Philosophies Of Presidents Hoover And Roosevelt During The Great Depression

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the thirty-second president of the United States, was a central figure for the United States in the 20th Century. While leading his country out of The Great Depression, he also led the nation through World War II. Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first President, led the country during the Great Depression and his policies enforced at that time eventually led to his downfall because of their inability to end the downward economic spiral. Both of these Presidents greatly contributed to the nation by using different policies and tactics that classified them as either liberal or conservative. Although there are some exceptions because of the acts passed by Hoover, the characterizations of President D.

Also Hoover would not, under any circumstances, allow America to be in debt. He thought that taping into the national debt would prolong the depression even make it worse since the government would have to pay interest on the loans. Hoover was a man set on his ways and helped very little with the Depression.

Compare and contrast Hoover and Roosevelt’s actions in the aftermath of the Crash of 1929. How did both administrations attempt to deal with the economic stagnation, social hardship and psychological impact of the depression? What needed to be fixed and which approach proved more successful? In your essay you should address not only the underlying economic and social problems that both administrations had to deal with and the various corrective measures they adopted, but also the underlying philosophical approaches of Hoover and Roosevelt and their supporters.

As the flourishing 1920s began to falter, the United States began its descent to economic downfall. The actions taken by the U.S. government in an attempt to save the country only served to seal its depressive state. It was on October 29, 1929 that the stock market plummeted and crashed, sparking the beginnings of the Great Depression. During the expanse of the depression, both Hoover and Roosevelt held terms in the presidential office. While in office, each man had plans and programs designed to bring the country back from rock bottom. Many people tend to classify Roosevelt as a liberal, and Hoover as a conservative. Conservatives are defined as those that follow traditional values and attitudes, and are skeptical and cautious when it comes to change, while liberals are classified as those open to new opinions and changes. However, each

This lack of complete dedication to private interest or public purpose is further displayed in Documents B and C where Hoover stresses the importance of the individual in ending the Depression while also assuring government support for job production if the situation required it. Hoover's speeches are remarkably similar to Roosevelt's speech in Document E. Here, even during the Depression, Roosevelt stressed the importance of balancing the budget unless unemployment required the government to spend money stimulating the economy. Instead of Hoover's desire to continue restricting government, Roosevelt wanted to balance the budget. The Depression created the need for government intervention and an unbalanced budget as shown in Document F. However, despite a few efforts by Hoover to create jobs, he still seemed much different than Roosevelt who insisted in 1936 that America must not go back to supporting Conservatives who protected private interest unjustly. (Document G)

Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt were both presidents during one of the most difficult times in American history, the Great Depression. To try and ease the hardships that many Americans were facing, each President developed many different programs. The different actions that each took to lessen the blow of the depression classified them as either a liberal or conservative. If their actions focused on helping the economy, they would be considered a conservative. If they were more focused on helping the lives of the American people, they would be classified as a liberal. Neither President can be labeled as strictly one. Although Franklin Roosevelt was

The country was going through an ongoing rough depression that the previous President Hoover left in the road for his processor, President Roosevelt. Although not only President Hoover decisions and approval of laws added to the great depression, but the

Carnes and Garraty state he was “a very intelligent man, experienced in business matter and knowledgeable in economics,” (671). Throughout the Depression he did not show his knowledge in economics or experience in business at all. He was very selfish when it came to deciding how the depression would be resolved. He did not really care about others opinions or what resolutions they had to offer, whether it was from an expert opinion or not. Hoover refused that federal funds be used for the relief of individuals, even though the national government solely had the power and credit to deal with the problem (Carnes and Garraty 672). Hoover tried to stress that funds needed to be balanced, meaning that people who had the extra money needed to donate it. This did not work because people did not trust his plans and they were not going to get anything out of it. During this depression President Hoover was not open minded enough. He relied too much on his own decisions and did not take others into consideration. Hoover failed to bring back the economy and instead of sympathy he portrayed resentment against his concerns (Carnes and Garraty

