Due to the series of socioeconomic factors problematic surrounding America since the crisis broke out in 1929, it became necessary to implement innovative measures. The New Deal was an economic plan that changed the state’s relationship with the economy. Franklin Roosevelt, in his government between 1933 and 1937, elaborated the deal, which was a set of economic and social measures aimed at recovering the United States economy from the Great Depression. The New Deal had as a basic principle the strong intervention of the State in the economy. In this section, we will highlight the main objectives of the New Deal and the reason why it was considered innovating and progressive; also, its social ramifications to racism in the South. The 3 goals of the New Deal rely on the words relief, recovery and reform. Roosevelt, through this new economic project, hoped to provide relief from the suffering caused by the Great Depression to the American people. With the Great depression, great part of Americans lost their jobs and their savings, having an unsteady economic situation that led to a general case of stress nationwide. FDR, seeking to assist – and relief – those affected by poverty, created policies such as support for unemployed and social security projects.
The Civilian Conservation Corp, for example, was created in 1933 to highlight the unemployment situation caused during the crisis; the program offered national conservation work for young unmarried men. The relief measures brought by Roosevelt during the New Deal helped not only to bring some stability to the population, but also to stop the wave of panic socio-economic spread within the country during the Great Depression. When talking about the effort put in to recover the American economy after the crisis of 29, it is important to emphasize the economic measures taken by Roosevelt during the New Deal. The recovery was for the generation of jobs through the investment in public works by the government. With the American people recovering purchasing power, the country could economically rebuild and establish itself in the international market. TVA, for example, was a program that aided the arrival of electricity to the South, which fostered the industrialization of the region and its economic movement as well. The New Deal also provided several reforms in the banking and monetary system. The Security and Exchange Commission regulated the stock market.
The Glass-Steagall Act reformed the banking sector and protected consumers. The National Industrial Recovery Act encouraged business and work to work with the government to alleviate the effects of the Great Depression. The New Deal was seen as ‘new’ and ‘progressive’ because, along with it, new governance guidelines were established and, as previously said, large projects and programs were implemented to overcome the crisis of 29. The New Deal and the Progressive Era had in common the promotion of a larger federal government and an economy with greater state intervention; the New Deal introduced a large number of federal agencies that have regulated many sectors of the economy. It could be said that the New Deal brought new developments in the relationship between citizens and government because, during its force, laws were enacted that made government more involved in citizens’ lives, such as social security and government financial aid.
In the south, in a sense, the New Deal was not sufficiently efficient in the pursuit of racial equality, and racial structures remained somehow untouched. African Americans continued to occupy the merges of American society, and still lived under the segregationist dictates dictated by white supremacy in social and economic aspects. The crisis of ’29 left behind a large stratum of the low-income black population, and even the projects and programs instituted by Roosevelt were not enough for a radical change in this regard. This is due to the fact that the federal programs that were institutionalized were coordinated by local authorities. Because most of the citizens in power were part of the local white elite, there was the perpetuation of racist segregationist practices and prevented Africans Americans from thriving even with the New Deal reforms. When it comes to Roosevelt’s approach to civil rights law, it is true that he criticized lynching and provided a White House meeting with African-American civil rights leaders as guests. However, the president did not put as one of the main bills against lynching African Americans as this would cost him southern votes and support in Congress.
As stated earlier, the New Deal was a plan that brought relief, recovery and reform. Roosevelt noted that in order to rebuild the American economy and stabilize the people financially, the government would need to play an active role in the economy. Section II – Cold War and Civil Rights Documents: Document 157 – NSC 68 and the Ideological Cold War (1950) How did the Cold War affect American politics? How did the Cold War affect American Culture? The Cold War, bringing ideological conflicts and separating the world explicitly between the left and right politics, became a moment of political and cultural transformations in the United States of America during the second half of the 20th century. This period marked the antagonism between the US, representing a democratic and capitalist state, and the Soviet Union, which was based on communism and dictatorial rule. These economic powers have waged the Cold War, establishing an intellectual and ideological dispute that has become a global phenomenon. In this section, the political and cultural changes that cover America during this period of history will be highlighted and addressed to their respective ramifications.
Throughout the Cold War, the United States invested a gigantic capital on military intervention, as in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Basically, the goal was to stop the dissemination of communist ideals from the USSR within Asia and perpetuate democracy, freedom, and, of course, capitalism. The Cold War differed from most wars because of the propaganda war as a war with military engagements, and had profound impact on American domestic and foreign policy; also, it increased America’s ideological power worldwide. In America, the Cold War political scenario influenced the election of right-wing presidents who did not sympathize with communist ideals such as Truman, Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan. With these politicians in power, the United States fought political and economic battles with the Soviet Union.
