Was John D Rockefeller A Robber Baron — страница 4

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vacillation, confusion, and contradictions; by in frightening within the administration, bureaucracies, by an absence of any consistently held theory about either the causes of depression or how to end it. The New Dealers failed to arrive at any real consensus about the origins and nature of the economic concentration. Roosevelt’s inconsistency was apolitical asset rather than a liability. He masterfully disguised the inadequacies and internal disagreements in his entourage and to a remarkable extent succeeded in convincing the Americans of their own personal wisdom (Garrity 920). In the textbook, America Past and Present, there is a strong sense that Roosevelt was successful with the New Deal proposals. After winning the election in 1932, he pledged to the American people a

New Deal. In the first hundred days in office F.D.Roosevelt sent 15 major requests to Congress and received 15 pieces of legislation. Most of them were temporary though. The New Deal was more successful in meeting the most immediate problems-relief for millions of unemployed and destitute citizens. Congress was requested to distribute 500 million dollars to the families in need. The Work Progress Administration was established to put the unemployed on a federal payroll, so they could stimulate the stagnant economy. This helped ease the burden of unemployment, but it failed to overcome the depression. Despite his limitations as a reformer Roosevelt was the president the American people needed because of the psychological lift that helped them endure the Great Depression. CRITIQUE

SECTION I disagreed with Roger Biles, who believed the New Deal was effective in getting America out of depression. The fact that most of the programs never went as far as needed really does not seem like America was coming out of the depression. If the requests employed by Roosevelt were met only halfway then I would say it is unsuccessful in bringing the country back to stability. I agreed with Gary Dean Best because he says that the New Deal was a complete and tragic failure. I do not think that Roosevelt was at fault for not recovering from the depression, rather the other two branches of the government, who would not settle on terms with the President in most cases. I agreed with Howard Zinn because the only people the New Deal managed to help out of depression were the rich

folks. The lower classes did not have the luxuries of the upper class, so they suffered through the depression. Blacks and women were two groups that remained fairly stagnant during the Roosevelt era. The country as a whole then, was not out of depression as the New Deal had planned, I agreed with John Garrity because the New Deal era was a time of mass confusion between government and the people. There was no solution to ending the depression. Roosevelt seemed to always be working around the problem, giving the people false hopes because of his masterfully disguised inadequacies. I disagreed with the textbook because I do not think the first hundred days were productive at all. The majority of the requests passed were only temporary. Being that it was only the first hundred days

of office for Roosevelt, the temporary requests would not last long enough to effectively bring America back to prosperity. In conclusion, I disagreed that Roosevelt’s New Deal was an effective answer to the Great Depression. There were really no long-term affects that the plan had guaranteed. Some of the acts passed were helpful in trying to become economically stable again, but were short-lived and faded out of the picture fast. The reason for Roosevelt’s failure was his idea to restore the economy and not to change it ( Divine Breen Fredrickson Williams 810). Obviously there was no way of ever going back to the way the economy used to be. I think Roosevelt’s lack of radicalism was his failure in reforming the economy. He was not totally at fault says Gary Dean Best

because the other branches of government were not being any more radical than the president. The New Deal was a reform and recovery movement, which should have been a radical one. There were no extreme measures taken by Roosevelt to get America out of the Great Depression. The various acts that were passed were insignificant to the overall well being of the nation’s economy. The only thing that saved the nation’s economy was the Second World War. The war boom sparked industry and jobs and soon enough brought America back into the realm of prosperity. PART THREE- Issue #16: Will History Forgive Richard Nixon? During the years from 1968-1973, Richard Nixon became an icon in American history. His reign as President will go down as one of the most controversial terms in the