After the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the situation continued to get worse. The Dust Bowl sent thousands of mid-western farm families to California looking for work. People in cities built shacks of junk they called "Hoovervilles" in honor of the person they blamed for all their troubles: President Herbert Hoover. In fact, Americans were so angry at Hoover and the Republican party that Democrat victory in the election of 1932 was almost guaranteed.

And it's important to remember, the Depression was bad all over the world. The highest unemployment rate in the US was around 33%. In Germany, still hurting from the loss of World War I and the Versailles Treaty, unemployment was near 50%. Money there was virtually worthless.

In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President. He promised Americans relief from the worsening Depression in the form of his “New Deal.” Promising to try new programs until something helped, he created new organizations to provide jobs, food, and housing to those in need, using money collected from the tax payers.

Some of the worst problems FDR faced, (besides his battle with the crippling disease polio,) included the falling prices of goods due to lack of demand, and soaring unemployment rates.

Still, the public responded to their cheerful, confident new President.

The American people were still recovering from a troubling event from the Hoover administration, however. In the summer of 1932, World War I veterans from all over the US came to Washington DC, demanding payment of a bonus they had been promised by the government. The bonus was supposed to repay the former soldiers for wages they had missed out on while they were at the front from 1917 to 1918. The money was to be paid in 1945, but the hungry and unemployed veterans said they needed it now, and they walked, rode rails, or drove to the nation’s capital to protest until they received it. Then President Hoover was not inclined to pay them.

Massive numbers of veterans showed up, and built tent cities and shanty towns on abandoned lots where they planned to stay until paid.

In the summer heat, fights between veterans and police broke out. Fearing a Communist revolt was taking shape, President Hoover ordered the US army to raid the camps and drive the veterans away. Future World War II heroes Douglas MacArthur and George Patton drove into the camps with tanks and fired tear gas until the Bonus Army evacuated their camp.

The Army burned the shanty towns of the Bonus Army, and soon, nothing was left but the memory.

FDR awarded World War I veterans their bonuses in 1936. These mailmen are carrying the first bonus checks.

Upon taking office, though, FDR was true to his campaign promises. He started “public works” programs: paying workers with tax money to build roads, bridges, and other structures for the public good. Many unemployed men were soon back to work, drawing a paycheck through the most prominent of these public works programs, the Works Progress Administration, or WPA.

The WPA even paid artists to practice their trade.

FDR tried to calm Americans' fears with soothing, personal speeches over the radio he called "Fireside Chats." People tuned in to hear the President talk to them in plain, everyday language, restoring their confidence in the country's economy.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was another public works program. This one was aimed at young men from 18-25. The young men in this program focused on conservation jobs, such as planting trees, correcting erosion, and creating structures in national parks and forests. The CCC built Tellico Ranger Station on the Tellico River.

The Tennessee Valley Authority was created by FDR to bring electricity to the rural South. Workers were paid to build dams on the Tennessee River, construct electric lines to cities and homes, and to reforest and maintain the structures. So not only did the TVA provide electricity, it also provided jobs.

Norris Dam, under construction

In 1935, FDR started Social Security, a program that gave a steady income to people over 65, gave aid to unemployed workers, and provided money to the disabled and families with dependent children. Does this sound like "laissez faire" government? How does this compare to the earlier theory of Social Darwinism?

Under FDR the government also changed its policies toward native Americans. In 1934, Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act, which stopped trying to assimilate Native Americans. Instead, the government would allow the entire tribe to won reservation land, reduce the number of boarding schools for Native American kids, and allow the tribes to elect their own governing councils. This was a major break from the Dawes Act which tried to "Americanize" Native Americans.

Also in 1935, the Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act, more commonly known as the Wagner Act. This act protected the right of workers to join unions and engage in collective bargaining with employers.

Many of FDR's programs were opposed by the Supreme Court. Some were completely overturned. Angered, Roosevelt tried to pack the court with friendly Democrats, but a firestorm of protest broke out, and he backed down.

FDR was aided in his efforts by his Secretary of State, Tennessean Cordell Hull. Hull was the architect of the United Nations, and in 1945, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Cordell Hull’s birthplace in Byrdstown, (just outside Jamestown,) Tennessee.

One of the results of the Great Depression and the New Deal was the formation of the Federal Depositors Insurance Corporation. The FDIC guarantees your bank accounts up to $250,000 per account. That means if you have a bank account of $250,000 or less, and the bank goes under, the government will pay you back the amount of money you lost. Just be sure to not have more than a quarter of a million in any one account. The question is, what happens when the FDIC runs out of money? Hmmm…..

Still, many Americans opposed the programs of the New Deal, and others said they were not helped by them at all.

The fact of the matter was, many of the New Deal programs didn't help at all, and some were just bad ideas from the beginning. But Americans were overjoyed to have a President who appeared to be doing something, anything, to help. As a result, Franklin D Roosevelt was elected President not once, not twice, NOT THREE TIMES, but a record 4 times (1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944.) He would die in office during his fourth term.