History of the New Deal.
The New Deal
Great Depression Background
The New Deal was the broad set of federal programs, laws, and reforms launched under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression. After the 1929 stock market crash, the United States faced mass unemployment, bank failures, farm collapse, falling wages, homelessness, and widespread economic insecurity. Roosevelt entered office in 1933 promising bold action, and his administration quickly expanded the role of the federal government in economic life.
The New Deal is often described through three goals: relief for people in immediate need, recovery of the economy, and reform of institutions that had failed during the Depression. These goals guided programs for jobs, banking, agriculture, housing, labor, social insurance, conservation, and public works.
First New Deal and Emergency Action
The First New Deal began during Roosevelt’s first months in office, often called the First Hundred Days. Congress passed emergency legislation to stabilize banks, support farmers, regulate business, and provide work relief. The Emergency Banking Act and later banking reforms helped restore confidence in the financial system. The Glass-Steagall Act separated commercial and investment banking and helped create federal deposit insurance through the FDIC.
Other early programs included the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which tried to raise farm prices by reducing production, and the National Recovery Administration, which encouraged industrial codes for wages, prices, and working conditions. Some early New Deal programs were controversial and later struck down by the Supreme Court, but they marked a major shift toward federal responsibility for economic recovery.
Work Relief and Public Works
A central feature of the New Deal was public employment. Rather than relying only on direct charity, many programs offered jobs building infrastructure, conserving land, supporting communities, and producing cultural work.
The Civilian Conservation Corps employed young men in conservation work, including trails, roads, parks, forests, firebreaks, erosion control, and public lands improvements. The Works Progress Administration became one of the largest work-relief agencies, employing millions in construction, education, arts, theater, writing, and community projects. The Public Works Administration funded large-scale infrastructure such as bridges, schools, hospitals, dams, and public buildings.
These programs left a lasting physical legacy in parks, courthouses, schools, post offices, roads, trails, murals, and public landscapes across the United States.
Social Security, Labor Rights, and the Second New Deal
The Second New Deal, beginning in 1935, placed stronger emphasis on social welfare, labor rights, and long-term reform. The Social Security Act of 1935 created old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, and public assistance programs that became foundations of the modern American safety net.
The Wagner Act protected workers’ rights to organize unions and bargain collectively, while the National Labor Relations Board was created to enforce labor protections. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established federal standards for minimum wage, overtime pay, and child labor restrictions.
Together, these reforms shifted federal policy from short-term relief toward lasting protections for workers, retirees, the unemployed, and vulnerable households.
Banking, Securities, and Financial Reform
The New Deal also reshaped American finance. Federal deposit insurance helped protect ordinary bank customers and reduce bank runs. The Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 created stronger disclosure rules for securities markets and established the Securities and Exchange Commission.
These reforms aimed to restore public trust after the stock market crash and financial scandals of the early Depression. They also created a more permanent federal role in regulating banks, markets, investors, and monetary institutions.
Agriculture, Conservation, and Rural Development
Rural America was deeply affected by the Depression, falling crop prices, drought, and the Dust Bowl. New Deal agricultural programs tried to stabilize farm income, protect soil, resettle struggling families, and modernize rural regions.
The Soil Conservation Act responded to erosion and Dust Bowl conditions by creating a national soil conservation program. The Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration addressed rural poverty, tenant farming, and agricultural rehabilitation. The Rural Electrification Administration helped bring electricity to farms and rural communities through federal loans and cooperative utilities.
The Tennessee Valley Authority became one of the most ambitious New Deal projects. It combined flood control, electricity generation, navigation, regional planning, reforestation, erosion control, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley.
Arts, Culture, and Documentation
The New Deal did not only build roads and dams. It also supported artists, writers, musicians, actors, photographers, historians, and cultural workers. Federal arts programs produced murals, posters, plays, music performances, guidebooks, oral histories, and documentary photography.
The Federal Writers’ Project collected life histories and local stories, including the famous slave narrative interviews. The Federal Theatre Project staged public performances and became one of the most debated cultural programs of the era. WPA posters and New Deal murals brought public art into schools, libraries, post offices, and government buildings.
Photographers working through New Deal agencies documented poverty, migration, farm labor, unemployment, and rural hardship. These images helped shape public understanding of the Depression and the need for federal action.
Civil Rights, Women, and Inclusion
The New Deal expanded opportunity for many Americans, but it also reflected the racial and gender inequalities of the 1930s. African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, women, and other groups often faced discrimination in relief programs, employment, housing, and labor protections.
Some New Deal programs were segregated, including parts of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Mexican Americans experienced unemployment, deportations, discrimination, and limited access to relief. At the same time, African American advisers known as the Black Cabinet pushed the Roosevelt administration to address racial inequality.
