The New Deal had both its successes and its failures; on one hand it can argue that the New Deal was a success and on the other hand it did have serious weaknesses and failings and could be argued a failure. Roosevelt however tried to tackle the problem of unemployment with the ‘New Deal’ which was more than what the last president had done. This still leaves us the quest was the New Deal a success. From the collapse of the Wall Street in 1929 to 1932, to Americans it appears as though Hoover; the republican president did nothing or little to help the situation.

People had the view that at least Roosevelt was actually doing something and they hoped for a positive change, this gave America a little bit more confidence. Many people who had been badly affected by the depression had labelled their homes as ‘Hoovervilles’ in distaste to Hoover. Roosevelt gave people faith and hope as he was doing something for the people. He had succeeded in giving America more confidence and gave people hope for survival. Relief, which was a main aim of Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’, was a success, as millions of people had received relief, with the help of the alphabet agencies assisting them with mortgages and jobs.

Relief gave people a chance to breathe out and be able to relax a bit, knowing that they had a little bit of money coming in and helping them out a bit, it meant that many people were slowly being able to support themselves. Alphabet agencies assisted Roosevelt greatly as they provided valuable, economic and social structures such as; roads, airports schools theatres and dams. It not only made these projects but in the process it made millions of jobs helping the society even more. Reform, was another key feature if the ‘New Deal’ in which I believe he succeeded.

He introduced new laws against child labour and about social security, minimum wage, labour relations, trade unions and protected people’s rights and conditions. It meant that people could feel safe in their working and home environment. Roosevelt had managed to restore the confidence in the American people, millions of people were able to get work in government projects, in this a lot of valuable work had been carried out by building schools, roads and hospitals, and Roosevelt saved the banking system from collapsing and saved capitalism.

However the failures of the ‘New Deal’, may be considered greater that the successes. The ‘New Deal’ was not as strong as it could have been which left room for weaknesses and failings. The ‘New Deal’ did not end the depression, Roosevelt wanted to have reasonable interest rates and a balanced budget, but his schemes could have been thought to continue it. He spent lots of money on providing people with government jobs, but not permanent and stable ones. He wanted Hoover’s schemes only much, much bigger. Yet by 1935 he had failed to end unemployment as just over 20% of the population were unemployed.

Although it fell to 14. 3% in 1937, when Roosevelt cut back on the governments expenditure in 1938 it rose again to 19% of the population. Roosevelt didn’t know how to end the depression, no one did, and Roosevelt made the situation not as bad as it might have been. Up until the Second World War, this triggered production going again. The ‘New Deal’ was all very well and good if it was going to employ everybody, and by everybody I mean black people and women. A lot of the agencies set up were aimed at men rather than women, only about 8000 women were involved in the CCC agency.

Local governments avoided paying social security to women by introducing special qualifications and conditions. Many of the agencies made by the ‘New Deal’ discriminated against the blacks, meaning that they got no work, or received worse treatment and lower wages, Roosevelt had failed to pass laws against racism because he feared that the southern states would not support him. This shows that the society was not as fair as he had made it out to be. He had failed to proved equal help to both black and white men and women.

Many people opposed the ‘New Deal’ such as; businessmen, republicans, activists, sate government and the Supreme Court, because they thought that the expenditure of the government was wasteful and not going far enough. Some thought that the federal government was taking unnecessary powers. The main failures of the ‘New Deal’ were that it did not end the depression and unemployment was not conquered as jobs were only temporary, the ‘New Deal’ was a very expensive government plan in America and that time and some of its projects could be and were accused of wasting money.

Whether the ‘New Deal was a success or failure is quite hard to judge as many programs were a success but many did not help the millions that continued to be out of work like the AAA, which only helped small farmers. The ‘New Deal’ did not solve unemployment but simply made the situation not as bad as it might have been. In conclusion I think that the ‘New Deal’s’ weaknesses and failings balance out the successes that they did have. Roosevelt failed to get rid of unemployment as he only made temporary jobs for the government rather than a factory which everyone could have benefited from.

He failed to have complete equal rights for everyone, however he did manage to restore the faith of the American people, the ‘New Deal’ was also a huge social and economic program which hadn’t been possible before Roosevelt’s time. He managed to relieve the nation and reform it; he managed to stabilize the banking system too. Roosevelt definitely improved America, his plans were to big and he spent too much money on temporary things, meaning that the ‘New Deal’ would work for a while, which it did, but it could not have been a long term solution.