Unit VIII: The Age of Roosevelt (1933-1945)

UNIT VIII: THE AGE OF ROOSEVELT (1933-1945) Is it true that FDR's New Deal differed from Hoover's Administration in that the New Deal was willing to use government power to adjust the contending claims of major interest groups? Evaluate the Roosevelt leadership and the New Deal as a genuine reform movement. Was the New Deal a culmination of old-fash- ioned liberal reform, or was it something uniquely different, having little to do with, say, progressivism? How much effect did the New Deal have on present-day American institu- tions? Did the New Deal radically alter American business or did it conserve and protect it? Was FDR naive and ineffective in his conduct of foreign affairs? Did the United States pursue a policy of self-interest in foreign affairs? To what extent did the foreign policy of FDR react to exterior determinants over which the country had no control? Evaluate the record of FDR in the conduct of foreign policy. Compare the official policy of neutrality and its modification during the period 1914-1917 to the policy and its modification during the period 1939-1941.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING: The American Past: Conflicting Interpretations of the Great Issues: "War Came at Pearl Harbor: Suspicions Considered" (Herbert Feis)

PERTINENT VOCABULARY: Students habitually get lost in the maze of "Alphabet Soup" provided by New Deal Legislation. This list attempts to present measures taken to change unemployment, aid agriculture and labor, and remedy weaknesses in the economic structure of the United States. It also focuses on the open conflict between the advocates of isolationism and collective security.

1. Fireside Chat
2. Raymond Moley
3. John Maynard Keynes
4. Emergency Banking Act
5. Harry Hopkins
6. Civilian Conservation Corps
7. Home Owner's Loan Corporation
8. First New Deal
9. Second New Deal
10. Pragmatism
11. "Forgotten Man"
12. Agricultural Adjustment Act
13. National Recovery Act
14. Tennessee Valley Authority
15. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
16. Supreme Court Packing Case
17. Father Charles Coughlin
18. Huey P. Long
19. Manchuria
20. Cordell Hull
21. Neutrality Acts (1935-1939)
22. Panay Incident (1937)
23. Buenos Aires Conference (1936)
24. Tydings-McDuffie Act
25. Reciprocal Trade Agreements
26. Charles Lindbergh
27. Four Freedoms Speech (1941)
28. Robin Moor and Reuben James
29. Pearl Harbor
30. Office of Censorship
31. Battle of El Alamein
32. Battle of Stalingrad
33. Atlantic Charter
34. America First Committee
35. Committee to Defend America
36. Lend-Lease Act
37. Social Security Act
38. Works Progress Administration
39. Wagner Act (Section 7a)
40. Norris-LaGuardia Act (1932)
41. Committee for Industrial Organization (1935)
42. Agricultural Adjustment Act (1938)
43. Walsh-Healy Act (1936)
44. Battle of the Bulge
45. Sudetenland
46. "Cash and Carry"
47. "Final Solution"
48. Quarantine Speech
49. Rhineland
50. Sudetenland
51. Operation Torch
52. Operation Husky
53. Operation Overlord

THE HUNDRED DAYS: Were there any real philosophical and political differences in the approaches of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt in dealing with the first stages of the depression? What specific areas of the American economy did Roosevelt concentrate on during the first phase of the New Deal? What were the immediate aims of the government? What kind of relationship with business did Roosevelt seek at the commencement of his first term? Can you fathom from FDR's First Inaugural Address why he was able to arouse so much hope in the vast majority of the American people despite the few concrete proposals presented and the simplistic notions about what was needed in order to restore prosperity? Did FDR emerge as a dramatic, effective leader during the "Hundred Days?" What appear to be the chief characteristics of the New Deal programs, especially in the early stages? In what ways were FDR's economic policies different from those of Hoover? Were the solutions proposed by the "Brain Trust" sensible? Do the various measures for relief and reform seem part of an overall program or rather improvised measures, each designed to handle one particular problem? Did the business community betray Roosevelt's programs during the early stages of the New Deal?

ISSUES (III): Franklin Roosevelt, "The First Inaugural Address"
KENNEDY: Chapter 36 ("FDR: A Politician in a Wheelchair" through "The TVA Harnesses the Tennessee River")
HANDOUT: Gerald Gunderson, "The New Deal"
HANDOUT: "The Hundred Days"

"FOOTSTEPS ON THE RIGHT, THUNDER ON THE LEFT": What were the bases of the contemporary criticisms of Roosevelt and the New Deal? What effect did this criticism have on the nature of the legislative program of the New Deal? By the mid-1930's, European countries like Spain, Germany, and Italy were groping for radical solutions to their economic plight. Why didn't American radicalism, fascism, or communism as potential panaceas?

HANDOUT: Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., "The Politics of Upheaval"
HANDOUT: Father Charles E. Coughlin, "A Third Party" (1936)
ISSUES (III): Herbert Hoover, "This Challenge to Liberty"

THE SECOND NEW DEAL: What political and societal pressures forced Roosevelt to alter his attitudes toward the entrepreneurial class? Did he pursue Phase-Two plans from a spirit of reform or vindictiveness? How was the Second New Deal different from the First New Deal? On what justification were the NRA and the first AAA declared unconstitutional? Was Roosevelt's vision clouded by ego in his abortive attempt to enlarge the membership of the Supreme Court from nine to fifteen? Why did his own political party turn against him? What specific classes were aided by New Deal legislation? How did the lifestyle of the blue-collar laborer change?

