New Deal

THE NEW DEAL REFERS collectively to the domestic programs that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration enacted in response to the Great Depression. The term is applied to the period of history from 1933, when Roosevelt's term in office began, until the onset of World War II in 1939.

New Deal programs involved a tremendous amount of federal legislation, government programs, bureaus, agencies, and commissions. Many of these programs had overlapping functions and jurisdictions, some of which had similar names. New Deal programs were often referred to by an alphabetical abbreviation, thus leading to the remark that an “alphabet soup” had been created. The extensive and multifaceted nature of the New Deal programs represent Roosevelt's willingness [Page 326]to utilize many approaches and to try anything ...