Roosevelt's dramatic expansion of government in response to the depression got him called socialist by some business leaders, is reference. But he'd been born into wealth, money his ancestors made as merchants and investors in things like real estate, coal and railroads. As far as we can tell, he strew throughout his speeches references to the scriptures. Is probably as far as we could say that there is such a thing in moral corps. He seems to have been guided by a sincere personal ethic. The course we have followed fits the american practice of government - regulating only to meet concrete need.
The Great Depression presented a crisis not only for the U.S. economy, but for American democracy. President Franklin Roosevelt wanted to save the nation’s system of government, and its economic system, while reforming both. What did the New Deal achieve, and not achieve?
Reported and produced by John Biewen, with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with Eric Rauchway and Cybelle Fox. The series editor is Loretta Williams.
Music by Algiers, John Erik Kaada, Eric Neveux, and Lucas Biewen. Music consulting and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.
Photo: Men fighting during a strike at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan, 1937. Image courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.
As mentioned in the episode, an article by public historian Larry DeWitt examining the widespread assertion that the exclusion of some occupations from the original Social Security old-age pension program was insisted on by southern segregationists: https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n4/v70n4p49.html