Student Question
How did the New Deal in Give Me Liberty! chapter 21 redefine American freedom and affect women and minorities?
Quick answer:
The New Deal redefined American freedom by shifting its focus from wealth accumulation to economic security and welfare. Franklin D. Roosevelt's policies, introduced during the Great Depression, emphasized government protection to ensure a "right to make a comfortable living." However, the New Deal's benefits were not equally accessible to all, as programs like Social Security excluded many women and Black people, leaving these groups less able to secure the promised economic freedom.
The New Deal recast the meaning of American freedom because Franklin D. Roosevelt’s set of policies and programs made freedom about protection and welfare and not just amassing wealth.
At the start of chapter 21, Eric Foner writes, “Freedom, too, underwent a transformation during the 1930s.” The 1930s was the decade during which Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) implemented his package of policies, known as the New Deal, meant to counter the dire impact of the Great Depression. Before the Great Depression, Foner writes that many believed “social progress rest[ed] on the unrestrained pursuit of wealth.” Yet the Great Depression was more or less caused by such unregulated economic activity.
With millions of Americans jobless, homeless, and poor due to the radically free economic system, FDR, according to Foner, “elevated a public guarantee of economic security to the forefront of American discussions of freedom.” Freedom wasn’t just about the ability to spend money, make money, or invest money however one wanted, but now it was about the freedom that comes with knowing that, if bad things happen, the government will be there to help protect people and keep them afloat. As FDR said, every person has “a right to make a comfortable living.”
Yet the New Deal programs didn’t always apply to everyone. For example, Social Security left out domestic and agricultural workers, so women and Black people, to name two minority groups, had difficulty securing the new kind of freedom FDR promised.
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