Women such as Frances Perkins and Eleanor Roosevelt played important roles in shaping New Deal policy. Perkins, as secretary of labor, helped develop Social Security and labor protections. Eleanor Roosevelt visited relief projects, advocated for youth, women, workers, and civil rights, and helped bring public attention to communities often ignored by federal policy.
The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, sometimes called part of the Indian New Deal, marked a shift away from allotment policy and toward tribal self-government, land restoration, and cultural protection.
Opposition and Constitutional Debate
The New Deal faced criticism from conservatives, business groups, populists, and the Supreme Court. Some opponents argued that Roosevelt gave the federal government too much power over private enterprise. Others, such as Huey Long and Father Charles Coughlin, argued that the New Deal did not go far enough to redistribute wealth or protect ordinary people.
The Supreme Court struck down several early New Deal measures, including parts of the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act. Roosevelt responded with a controversial court-packing plan in 1937, which failed politically but occurred during a broader constitutional turning point. Later decisions upheld major New Deal laws, including Social Security and the National Labor Relations Act.
Lasting Legacy
The New Deal did not fully end the Great Depression; full employment came with World War II mobilization. However, it restored confidence, provided jobs, built public infrastructure, strengthened labor rights, protected bank deposits, regulated securities markets, created Social Security, and permanently expanded the federal government’s responsibility for economic security.
Many New Deal institutions still shape American life. Social Security, the FDIC, the SEC, federal labor standards, public power projects, rural electrification, conservation programs, historic parks, public buildings, murals, and documentary archives all reflect the New Deal’s enduring influence.
Conclusion
The New Deal was one of the most transformative periods in United States history. It responded to economic collapse with public jobs, emergency relief, financial regulation, labor protections, social insurance, conservation, rural development, and cultural programs. Although uneven and often limited by discrimination and political compromise, the New Deal changed expectations about what government could do during crisis. Its legacy remains visible in American infrastructure, social policy, labor law, public lands, financial regulation, and democratic debate over the role of government in economic life.
Core Overviews and General New Deal History
National Recovery Administration and the New Deal
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress Research Guides | April 29, 2026
Research guide on the NRA and the New Deal, covering industrial recovery, business codes, federal regulation, and sources for studying New Deal agencies.
Question 22: 1940 Census Provides a Glimpse of the New Deal
Article link | National Archives | Prologue Magazine | May 19, 2023
Uses the 1940 census to show how New Deal work programs appeared in federal records and how relief employment shaped household and community histories.
The New Deal
Article link | Khan Academy | Khan Academy | n.d.
Educational overview explaining New Deal experimentation, the expansion of federal power, and major programs designed to relieve suffering and stabilize the economy.
The New Deal
Article link | Encyclopedia.com | Encyclopedia.com | n.d.
Broad historical article tracing the phrase “New Deal,” Roosevelt’s 1932 campaign, the Brain Trust, the First Hundred Days, and the programs created to fight the Depression.
New Deal
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Encyclopedic summary of the New Deal’s relief, recovery, and reform programs, including its origins, major legislation, critics, and long-term effects.
Alphabet Agencies
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Explains the “alphabet agencies” created under the New Deal, including the CCC, WPA, TVA, NRA, AAA, and other federal programs known by initials.
Great Depression Context and FDR Leadership
Launching the New Deal: FDR and Congress Respond to the Great Depression
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | June 22, 2020
Lesson and document set showing how Roosevelt and Congress launched the New Deal, transforming the federal government’s role through emergency legislation and relief programs.
Did New Deal Programs Help End the Great Depression?
Article link | History.com Editors | HISTORY | August 13, 2018
Explains the debate over whether the New Deal ended the Great Depression, emphasizing that it restored confidence, created jobs, and built lasting institutions, while World War II ultimately brought full employment.
The 1930s
Article link | History.com Editors | HISTORY | September 16, 2010
Covers the decade of the Great Depression and New Deal, including federal relief, cultural change, hardship, politics, and the safety net created under Roosevelt.
The New Deal
Article link | History.com Editors | HISTORY | October 29, 2009
Overview of Roosevelt’s New Deal as a broad federal response to the Great Depression, including banking reform, work relief, public works, agriculture, Social Security, labor protections, and the long-term expansion of federal responsibility.
Great Depression History
Article link | History.com Editors | HISTORY | October 29, 2009
Describes the economic downturn from 1929 to 1939, including the crash, unemployment, banking crisis, and conditions that shaped New Deal relief and recovery policy.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Article link | History.com Editors | HISTORY | October 29, 2009
Biography of FDR emphasizing his response to the Great Depression, bank holiday, fireside chats, New Deal programs, wartime leadership, and expansion of presidential power.
The Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Article link | Khan Academy | Khan Academy | n.d.
AP U.S. History article on Roosevelt’s presidency, the New Deal’s major policies, opposition, constitutional conflicts, and the limits of economic recovery before World War II.
