1929–1936

The Great Depression had a cataclysmic effect on all areas of American life. Producing unprecedented suffering, the economic crisis posed a severe challenge to the prevailing view of the social responsibilities of government. Within a few years that view, which sharply limited the role of government, proved a dismal failure. Yet the fear that disillusioned Americans would turn to revolution on the left, or to dictatorship on the right, proved groundless. Most people favored more moderate change, and that is exactly what the New Deal provided. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first administration erected the foundations of a welfare state. New Deal policies concerning business, agriculture, conservation, labor, and welfare, while benefiting certain interest groups considerably more than others, nevertheless enabled the Democrats to fashion a new political coalition that dominated American politics for several decades.