Name: ______
“What the New Deal Did”
from Freedom from Fear:
The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945
--David M. Kennedy
1. What is David Kennedy’s thesis concerning the New Deal?
2. One of the most potent critiques of Roosevelt’s New Deal has been that the program was socialistic, how would/does Kennedy respond to this critique?
3. Kennedy summarizes the pattern of the New Deal with a single word, security. Why?
4. What did the New Deal accomplish in regards to the reform of “Wall Street”?
a. What did the Glass-Stegall Act accomplish?
b. What did the SEC accomplish and in what way did the reforms of the SEC rationalize capitalism rather than assault capitalism?
5. Why was the reinvigoration of the housing sector seen as holding enormous promise for invigorating the economy more broadly? And in what way did the housing program ‘liberate’ rather than ‘intimidate’ capital?
6. What influence did the following have on the larger economy?
a. Fair Labor Standards Act:
b. Federal Trade Commission:
c. Federal Communications Commission
7. Against what “background” or backdrop did the regulatory reforms of the New Deal take shape?
8. What are the three premises upon which the New Deal rested? Why do these premises matter for understanding the New Deal?
9. What does Kennedy mean when he states “and ever after (the Depression and the New Deal), Americans assumed that the federal government had not merely a role, but a major responsibility, in ensuring the health of the economy and the welfare of the citizens. That simple…perception was the newest thing in all the New Deal, and the most consequential too [p. 377]”?
10. What, to the extent that one could be defined, was the social vision of Franklin Roosevelt expressed by the programs of the New Deal?
11. In re-consideration of question #3 above, how, in the end, did the New Deal offer security to a variety of groups in the United States? [Consider all the disparate groups—Wall Street, minorities, immigrants, African Americans, etc.]