The Great Depression
Article link | Khan Academy | Khan Academy | n.d.
Explains the economic collapse that created the conditions for the New Deal, including the stock market crash, unemployment, bank failures, and Roosevelt’s 1933 policy response.
The Beginning of the Great Depression
Article link | Khan Academy | Khan Academy | n.d.
Describes the early Depression years under Hoover and the political context that led voters to embrace Roosevelt’s promise of a New Deal in 1932.
The Great Depression
Article link | History.com Editors | HISTORY | n.d.
Background article on the Depression’s causes, effects, Dust Bowl hardships, unemployment, and the crisis that made Roosevelt’s New Deal politically possible.
Relief, Work Programs, and Public Works
CCC Properties Listed in the National Register of Historic Places
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | September 12, 2024
Explains the CCC’s conservation work and shows how its buildings, parks, and landscapes became historic resources recognized in the National Register.
The CCC Years: 1933–1940
Article link | National Park Service | Chickasaw National Recreation Area | December 7, 2021
Describes CCC work in a national park setting and explains why the program was remembered as one of the most popular and visible New Deal initiatives.
Works Progress Administration
Article link | History.com Editors | HISTORY | July 13, 2017
Overview of the WPA, the largest New Deal work-relief agency, which employed millions in public construction, arts, writing, theater, education, and community projects.
Public Works Administration
Article link | PBS American Experience | PBS | n.d.
Explains how the PWA used large public construction projects to stimulate employment, modernize infrastructure, and support economic recovery during the New Deal.
New Deal Projects in the National Register
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | n.d.
National Register resource useful for tracing New Deal-built schools, parks, post offices, courthouses, lodges, trails, and other public works preserved as historic places.
New Deal Resources in National Parks
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | n.d.
NPS subject page on CCC history and resources, showing the New Deal’s deep influence on national parks, public lands, conservation, and recreation.
National Youth Administration
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Federal records guide to the National Youth Administration, a New Deal agency that provided jobs, training, and educational support to young people during the Depression.
Records of the Work Projects Administration
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Federal records guide describing the WPA’s establishment in 1935, its later renaming, administrative structure, work relief activities, and surviving government records.
The Public Works Administration
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Records guide for the PWA, a New Deal agency that funded large-scale construction projects, public buildings, dams, bridges, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure.
Great Depression and New Deal
Article link | Encyclopedia.com | Encyclopedia.com | n.d.
Youth-focused overview explaining how New Deal funds supported schools, teachers, work programs, youth aid, and broader efforts to protect communities from Depression-era collapse.
Civilian Conservation Corps
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Encyclopedic article on the CCC, its employment mission, conservation work, military-style camps, and impact on parks, forests, and young men during the Depression.
Works Progress Administration
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Encyclopedic article on the WPA’s creation, public works, employment scale, arts programs, and role as a major New Deal relief agency.
Labor, Social Security, and Economic Reform
Why Social Security Was the Cornerstone of FDR’s New Deal
Article link | Becky Little | HISTORY | April 11, 2023
Explains why Social Security became the New Deal’s most enduring reform, shifting from emergency relief toward long-term retirement security, unemployment insurance, and social protection.
The First and Second New Deals
Article link | Khan Academy | Khan Academy | n.d.
Explains the difference between the First New Deal’s relief and recovery programs and the Second New Deal’s stronger emphasis on labor rights, Social Security, and reform.
Social Security History
Article link | Social Security Administration | SSA | n.d.
Official portal for Social Security history, including the 1935 Act, Roosevelt’s signing, program development, early debates, and the New Deal origins of social insurance.
Social Security Act
Article link | Social Security Administration | SSA | n.d.
Text and context of the 1935 Social Security Act, one of the central achievements of the Second New Deal and a foundation of the modern welfare state.
New Deal Labor
Article link | Archives Library Information Center | National Archives | n.d.
Reference guide to New Deal labor policy, including the National Industrial Recovery Act, Wagner Act, labor unions, collective bargaining, and related archival sources.
Historical Background and Development of Social Security
Article link | Social Security Administration | SSA | n.d.
Detailed history of the economic insecurity that led to Social Security, the New Deal committee process, the 1935 law, and the creation of national old-age insurance.
Social Security Act
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Encyclopedic account of the 1935 Social Security Act, including old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, welfare grants, and the New Deal’s lasting social insurance legacy.
Fair Labor Standards Act
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Describes the 1938 New Deal labor law establishing minimum wage, overtime, child labor restrictions, and federal standards for employment.
Banking, Finance, and Securities Reform
FDR: From Budget Balancer to Keynesian
Article link | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum | FDR Library | n.d.
Explains Roosevelt’s changing economic philosophy as New Deal spending, recession, unemployment, and public works pushed the administration toward more active federal fiscal policy.
What Was the New Deal?
Article link | Investopedia | Investopedia | n.d.
