The Second New Deal is a term used by historians to characterize the second stage, 1935–36, of the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

programs of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

. The most famous laws included the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, the Banking Act, the

National Labor Relations Act The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, is a foundational statute of United States labor law that guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, an ...

, the Public Utility Holding Company Act, the

Social Security Act The Social Security Act of 1935 is a law enacted by the 74th United States Congress and signed into law by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. The law created the Social Security (United States), Social Security program as ...

, and the Wealth Tax Act. In his address to Congress on 4 January 1935, Roosevelt called for five major goals: improved use of national resources, security against old age, unemployment and illness,

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

, and a national work relief program (the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

) to replace direct relief efforts. It included programs to redistribute wealth, income, and power in favor of the poor, the old, farmers and labor unions. The most important programs included

Social Security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...

, the National Labor Relations Act ("Wagner Act"), the Banking Act of 1935,

rural electrification Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity. As of 2019, 770 million ...

, and breaking up utility holding companies. The

undistributed profits tax The undistributed profits tax was enacted in 1936 by the United States administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), during the Great Depression. The UP tax was a revenue program for FDR's New Deal. The act was controversial even within ...

was only short-lived. After trying since 1920, millions of organized World War veterans demanded their bonus. They never convinced FDR but New Deal liberals in Congress passed the Bonus Bill of $1.5 to 3 million veterans over FDR's veto. Liberals strongly supported the new direction, and formed the long-term voter

New Deal Coalition The New Deal coalition was an American political coalition that supported the Democratic Party beginning in 1932. The coalition is named after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs, and the follow-up Democratic presidents. It was ...

of union members, big city machines, the white South, and ethnic minorities to support it. In reaction, conservatives—typified by the American Liberty League—were strongly opposed but not as well organized at the grass roots. Big business took the lead in opposition. Few liberal programs were enacted after 1936; liberals generally lost control of Congress in 1938. Old programs continued for a while. Many were ended during World War II because unemployment was no longer a problem. These included the WPA, NYA and the

Resettlement Administration The Resettlement Administration (RA) was a New Deal U.S. federal agency created May 1, 1935. It relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. On September 1, 1937, it was succeeded by the Farm S ...

. Social Security and the Wagner Act, however, survived. Most of the major laws had been under consideration by New Dealers for years. However, the increasing presence of agitators on the left, like Huey Long of Louisiana and

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author, muckraker journalist, and political activist, and the 1934 California gubernatorial election, 1934 Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

's failed gubernatorial campaign in California, may have forced Roosevelt's hand. Other historians point to the influence of millions of organized World War veterans who wanted their bonus money for being a good citizen.Stephen R. Ortiz, ''Beyond the Bonus March and GI Bill: how veteran politics shaped the New Deal era'' (NYU Press, 2010).

References

* Amenta, Edwin, Kathleen Dunleavy, and Mary Bernstein. "Stolen Thunder? Huey Long's 'Share Our Wealth', Political Mediation, and the Second New Deal." ''American Sociological Review'' (1994): 678–702. * Best, Gary Dean. "Stuart Chase and the Second New Deal." in ''Peddling Panaceas'' ( Routledge, 2017) pp. 145–168. * * Jeffries, John W. "A 'Third New Deal'? Liberal Policy and the American State, 1937–1945." ''Journal of Policy History'' 8.4 (1996): 387–409. * * Kennedy, David M. ''Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945'' (2001) * Leuchtenburg, William. ''Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal: 1932–1940'' (1963)
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* Marty, Frédéric, and Thierry Kirat. "The late emerging consensus among American economists on Antitrust laws in the second New Deal (1935–1941)." in ''The late emerging consensus among American economists on Antitrust laws in the second New Deal (1935–1941)'' (2021): 11–51
online
* Ortiz, Stephen R. ''Beyond the Bonus March and GI Bill: how veteran politics shaped the New Deal era'' (NYU Press, 2010). * . * Phillips-Fein, Kim. ''Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal'' (2010
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* Schlesinger Jr., Arthur Meier. ''The Politics of Upheaval: 1935–1936'' (The Age of Roosevelt, Volume III) (1959)
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{{New Deal, state=expanded New Deal United States economic policy United States presidential domestic programs

See also

References

Further reading