HIST 405 Week 6: The New Deal
The New Deal
President Roosevelt implemented the New Deal to change the country’s dwindling economy from the Great Depression. Workers, immigrants, and Africans were part of the minority groups that economic and social reforms sought to benefit. However, they experienced many challenges, unlike what was envisioned in the New Deal’s Acts. As Murphy (2020) stated, reforms for ending unemployment and poverty in response to the Great Depression occurred amid rampant racial discrimination. A suitable unfair representation was through the Civilian Conservation Corps Relief Act. As per Tocci and Ryan (2022), the CCC addressed poverty and unemployment by providing government jobs to young men from relief families. A significant number of young men were employed for thirty dollars monthly to plant trees and refurbish historic sites, among other activities. Amid racial segregation, menial tasks were reserved for minority groups as the whites occupied skilled and well-paying labor positions.
The New Deal effectively ended the Great Depression and restored the economy to a significant extent. Although multiple challenges, including opposing laws and groups, hampered the process, the New Deal intensified economic recovery by reforming critical areas, including banking, agriculture, home ownership, and industries. For instance, the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) offered direct relief to farmers to boost prices to an extent that would alleviate rural poverty and guarantee the profitability of American agriculture (Corbett et al., 2023). AAA achieved this objective by preventing overproduction and low commodity prices. Profitable crop production was a practical solution to the economic downturn that characterized the Great Depression.
References
Corbett, P. S., Janssen, V., Lund, J. M., Pfannestiel, T., Vickery, P., & Waskiewicz, S. (2023, July 6). U.S. History. OpenStax, OER Commons. Retrieved June 8, 2025, from https://openstax.org/details/books/us-history
Murphy, M. E. B. (2020). African Americans in the Great Depression and New Deal. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.632
Tocci, C., & Ryan, A. M. (2022). Conserving the American man: Gender, eugenics and education in the Civilian Conservation Corps. History of Education, 51(2), 224-243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0046760X.2021.1947395
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The New Deal
Discussion
Required Resources
In your American History course, you will utilize scholarly sources to address questions in the weekly assignments. Please be advised that History.com, Wiki, Wikipedia, or websites such as cliffnotes.com, studymode.com, coursehero.com, and the like are not deemed scholarly sources. Therefore, use your course text and incorporate an additional scholarly source from the Chamberlain Library in your response.
Below is a list of resources you must choose from:
- Textbook: Chapter 26
- Lesson
- Minimum of 1 scholarly source from the Chamberlain Library resources below:
- The “Popular Data Bases” within the Library Guide for scholarly sources and videos via Search Popular History DatabasesLinks to an external site. or the History Library GuideLinks to an external site..
- Please review the following optional scholarly articles (sorted by topic). NOTE: You will need to log in to the Chamberlain Library before accessing these resources.
The New Deal
Initial Post Instructions
For the initial post, pick two (2) of the following (any program and/or act of the New Deal):
| Programs | Acts |
|---|---|
| Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC)
Public Works Administration (PWA) Civil Works Administration (CWA) Works Progress Administration (WPA) Farm Security Administration (FSA) |
Home Owners Loan Act
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIA) Glass-Steagall Act (Banking Act) Securities & Exchange Act Emergency Relief Appropriation Act Resettlement Administration (RA) Rural Electrification Administration (REA) National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) Social Security Act Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Emergency Banking Relief Act Economy Act Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) Tennessee Valley Authority Act (TVA) National Employment System Act (Wagner-Peyser Act) |
Reflecting over the weekly reading and lesson video The New Deal Coalition (also linked in the Required Resources), address the following for your selections:
- Consider workers, immigrants, and African Americans. Explain how minorities were represented by the New Deal.
- Analyze to what extent you think that the New Deal effectively ended the Great Depression and restored the economy.
Follow-Up Post Instructions
- Respond to one peer.
- Further the dialogue by building upon their post with information you uncovered while researching.
- Include one (1) meaningful scholarly source to demonstrate much depth. A scholarly source can include your textbook, assigned readings, or additional scholarly research.
Writing Requirements
- Minimum of 2 posts (1 initial & 1 follow-up)
- APA format for in-text citations and list of references
Grading
This activity will be graded using the Discussion Grading Rubric.
- Review: Discussion GuidelinesLinks to an external site.Open this document with ReadSpeaker docReader
- Review the specific grading rubric by clicking on the three dots in the upper right corner.
Course Outcomes
- CO 3: Explain the influence of historical events on American culture and society.
- CO 5: Assess change over time in economy and/or technology.
- CO 6: Analyze America’s domestic politics and foreign policy in the World.
Due Dates
Due date for the initial post: By 11:59 p.m. MT; recommended by Wednesday
Due Date for follow-up posts: By 11:59 p.m. MT on Sunday
Posts must be on two separate days.