Economic overview of the New Deal’s first and second phases, including banking reform, Social Security, WPA employment, labor standards, and debates over effectiveness.
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Article link | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | SEC | n.d.
Describes the act creating the SEC and regulating securities exchanges, brokers, dealers, and market practices after the collapse of public trust in Wall Street.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Explains the SEC’s New Deal origins as a regulator of securities markets after the stock crash and public demand for investor protection.
Securities Act of 1933
Article link | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | SEC | n.d.
Explains the New Deal law requiring truthful disclosure in securities offerings, a key financial reform designed to protect investors and restore market confidence.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Primary-source overview of Roosevelt’s first months in office, describing banking reforms, emergency relief, agricultural programs, and the assumption that federal power was needed to address the Depression.
How the New Deal Impacted the American Economy
Article link | Investopedia | Investopedia | n.d.
Examines the New Deal’s economic effects, including recovery, regulation, labor rights, unemployment, public spending, and debates about whether New Deal policy slowed or strengthened recovery.
Home Owners’ Loan Corporation
Article link | Federal Reserve History | Federal Reserve | n.d.
Explains the New Deal mortgage agency that refinanced distressed home loans, helped stabilize housing, and contributed to long-term patterns of federal housing policy and redlining.
Great Depression and the New Deal
Article link | Encyclopedia.com | Encyclopedia.com | n.d.
Historical overview of Depression-era crisis and New Deal responses, including public works, relief programs, agricultural policy, housing, and the growth of federal economic planning.
Federal Housing Administration
Article link | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | n.d.
Historical overview of the FHA, created during the New Deal to insure mortgages, expand homeownership, standardize lending, and reshape American housing markets.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Describes the FDIC’s creation during the New Deal to insure bank deposits and restore confidence in the banking system.
Emergency Banking Act of 1933
Article link | Federal Reserve History | Federal Reserve | n.d.
Explains Roosevelt’s first major banking measure, the national bank holiday, emergency legislation, and efforts to restore public confidence in the financial system.
The FDIC: A Brief History
Article link | Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation | FDIC | n.d.
Official history of the FDIC, created during the New Deal to insure bank deposits, restore confidence, and prevent future runs on banks.
Creation of the SEC
Article link | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | SEC | n.d.
Official SEC history describing how New Deal securities laws created federal oversight of stock markets after the 1929 crash and widespread financial abuses.
Banking Act of 1935
Article link | Federal Reserve History | Federal Reserve | n.d.
Explains the New Deal law that reorganized the Federal Reserve System, strengthened central banking authority, and reshaped U.S. monetary governance.
Banking Act of 1933
Article link | Federal Reserve History | Federal Reserve | n.d.
Covers the Glass-Steagall banking reforms, including separation of commercial and investment banking and the creation of federal deposit insurance as part of New Deal financial reform.
The First New Deal and Its Critics, 1933–1934
Article link | Encyclopedia.com | Encyclopedia.com | n.d.
Detailed account of the First New Deal, including the CCC, CWA, FERA, NRA, AAA, TVA, business opposition, constitutional challenges, and the shift toward a Second New Deal.
Second New Deal
Article link | Encyclopedia.com | Encyclopedia.com | n.d.
Explains the Second New Deal from 1935 to 1938, emphasizing the Wagner Act, Social Security Act, Fair Labor Standards Act, rural electrification, and progressive taxation.
New Deal, Second
Article link | Encyclopedia.com | Encyclopedia.com | n.d.
Discusses the relationship between the First and Second New Deals, showing continuity and change in relief, recovery, regulation, labor rights, and social insurance policy.
Agriculture, Rural Life, Conservation, and Dust Bowl
Agricultural Adjustment Administration
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Background on New Deal farm and rural documentation, including the Farm Security Administration and the photographic record of agricultural hardship and federal intervention.
Surviving the Dust Bowl
Article link | PBS American Experience | PBS | n.d.
Documentary resource on Dust Bowl hardship, migration, farm collapse, and the environmental crisis that pushed New Deal conservation and rural relief efforts.
The Soil Conservation Act
Article link | Natural Resources Conservation Service | USDA | n.d.
Explains the 1935 New Deal law creating a national soil conservation program to prevent erosion and protect agricultural land after the Dust Bowl.
The Resettlement Administration and Greenbelt Towns
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | n.d.
Explains New Deal planned communities known as greenbelt towns, created to address housing, unemployment, land use, and social reform during the Depression.
The Resettlement Administration
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Records guide to the Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration, New Deal agencies that addressed rural poverty, tenant farming, resettlement, and agricultural rehabilitation.
The Dust Bowl
Article link | History.com Editors | HISTORY | n.d.
Explains the environmental disaster that intensified the Depression and shaped New Deal agricultural, conservation, resettlement, and soil protection policies.