The Truman Doctrine, for example, has given support to decadent democratic governments like Greece and Turkey. The aim was to provide political and economic support to countries that would be susceptible to the ideological inflections of the Soviet Union, and to maintain sympathetic allies to democracy and capitalism worldwide. The Marshall Plan, a branch of the Truman Doctrine that was put into effect in 1948, officially known as the European Recovery Program, was the United States’ principal plan for the reconstruction of the allied countries of Europe in the years following World War II. Culturally speaking, it is important to note that the ideological battles waged by the US and USRR greatly affected the American sociocultural scene in the second half of the twentieth century. In the media, everything was directed towards the Cold War, provoking the appearance of a great amount of war propaganda and even affected the content produced by Hollywood. However, it can be said that anti-communism went out of control from one point, and, in a sense, was maleficent to Hollywood during the hearings of the Anti-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Although many Communists were indeed identified and eradicated, many were harmed by the power that banal accusations gained during the Cold War. The horror of communist practices gained power on a local scale. With the Better American League of Southern California, for example, the state has assembled a large roster of suspected suspects. These people, even without much proof of their communist intentions, were blacklisted by the government and their civil rights violated. Tangent now to Consumer Culture, it is a fact that, during this period of tension, the American people took patriotic duty to buy goods to move the economy of the country. The consequence was that America became the world’s largest economic power at the time. The standard of American life served as a model for the rest of the world, and showed the capitalist superiority to bear many products to which the Soviet Union had no access. It can be seen, therefore, that the consensus of material superiority in the United States, besides cultural factor, has become a way of establishing the country as a model of life worldwide; Consumer Culture now had a very important political role in the Cold War.
An important cultural aspect during the Cold War was Duck and Cover, which consisted of a protection technique against a possible nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. The duck and cover was taught in schools, and was also broadcast to the population through television programs. Today, we know that the technique of covering the head with the hands and hiding under a table is not enough to protect against a nuclear attack. Meanwhile, during the Cold War, the technique was incorporated into American culture, bringing some sense of security since Americans were apprehensive about the possibility of a nuclear attack. Conclusion (80) Section III – Late 20th Century Liberalism and Conservationism What were some of the political gains of the New Left in the 1960s? How did feminism and gay liberation expand throughout the end of the 20th Century and into the 21st Century?
The New Left was a political set of movements of leftist character that took place in several countries in the decade of 60. However, the New Left is not related to the Old Left because, instead of taking a course in the direction labor issues, is associated with civil rights. In America, this new political wave is characterized by being related to protests against the Vietnam War and the oppression of minorities such as women, the LGBT public, African Americans and the marginalized population. Throughout this section, I intend to highlight some of the political gains of the New Left as well as the expansion of gay liberation and the feminist movement during the transition from the 20th Century to the 21st Century. Political gains of the New Left Movements such as Students for a Democratic Society, founded in 1960, formed a resistance against Cold War policies and criticized the current situation of higher education in America, as well as fighting for Civil Rights to fight racism.
How did feminism expand throughout the end of the 20th Century and into the 21st Century? (455 words) When it comes to the feminist movement during the 1960s, it can be said that women were still struggling for their political and economic emancipation, emphasizing gender equality in the political and professional spheres. During the 60s, the Second Feminist Waves focused on achieving political equality, calling on federal government for the establishment of laws that would support women as workers. It is important to emphasize that during World War II, women conquered, through the wartime economic situation, significant professional advances, there was no significant legislation support for female. Women’s fight for equality was, throughout all its process, invalidated due to sexism present in society, which reaffirmed gender bias in all spheres of women’s lives. During the New Left, the Second Feminist Wave was characterized by the Women’s Movement, aimed to conquer political equality through legislation that would support women on different spheres of their lives, including, mainly, topic such as sexuality and women in the workforce.
In 1963, Betty Friedan published ‘The Feminine Mystique’ and had a very large impact on the lives of the women who read the book; without any doubt, Friedan played a vital role, because she made the next steps of the feminist movement possible by influencing her women readers to think outside the box. ‘The Feminine Mystique’ elaborated a content that urged middle class women to realize their unhappiness with their lives was a social problem and not their fault. From that moment, a huge group of women developed critical thinking about the reality in which they were inserted and mobilized to join the feminist movement. In 1966, Friedan led the creation of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which acquired a more radical character, embodying the second wave of the feminist movement and requesting political changes regarding women’s rights.
Because there was a lot of prejudice about the feminist movement because of old mentalities that referred to the traditional American family and the way a woman should behave in society, it took time for the NOW to gain a significant amount of membership. During the years following its creation, NOW acquired around 12,000 members, and even with many social and political obstacles, it can be said that the Women’s Movement acquired several achievements that would improve the lives of the female public in different sectors. In 1965, for example, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provided support to female employers with the monitoring of gender discrimination in the workplace, as well as providing job opportunities throughout the country. In addition, women have won the legal right to divorce and pregnant women now no longer risk losing their jobs due to pregnancy.
