The New Deal Legislation

The New Deal Legislation

Introduction

Howard Zinn, who was a historian at the University of Columbia, wrote the book with the name, “A people's history of the United States”. In this book, he asserted arguments and criticism on the New Deal and Franklin Roosevelt for not going adequately far to re-circulate the wealth in the United States in duration of the great depression. Zinn makes an argument that the New Deal was principally related to conserving the American capitalism and that it must have been more revolutionary in nationalizing the industry of America and endorsing the economic communalism. Zinn argued that the New Deal Legislation was intended to reorganize capitalism in such a way so as to come over the crisis and stabilize the system; and also to head off the alarming growth of spontaneous rebellion.

New Deal Legislation

In the history of the United States, the term New Deal is used for the domestic reform program of the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was initially employed by Franklin during his speech consenting to the nomination of the Democratic Party in the year 1932, for the president. Generally, the New Deal is believed to have comprised of two stages. The initial stage that lasted from the year 1933 to the year 1934, tried to impart relief and recovery from the great depression by means of programs of business and agricultural regulation, public works, price stabilization and inflation. The congress, while meeting in an exclusive session in the year 1933, instituted various emergency organizations, particularly the Public Works Administration, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the National Recovery Administration (NRA). Further, Congress established farm relief, founded the Tennessee Valley Authority and tautened finance and banking regulations. Afterwards, the Democratic congress dedicated themselves to the intensification and modification of these laws. Congress in the year 1934 established the Federal Communications Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission and passed several currency acts including the National Housing Act and the Trade Agreements Act.

The second stage of the New Deal lasting from the year 1935 till the year 1941, while persisting with the measures of recovery and relief, imparted for the economic and social legislation to profit the mass of working people. In the year 1935, the social security system was instituted; it was the same year when the Work Projects Administration and the National Youth Administration were established. In the year 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed. The Revenue Acts of the years, 1935 through 1937, imparted actions to democratize the structure of federal tax. The Supreme Court nullified various measures of New Deal nevertheless the NRA was invalidated in the year 1935 and AAA was struck down the subsequent year. Fruitlessly, the president required reorganizing the Supreme Court. In the mean time, other laws were surrogated for the legislation which had been acknowledged as unconstitutional.

The New Deal that had received the support and approval of the labor, liberal and the agrarian groups encountered ever-increasing ...