Soil Conservation Service
Article link | Natural Resources Conservation Service | USDA | n.d.
Official history of federal soil conservation, rooted in New Deal responses to erosion, Dust Bowl disaster, and the need for sustainable land management.
Indian Reorganization Act
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Presents the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, often called the Indian New Deal, which reversed allotment policy and supported tribal governments and land restoration.
Greenbelt, Maryland
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | n.d.
Describes Greenbelt as a New Deal planned town and example of federal experimentation in housing, community planning, and cooperative urban design.
Agricultural Adjustment Administration
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Explains the AAA’s effort to raise farm prices through production controls and subsidies, along with controversy over crop destruction and constitutional challenges.
Agricultural Adjustment Act
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Presents the 1933 farm relief law that sought to raise agricultural prices by reducing production, a central but controversial First New Deal program.
America from the Great Depression to World War II
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Describes the FSA-OWI photo archive that shaped public understanding of Depression hardship, New Deal rural programs, migration, labor, and wartime transition.
TVA, Rural Electrification, and Regional Development
Tennessee Valley Authority Act
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | February 8, 2022
Presents the 1933 TVA Act as a milestone document creating a public corporation to control floods, improve navigation, generate electricity, and modernize the Tennessee Valley.
Why the Tennessee Valley Authority Was the New Deal’s Most Ambitious—and Controversial—Program
Article link | Sarah Pruitt | HISTORY | May 19, 2021
Explains the TVA as a bold New Deal experiment in regional planning, rural electrification, and public power, while also covering displacement, lawsuits, and controversy.
The 1930s
Article link | Tennessee Valley Authority | TVA | n.d.
TVA history page describing the agency’s early New Deal years, integrated resource management, dam construction, electricity generation, reforestation, erosion control, and malaria prevention.
Tennessee Valley Authority
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Overview of the TVA as a New Deal public corporation for power generation, flood control, navigation, agricultural development, and regional modernization.
The Rural Electrification Act
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Milestone document on the 1936 law that expanded New Deal rural electrification through federal support for cooperatives and infrastructure.
Rural Electrification Administration
Article link | National Agricultural Library | USDA | n.d.
USDA exhibit on rural electrification showing how New Deal policy brought electricity to farms, transformed rural life, and modernized agriculture.
Power and Rural Electrification
Article link | National Agricultural Library | USDA | n.d.
Explains the rural electricity gap before the New Deal and how federal loans and cooperative utilities helped bring power to rural communities.
Our History
Article link | Tennessee Valley Authority | TVA | n.d.
Official history of the TVA, explaining its New Deal origins, flood control mission, rural electrification, economic development work, and long-term regional impact.
National Recovery Administration
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Overview of the NRA’s industrial codes, Blue Eagle campaign, wage and hour goals, business cooperation, criticism, and Supreme Court invalidation.
Arts, Culture, Photography, and Documentation
National Recovery Administration and the New Deal: Digital Collections
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress Research Guides | April 29, 2026
Points researchers to digital collections on New Deal programs, NRA materials, posters, photographs, government documents, and related primary sources.
Related Online Resources: Great Depression and New Deal
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress Research Guides | February 3, 2025
Resource guide linking to New Deal and Great Depression materials, including government collections, historical documents, photographs, and research portals.
The Federal Writers’ Project
Article link | National Archives | Forward with Roosevelt | July 14, 2020
Examines the WPA’s Federal Writers’ Project, which employed writers during the Depression and produced guidebooks, oral histories, and documentary records of American life.
New Deal Art Registry
Article link | General Services Administration | GSA | n.d.
Federal resource on New Deal artwork in public buildings, documenting murals, sculptures, and other works created through government arts programs.
New Deal Stage: Selections from the Federal Theatre Project
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Exhibition on the Federal Theatre Project, its productions, controversies, political themes, and role in New Deal cultural democracy.
New Deal Records
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Research guide linking to National Archives collections on New Deal agencies, records, public works, arts programs, and federal relief efforts.
New Deal Post Office Murals
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
National Archives resource on New Deal art records, including murals and other federally sponsored artworks created in public buildings during the 1930s.
New Deal for the Arts
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Research page on New Deal art records and exhibitions, showing how federal arts programs supported unemployed artists and created public cultural works.
New Deal
Article link | Archives Library Information Center | National Archives | June 22, 2020
Reference guide to New Deal records, articles, exhibits, and research resources, including the CCC, WPA, New Deal arts programs, and relief administration files.
New Deal Photographs
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Collection of photographs documenting New Deal-era hardship, relief, farm policy, migration, poverty, labor, and federal efforts to make suffering visible to policymakers and the public.
Historic American Landscapes and New Deal Documentation
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | n.d.
Introduces federal documentation programs rooted in New Deal public employment and preservation work, linking relief jobs with cultural heritage and historic records.
