Was Franklin Roosevelts New Deal successful?
I’d have to say that in general, it wasn’t very successful. It’s goal was to end the Great Depression and it didn’t accomplish that. The Depression continued until the start of World War II. However, it was not a complete failure. Because of Roosevelt’s willingness to “unbalance” the budget by spending billions on public works projects and in state aid to persons in need, many lives were improved. The Civil Works Administration found jobs for more than 8.5 million unemployed during its course of time, many of these jobs created by the government for the express purpose of creating jobs. It may be impossible to judge its individual success, because as we know, history does not occur in a vacuum. Other factors ultimately lead to the end of the depression, but we’ll never know if Roosevelt’s New Deal alone could have been successful in halting the depression.
