the depression
Traveled across country, gave speeches, wrote articles, pushed FDR and Congress to act

6. 1936 Election

7. New Deal Coalition Groups in the Democratic Party in 1936
Big city machines
Labor unions
Minorities (racial, ethnic and religious)
Liberal farm groups
Intellectuals
White Southerners
This coalition would hold and lead to Democratic Party dominance for the 30s and 40s

8. FDR and the Court
Roosevelt became frustrated by the Supreme Court’s opposition to the New Deal
In February 1937 he proposed a court reform bill that would enlarge the court from 9 justices to 15

9. Court Packing
Roosevelt’s plan to reform the court met with public outcry

10. Critics of the New Deal Radical Conservative
Programs didn’t go far enough
Give more money to people to spend
Huey Long: Share-Our-Wealth program would allow the government to confiscate wealth from the rich and provide a minimum income for every American family.
Father Charles Coughlin: Guaranteed annual income and nationalization of banks
Programs went too far
American Liberty League
Violation of individualism and right to property
Democrat Al Smith called New Deal “irresponsible ravings against millionaires and big business”
Unconstitutional, destroying free enterprise, will bankrupt the country

12. The New Deal Ends The New Deal was a band aid on the sick economy
It provided hope and dignity to people, reformed some of the weaknesses in the economy, and mostly found a middle ground between government, business, and labor
However, it did not end the Depression… what did?