The Historic American Buildings Survey
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | n.d.
Explains HABS, founded in the New Deal era, which employed architects and documented historic buildings as part of federal cultural preservation efforts.
The Great Depression and the New Deal
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Photographic exhibit explaining how the New Deal used federal activism, relief agencies, wage and price stabilization, and public works to confront unemployment and economic collapse.
The Great Depression and the New Deal
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
National Archives photo gallery showing Depression-era hardship and New Deal responses through images of work programs, youth programs, agriculture, and everyday life.
The Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
Article link | National Archives | DocsTeach | n.d.
Teaching collection of primary sources on Depression hardship, Roosevelt’s response, New Deal laws, public works, labor, and federal relief programs.
The Federal Theatre Project
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Collection on the WPA Federal Theatre Project, which employed theater workers, staged productions, and became one of the New Deal’s most debated cultural programs.
The Federal One Projects
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Introduces Federal One, the WPA arts umbrella that included theater, music, writing, art, and historical records projects during the New Deal.
The Federal Art Project
Article link | Archives of American Art | Smithsonian Institution | n.d.
Smithsonian resource on New Deal art and the artists, murals, community art centers, and public commissions supported by federal cultural programs.
Put On a Play
Article link | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum | FDR Library | n.d.
Introduces Federal Project One and the New Deal’s theater programs, showing how the government used cultural work to provide employment and public morale during the Depression.
Public Works of Art Project
Article link | Smithsonian American Art Museum | Smithsonian Institution | n.d.
Explores the first federal government program to support artists during the Depression, a precursor to later New Deal arts programs.
Post Office Murals
Article link | Smithsonian National Postal Museum | Smithsonian Institution | n.d.
Explains New Deal-era post office murals, which brought publicly funded art into communities and reflected federal efforts to employ artists and shape civic culture.
New Deal and World War II Public Programs
Article link | Archives Library Information Center | National Archives | n.d.
Research portal for New Deal-related articles and records, including public employment, relief, conservation, arts, labor, and administrative history.
A New Deal for the Arts
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Online exhibit on New Deal arts programs that employed artists and produced public murals, posters, performances, and cultural projects during the Depression.
Works Progress Administration Posters
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Large primary-source collection of New Deal posters created by artists employed through the WPA, documenting design, propaganda, public services, and cultural policy.
WPA Posters
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Collection of WPA posters promoting public health, arts, education, recreation, travel, and civic programs, showing the visual language of New Deal public communication.
FDR’s Fireside Chat on the Recovery Program
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | June 1, 2020
Uses Roosevelt’s radio address to explain the New Deal’s three central goals: relief for the needy, economic recovery, and reform of the financial system.
Federal Writers’ Project
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Collection of manuscripts and records from the Federal Writers’ Project, including life histories, guidebooks, and interviews produced by writers employed under the WPA.
Federal Theatre Project, 1935 to 1939
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Primary-source collection of scripts, posters, production notes, and records from the WPA theater program, documenting New Deal public culture and employment.
Federal Project Number One
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Encyclopedic overview of the WPA arts umbrella program that supported artists, musicians, actors, writers, and historians during the Great Depression.
Federal Music Project
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Overview of the WPA Federal Music Project, which employed musicians, supported concerts and music education, and preserved folk and regional traditions.
Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information Photographs
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Major collection of Depression and New Deal photographs documenting rural poverty, migrant labor, federal relief, resettlement, and the visual politics of reform.
Art of the New Deal
Article link | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum | FDR Library | n.d.
Describes how New Deal arts programs provided jobs for artists while creating murals, posters, sculpture, theater, writing, and music that brought culture into public life.
The New Deal and National Parks
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | n.d.
Explains how New Deal agencies expanded and improved national parks through trails, roads, buildings, campgrounds, conservation work, and public access projects.
The New Deal in Washington, DC
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | n.d.
Explains how New Deal public works reshaped Washington, DC, through federal buildings, parks, infrastructure, and symbolic architecture of expanded government.
Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” Photographs
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Collection centered on Lange’s iconic Depression photographs, showing how New Deal documentary photography made poverty, migration, and farm crisis visible to the nation.
The New Deal’s Enduring Legacy
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | n.d.
Explains how New Deal buildings, parks, landscapes, labor programs, and conservation projects continue to shape American public life and local communities.
The New Deal
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Classroom collection and timeline tracing the origins, major events, programs, and political context of the New Deal from the stock market crash through Roosevelt’s reform agenda.
Overview: Great Depression and World War II, 1929–1945
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Places the New Deal within the larger crisis of the Great Depression and the coming of World War II, describing Roosevelt’s first two terms as a period of hope, reform, and federal activism.
Great Depression and World War II, 1929–1945
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Timeline collection placing the New Deal between the 1929 crash and World War II, with primary sources on economic collapse, reform, labor, and recovery.
