Figure 1. A mural shows a group of male workers engaged in a variety of manufacturing tasks.

This module covers the causes, development, and impact of the Great Depression and President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal for American society, including the various phases of both movements. It also examines the positive aspects of the Depression era for the American people. As the New Deal remade American government to become more responsive to the needs of average people, it also altered American society in profound ways. The 1930s was a decade defined by the modern kitchen and Walt Disney just as much as by bread lines and alphabet-soup agencies.

The election of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signaled both immediate relief for the American public as well as a permanent shift in the role of the federal government in guiding the economy and providing direct assistance to the people, albeit through expensive programs that made extensive budget deficits commonplace. For many, the immediate relief was, at a minimum, psychological: Herbert Hoover was gone, and the situation could not grow worse under Roosevelt. But as his New Deal unfolded, Americans learned more about the fundamental changes their new president brought to the Oval Office. In the span of over one hundred days, the country witnessed a wave of legislation never seen before or since.

Roosevelt understood the need to “save the patient,” to borrow a medical phrase he often employed, and to “cure the ill.” This meant both creating jobs, through such programs as the Works Progress Administration, which employed over eight million Americans, as well as reconfiguring the structure of the American economy. In pursuit of these two goals, Americans re-elected Roosevelt for three additional terms in the White House and became full partners in reshaping their country.

World War II (1941-1945)

Figure 2. A propaganda poster shows an illustration of several uniformed infantrymen taking aim with rifles while the landscape explodes around them. The top of the poster reads “In the face of obstacles—COURAGE.” The bottom of the poster reads “Infantry / United States Army.” In each of the bottom corners is a circle with a pair of crossed guns inside.

Figure 2. During World War II, American propaganda was used to drum up patriotism and support for the war effort. This poster shows the grit and determination of infantrymen in the face of enemy fire.

World War II drew the United States out of the non-interventionist sentiment that had taken hold as one of the residual effects of the Great Depression. Although the country had not entirely disengaged itself from foreign affairs following World War I, it had remained largely aloof from events occurring in Europe until the late 1930s. World War II forced the United States to involve itself once again in European affairs. It also helped to relieve the unemployment of the 1930s and stir industrial growth. The propaganda poster above was part of a concerted effort to get Americans to see themselves as citizens of a strong, unified country, dedicated to the protection of freedom and democracy. However, the war that unified many Americans also brought to the fore many of the nation’s racial and ethnic divisions, both on the frontlines—where military units, such as the one depicted in this poster, were segregated by race—and on the home front. Yet, the war also created new opportunities for ethnic minorities and women, which, in postwar America, would contribute to their demand for greater rights.

In this Module, we also cover the causes, development and impact of World War II on the United States. It provides a multicultural perspective of American historical experiences during the first half of the 1940s, including information on the evolution of the war’s impact on the domestic scene. The war touched people’s lives by uprooting them from their homes, providing them with jobs, heightening their sense of patriotism, both attacking and adding to racial discrimination, and affecting family patterns. World War II also transformed the United States from a background player on the world’s international stage of politics, to superpower status as the Cold War with the Soviet Union unfolded.

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