KENNEDY: Chapter 36 ("Housing Reform and Social Security" through the end of the chapter)
HANDOUT: Crossroads Project: The Age of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945 ("The Two--Or Three?--New Deals" and "The New Deal Versus the Supreme Court--Separating Myth and Reality")
HANDOUT: "Mr. Roosevelt" (Marquis W. Childs)
HANDOUT: Document Analysis/Depression and the New Deal (1929-1942)

FDR: THE MAN AND THE MYTH: Some historians have labeled FDR "Machiavellian", others as an "artist in politics". How would you evaluate the Roosevelt leadership? What does Hofstadter consider to be the principal characteristics of the temperament which was "at the heart of the New Deal"? How does Hofstadter explain FDR as neither a "master planner" or a "haphazard" reformer and administrator? What in FDR's early career would give you the impression that he would take on the political stature he eventually assumed? How did the siege of polio affect FDR's political appeal? His emotional make-up? his recreational habits? Evaluate FDR's business activities in the 1920's, his record as governor of New York, and his performance in the campaign of 1932. What is meant by "organized scarcity in action" and how does this apply to the A.A.A.? What were the factors which prompted FDR to transform the character of the New Deal in 1936, and move from center to left? On what grounds does Hofstadter conclude that by 1938 the New Deal was in a state of political bankruptcy? Can you explain the title of the essay? How does the New Deal fit Hofstadter's "consensus thesis?" Did Roosevelt add any new ideas to American reform ideology? What specific classes were aided by New Deal legislation? How did the lifestyle of the blue-collar laborer change? To what degree did FDR attempt to insure better racial relations?

APT: Chapter 12 (Sections I, II, III, IV)

"LONE HAND" FOREIGN POLICY: What new attitude replaced the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine in Latin American policy during the administration of FDR? What issues were at stake in the Far East? What factors caused the United States to shift away from its policy of the 1920's in relation to Europe?

KENNEDY: Chapter 37 ("The London Conference and Soviet Recognition" through Hitlerian Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality")

THE ROAD TO WAR: How did the interventionist philosophies of Secretaries of State Hughes and Kellogg run counter to the domestic attitudes of American citizens during the 1920's? Were the attempts at collective security through the Washington Conference, Kellogg-Briand Pact and London Naval Conference doomed simply because of the economic situation at home? What opportunities did the United States have to stem the tide of militarism in Europe and the Far East in the early 1930's? To what extent was Franklin Roosevelt a "reluctant internationalist"? What policies did he pursue after 1935? At what juncture do you feel that Roosevelt recognized the necessity for an all-out confrontation with the totalitarian states? To what degree did the indifference, lack of leadership, and appeasement policies of European statesmen tie Roosevelt's hands? Were they responsible for the frustration of American preparedness? Can you document Hofstadter's description of FDR as having had "no consistent history of either isolationism or internationalism?" When did FDR begin to abandon his isolationist posture? How does Hofstadter describe FDR's attitude toward the European war in 1939? What were the arguments for and against the United States becoming an "arsenal of democracy?" What reasoning does FDR employ to justify the "lend-lease" program? How did the foreign policies of FDR differ from those of Woodrow Wilson? How were they similar? What relationship does Hofstadter suggest FDR employed to justify the United States as a replacement for England and France as a colonial power? Do you under- stand Hofstadter's comparison between Wilson and FDR? If the League of Nations had been ratified as part of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, would Germany, Italy, and Japan have been able to create governments built around the ideas of Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo? Did Roosevelt deliberately lead the United States into war? Could war with Japan have been avoided by diplomatic means?

KENNEDY: Chapter 37 ("Aftermath of the Fall of France" through the end of the chapter) ISSUES (III): Charles A. Lindbergh, "Speech on America and the War"; FDR, "Press Conference on Lend-Lease"; President Franklin D. Roosevelt, "War Message to Congress" APT: Chapter 12 (Section V)

"ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY": What effect did the war have on the American economy? What effect did the war have on the progress of the New Deal? Were there any positive reform accomplishments on the "Home Front" during the war years? Compare the motives, the methods, and the effectiveness of the federal government in silencing dissent during the Second World War in relation to the 1790's, the Civil War, and World War I.

KENNEDY: Chapter 38 ("The Allies Trade Space for Time" through "Holding the Home Front")
HANDOUT: Crossroads Project: The Age of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945
("The War at Home")
HANDOUT: Document Analysis/World War II Homefront (1942)

WARTIME DIPLOMACY: What military considerations prompted the decisions of "unconditional surrender", the timing of the opening of the second front, the "sellout at Yalta", and the use of the atomic bomb? What other considerations were taken into account besides military strategy? What were the long-range effects of those decisions? What was gained from the strategic errors of World War II? What similarity is there between the mistakes of the First World War and the Second World War? What do you feel were the two greatest miscalculations during World War II? Identify some of the "lingering issues" that have affected the United States and the world since 1945? Would you agree with the statement that "every present world political and economic problem that we face today can be directly or indirectly linked to World War II?"

KENNEDY: Chapter 38 (""The Rising Sun in the Pacific" through the end of the chapter)
HANDOUT: Crossroads Project: The Age of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945 ("The United States and the Second World War"
HANDOUT: World War II Wartime Conferences
HANDOUT: Document Analysis/Effects of the Atomic Bomb(1945)/The United States Bombing Survey

EXAMINATION
The Age of Roosevelt: 1933-1945 "Links"