FDR’s First Inaugural Address
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Presents Roosevelt’s 1933 inaugural address, including the famous “fear itself” line and the crisis rhetoric that framed the opening of the New Deal.
Franklin Roosevelt’s First 100 Days
Article link | History.com Editors | HISTORY | n.d.
Explains the First Hundred Days as the rapid opening phase of New Deal lawmaking, when Congress passed sweeping emergency measures for banks, jobs, farms, and recovery.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Presidency
Article link | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum | FDR Library | n.d.
Overview of Roosevelt’s four-term presidency, including the New Deal’s central place in his response to economic crisis and his reshaping of American government.
Fireside Chats
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Explains Roosevelt’s radio addresses as a political tool for explaining New Deal policy, calming public fear, and building trust in federal action.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Explains the Federal Writers’ Project slave narrative collection, one of the most significant New Deal-era documentary projects and a major source for African American history.
The Brain Trust
Article link | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum | FDR Library | n.d.
Explains Roosevelt’s circle of academic and policy advisers who helped design New Deal responses to banking collapse, unemployment, agriculture, industry, and public welfare.
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Describes thousands of life histories gathered by WPA writers, preserving everyday voices from the Depression and creating a democratic archive of American experience.
Americans React to the Great Depression
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Provides background on the desperation that preceded the New Deal: bank failures, unemployment, homelessness, collapsing farms, and public pressure for federal relief.
Civil Rights, Women, Native Americans, and Inclusion
Company 818 and Segregation in the Civilian Conservation Corps
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | August 3, 2025
Examines racial segregation and Black enrollment in the CCC, showing how New Deal programs reflected both economic reform and the inequalities of 1930s America.
Civilian Conservation Corps
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | May 5, 2025
Describes the CCC as a New Deal work program for young men that built trails, parks, forests, firebreaks, roads, and conservation infrastructure across public lands.
Civilian Conservation Corps
Article link | National Park Service | Theodore Roosevelt National Park | January 27, 2025
Park-focused account of the CCC’s national impact, including employment for young men, forest management, flood control, and the development of parks and historic sites.
The Legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps at Cuyahoga Valley
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | September 26, 2024
Shows how CCC workers transformed worn-out farmland into park landscapes, leaving a durable conservation and recreation legacy visible in Cuyahoga Valley.
Family Experiences and New Deal Relief
Article link | John P. Deeben | Prologue Magazine / National Archives | October 2, 2023
Uses Federal Emergency Relief Administration correspondence to show how New Deal relief reached families, documented hardship, and connected local suffering to federal policy.
Civilian Conservation Corps Indian Division
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | n.d.
Explains the CCC Indian Division, which provided conservation jobs on Native lands and formed part of the broader Indian New Deal policy environment.
Women of the New Deal
Article link | Encyclopedia.com | Encyclopedia.com | n.d.
Explores the women appointed to New Deal agencies and advisory roles, showing how Frances Perkins, Eleanor Roosevelt, and other reformers expanded women’s influence in federal policy.
Records of the Works Progress Administration
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Research guide showing how WPA records document African American participation in New Deal work relief, public projects, and federal employment programs.
Mexican Americans and the New Deal
Article link | Library of Congress | Library of Congress | n.d.
Explains how Mexican Americans experienced the Depression through unemployment, deportations, discrimination, and limited access to New Deal protections and relief.
Mary McLeod Bethune and the National Youth Administration
Article link | National Women’s History Museum | National Women’s History Museum | n.d.
Biography of Mary McLeod Bethune, who helped shape New Deal policy for Black youth and became a leading African American adviser in Roosevelt’s administration.
John Collier and the Indian New Deal
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | n.d.
Explains John Collier’s role in the Indian New Deal and the shift from assimilation toward tribal self-government, cultural protection, and reform of federal Indian policy.
Frances Perkins Center: The Woman Behind the New Deal
Article link | Frances Perkins Center | Frances Perkins Center | n.d.
Biographical resource on Perkins’s role in shaping New Deal labor and social welfare policy, including unemployment insurance, Social Security, and workplace regulation.
Frances Perkins
Article link | U.S. Department of Labor | Department of Labor | n.d.
Biography of Frances Perkins, Roosevelt’s labor secretary and a key New Deal architect behind Social Security, labor standards, and worker protections.
Eleanor Roosevelt Biography
Article link | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum | FDR Library | n.d.
Biography explaining Eleanor Roosevelt’s role as advocate, observer, and political partner who visited New Deal projects and pushed attention to poverty, labor, youth, and civil rights.
Eleanor Roosevelt and Civil Rights
Article link | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum | FDR Library | n.d.
Explores Eleanor Roosevelt’s civil rights work during the New Deal era, including pressure on the administration to address racial discrimination and unequal access to federal programs.