In the 1920s, Americans were trying to figure out what was everyone’s role in society. During this time women started to take on bigger jobs then housekeeping and African Americans are finally standing up for their race. Once 1929 hit, Herbert Hoover, America’s newest president, was viewed as an ‘American Superhero’ at that time because of everything he promised society; however, America gets hit by the Great Depression leaving society in a hole. While banking systems were unstable and overproduction were leaving people bankrupt, Herbert Hoover was blaming Europe and was failing to keep society financially stable. As his presidency went on, filmmakers made film cycles and gangster pictures like Little Caesar that portrayed America’s corrupt society during the Great Depression. By the end of his campaign, Hoover was known as the worst American ever which led to the rising of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Roosevelt saw the struggling society as an opportunity to help his campaign in which he created the New Deal. America was given an opportunity that allowed them to look forward to the future. During Herbert Hoover’s presidency, America did not support the federal government, but after Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president and promised a New Deal, they began to look more favorably on the government.

With the public work programs, Hoover provided unemployed Americans with many different jobs in order to create some sort of income. The most famous of these programs was the Boulder Dam, which will be talked about later. Throughout the entire depression, Hoover stood on his belief of a hands-off government until late in his presidency. Under pressure from Americans and his fellow politicians, President Hoover eventually gave in and signed an act granting money and/or food to areas in dire need. That was the extent of his direct relief.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s plan helped make the economy get stable through programs that he started, helping create more jobs for the unemployed. He passed bills that helped both the American people and its environment. For example, new roads and bridges were built. Another one of FDR’S efforts to get out of the depression was to enter WWII. Document 6 shows a cartoon of how much was produced for the war and shows Uncle Sam working, too. Overall, FDR’s decision to enter the war was the greatest impact on the Great Depression because they got out of it. Herbert Hoover was a terrible leader in many Americans’ views because they believed he did not do enough for the people and was more supportive toward big businesses. He gave money to the rich so that they would pass it down to the poor but instead the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Another downfall of Hoover was Hoovervilles. These were a collection of poor people without homes. The name was given as a disgrace to Hoover. In result, FDR was a more favored president during the Great Depression than Hoover.

In response to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt was ready for action unlike the previous President, Hubert Hoover. Hoover allowed the country to fall into a complete state of depression with his small concern of the major economic problems occurring. FDR began to show major and immediate improvements, with his outstanding actions during the First Hundred Days. He declared the bank holiday as well as setting up the New Deal policy. Hoover on the other hand; allowed the U.S. to slide right into the depression, giving Americans the power to blame him. Although he tried his best to improve the economy’s status during the

After the Depression Hoover had some strategies he used to try and fix the economy, but they did not play out as smoothly as he would have liked them too. Roosevelt 's approach to fix the economy was more uplifting to the people in almost every aspect. Even their campaign songs, Roosevelt’s was about Happy Days coming again, and Hoover’s was about the depression. Roosevelt proposed a “New Deal” to the people and manny clung to it. His deal was that he was going to start experimenting with government roles. WHat he means by this is that he promises to increase government help and use the power of the government to address the people’s issues. Although, he did not explain how he was going to fix things such as unemployment and and improving the stock market in

To Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover had been unwilling to deal with the crisis, the Great Depression, and failed to provide a solution. But these failings gave Roosevelt his chance to take action. He came up with new and bold ideas that was exactly what the country needed after the years of inaction by Hoover. For example, when the Stock Market had crashed in 1929, unlike Hoover, FDR recognized the flaws in it straightaway, the flaws that had allowed for the bank failings and the overall crash. And then immediately proposed ideas to do what was possible for a fix.

Herbert Hoover, the president in office when the Great Depression hit the country, did very little to ameliorate the devastating situation. Hoover underestimated the seriousness of the crisis, misdiagnosed the causes of the problems, and clung to his beliefs in individual achievement and self-help. His corrective measures, aimed at inflation and the federal budget, were thus damaging themselves. Furthermore, he hesitated to mobilize government resources to aid Americans and instead appealed to private groups to lend a hand (Encarta). Thus Hoover’s administration did little to mitigate the impact of the Depression.