American Indians and the New Deal
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Research guide connected to the Indian Reorganization Act, a major New Deal-era shift in federal Indian policy that promoted tribal self-government after allotment.
African Americans and the Civilian Conservation Corps
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Records guide showing Black participation and segregation in the CCC, highlighting how New Deal conservation jobs reflected broader racial inequalities.
African Americans and the New Deal
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Research guide on African Americans and New Deal records, documenting both opportunities in federal programs and discrimination within relief, labor, housing, and employment policy.
African Americans and the National Youth Administration
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | n.d.
Research guide on the NYA, which provided work and education opportunities for young people and became one of the New Deal programs with important Black leadership and participation.
The Black Cabinet
Article link | National Park Service | NPS | n.d.
Explains the informal network of African American advisers who pushed New Deal agencies to address Black unemployment, discrimination, education, and civil rights concerns.
Supreme Court, Opposition, and Political Debate
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
Article link | U.S. Department of Labor | Department of Labor | n.d.
Official overview of the law that established federal minimum wage, overtime pay, child labor protections, and labor standards as part of late New Deal reform.
West Coast Hotel v. Parrish
Article link | Oyez | Oyez / IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law | n.d.
Case summary of the 1937 decision upholding minimum wage regulation, often associated with the constitutional turning point that helped protect later New Deal reforms.
United States v. Butler
Article link | Oyez | Oyez / IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law | n.d.
Case summary of the decision invalidating the Agricultural Adjustment Act’s processing tax, showing how the Supreme Court challenged early New Deal farm policy.
The Wagner Act
Article link | National Labor Relations Board | NLRB | n.d.
Official history of the National Labor Relations Act, showing how the New Deal protected collective bargaining and created the NLRB to enforce workers’ rights.
The Townsend Plan
Article link | Social Security Administration | SSA | n.d.
Explains Francis Townsend’s old-age pension movement and how pressure for elder security helped shape the politics surrounding Social Security and the Second New Deal.
The Roosevelt Recession of 1937–1938
Article link | Federal Reserve History | Federal Reserve | n.d.
Explains the sharp downturn during Roosevelt’s second term, including fiscal tightening, monetary factors, unemployment, and debates over New Deal recovery policy.
The New Deal and the Supreme Court
Article link | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum | FDR Library | n.d.
Explains Roosevelt’s 1937 court-packing plan, Supreme Court resistance to early New Deal laws, and the constitutional struggle over federal economic regulation.
The New Deal Coalition
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Explains the political coalition of workers, immigrants, Catholics, Jews, African Americans, farmers, liberals, and Southern Democrats that supported New Deal politics for decades.
The Liberty League
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Describes conservative business opposition to the New Deal and fears that Roosevelt’s reforms expanded federal power too far into private enterprise.
Steward Machine Co. v. Davis
Article link | Oyez | Oyez / IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law | n.d.
Explains the decision upholding the unemployment compensation provisions of the Social Security Act, affirming federal-state cooperation in New Deal social insurance.
Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States
Article link | Oyez | Oyez / IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law | n.d.
Case summary of the Supreme Court decision striking down the National Industrial Recovery Act, a major constitutional defeat for the First New Deal.
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
Article link | Oyez | Oyez / IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law | n.d.
Explains the Supreme Court decision upholding the National Labor Relations Act, validating federal protection of union organizing and collective bargaining under the New Deal.
New Deal: Reform or Revolution?
Article link | Encyclopedia.com | Encyclopedia.com | n.d.
Examines historians’ debate over whether the New Deal was a reform movement that preserved capitalism or a more revolutionary transformation of American government and economic life.
National Labor Relations Act
Article link | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Britannica | n.d.
Explains the Wagner Act’s protection of union organizing and collective bargaining, a major Second New Deal reform that strengthened organized labor.
History of the National Labor Relations Board
Article link | National Labor Relations Board | NLRB | n.d.
NLRB history page tracing the New Deal origins of federal labor law, the Wagner Act, and the agency’s role in supervising elections and preventing unfair labor practices.
History of the Fair Labor Standards Act
Article link | U.S. Department of Labor | Department of Labor | n.d.
Historical account of the 1938 labor law, showing how the New Deal extended federal authority over wages, hours, and working conditions.
Huey Long and the New Deal
Article link | History.com Editors | HISTORY | n.d.
Covers Huey Long’s “Share Our Wealth” challenge to Roosevelt, showing how populist criticism from the left influenced New Deal politics.
Helvering v. Davis
Article link | Oyez | Oyez / IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law | n.d.
Case summary of the Supreme Court decision upholding Social Security’s old-age benefits provisions, securing one of the Second New Deal’s central reforms.
Father Coughlin
Article link | History.com Editors | HISTORY | n.d.
Explains Father Charles Coughlin’s radio movement and criticism of Roosevelt, showing how mass media and populist opposition shaped New Deal-era politics.
