The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (12 May 1933). Granted 500 million dollars to states under Harry Hopkins (a former social worker from Iowa). FERA worked through state and local agencies, the constraint that had hobbled Hoover.

What is the Emergency Banking Act?

Passed in eight hours, it authorised the Treasury to inspect banks and reopen sound ones, made hoarding of gold illegal, and gave the Federal Reserve power to issue currency on bank assets.

What is the first fireside chat?

Roosevelt explained on radio (around 60 million listeners) what depositors should expect. Banks reopened on 13 March; by 15 March around 75 per cent of Federal Reserve member banks were operating with public confidence restored.

What is the Securities Act?

Imposed federal disclosure on new securities issues. The Securities Exchange Act (6 June 1934) created the Securities and Exchange Commission and regulated trading.

What is the Glass-Steagall Banking Act?

Separated commercial banking from investment banking and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, insuring deposits up to 2,500 dollars (raised to 5,000 in 1934).

What is the Federal Emergency Relief Administration?

Granted 500 million dollars to states under Harry Hopkins (a former social worker from Iowa). FERA worked through state and local agencies, the constraint that had hobbled Hoover.

What are the Civilian Conservation Corps?

Employed young unmarried men (initially 18 to 25) on reforestation, parks, soil conservation, and flood control. The men lived in army camps, received 30 dollars a month (25 sent home to families), and worked under the Army's logistics direction. Around 3 million served over the CCC's life (1933 to 1942); they planted around 3 billion trees.

What is the Civil Works Administration?

Hopkins's emergency winter program employed around 4 million Americans on short-term public projects between November 1933 and March 1934. Schools, airports, and roads were built.

What is the Tennessee Valley Authority?

A federal corporation building dams, generating power, controlling floods, and electrifying rural homes across seven states (Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia) in the Tennessee River basin. By 1945 it operated around 16 dams and generated more electricity than any private utility. It was the New Deal's clearest regional planning success.

What is the Home Owners' Loan Corporation?

Refinanced around 1 million home mortgages between 1933 and 1936, with around 3 billion dollars in loans, preventing mass foreclosure. The HOLC also originated the practice of "redlining" Black neighbourhoods.

What is the Twenty-first Amendment?

Repealed Prohibition. The Cullen-Harrison Act (22 March 1933, in effect 7 April 1933) had re-legalised 3.2 per cent beer.

NESA Practice (NESA)-style practice: Assess the success of the First New Deal in addressing the Great Depression.

A 15-mark "assess" needs a judgement plus three or four developed strands. **Thesis.** The First New Deal restored confidence and prevented the collapse of the banking system, but its recovery measures were uneven, contradictory, and economically modest. The political and psychological achievement was greater than the economic one. **Banking and confidence.** Roosevelt took office on 4 March 1933 in the middle of a national banking crisis. The Emergency Banking Act (9 March) authorised the Treasury to inspect and reopen sound banks. The first fireside chat (12 March) explained the reopening. By 15 March around 75 per cent of Federal Reserve member banks had reopened. The Securities Act (27 May 1933) created federal disclosure rules. The Glass-Steagall Act (16 June 1933) separated commercial and investment banking and created the FDIC (deposits insured to 2,500 dollars). The dollar was taken off gold on 5 April 1933 (Executive Order 6102) and devalued to 35 dollars an ounce in January 1934. **Relief.** The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (12 May 1933) granted around 500 million dollars to states under Harry Hopkins. The Civilian Conservation Corps (31 March 1933) employed around 3 million young men over its life on reforestation and parks. The Civil Works Administration (November 1933) employed 4 million through the winter of 1933 to 1934. **Recovery.** The Agricultural Adjustment Act (12 May 1933) paid farmers to cut production; processing taxes funded the payments. Around 6 million piglets and around 10 million acres of cotton were destroyed in 1933. The National Industrial Recovery Act (16 June 1933) created the NRA under Hugh Johnson, with industry codes covering around 22 million workers, and the PWA under Harold Ickes with 3.3 billion dollars for major public works.

§-Syllabus dot point

NSWModern HistorySyllabus dot point

What did Roosevelt achieve in the First Hundred Days and what did the First New Deal try to do?

Roosevelt and the First New Deal, including the Hundred Days, banking reform, relief programs, and the recovery agencies

A focused answer to the HSC Modern History dot point on Roosevelt's First Hundred Days and the First New Deal. The Emergency Banking Act, fireside chats, the AAA, NRA, CCC, TVA, PWA, FDIC, going off gold, the alphabet agencies, and the historiographical debate over the New Deal's coherence.

Generated by Claude Opus 4.810 min answerUpdated 2026-06-28

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What this dot point is asking

NESA expects you to give an integrated account of the First Hundred Days of the Roosevelt administration and to weigh the economic and political achievements of the First New Deal. Strong answers integrate the banking emergency, the relief programs, the recovery agencies (AAA, NRA), the structural reforms (FDIC, SEC, TVA), and the historiographical debate over coherence and effectiveness.

In plain English

When Roosevelt became president in March 1933, the United States was in freefall. One worker in four had no job, and the banks had stopped working - people were so scared their savings would vanish that they queued to pull cash out, which made banks fail even faster. It was a bank run, the same kind of panic you see when a rumour spreads that a shop is about to close and everyone rushes the doors at once.

FDR's first move was to shut every bank, check which ones were actually sound, and reopen only those. Then he went on the radio and, in plain words, told people their money was now safe - and they believed him and put the cash back. In his first hundred days in office his government fired out a blizzard of new agencies, each known by its initials (the "alphabet agencies"). Think of three buckets: help people in trouble right now (the CCC gave young men jobs planting trees), restart the economy (pay farmers and factories to fix prices), and rebuild the rules so it never happens again (insure people's bank deposits, dam the Tennessee River for cheap power). It was messy and some of the schemes even cancelled each other out, but the country went from terror to hope almost overnight.

The answer

The inauguration

Roosevelt was inaugurated on 4 March 1933. (The Twentieth Amendment, ratified 23 January 1933, moved the inauguration to 20 January from 1937 onwards.) The economy was at the bottom. Unemployment was around 25 per cent. Banks in every state had been closed by emergency proclamation. Industrial production was around 54 per cent below its 1929 peak.

The inaugural address asserted that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" and signalled that "broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency" would be requested.

Congress was overwhelmingly Democratic (59 to 36 in the Senate, 313 to 117 in the House) and willing to delegate. The First Hundred Days (9 March to 16 June 1933) saw 15 major Acts passed in 100 days, the most concentrated burst of legislation in American history.

Banking and finance

The Emergency Banking Act (9 March 1933): Passed in eight hours, it authorised the Treasury to inspect banks and reopen sound ones, made hoarding of gold illegal, and gave the Federal Reserve power to issue currency on bank assets.
The first fireside chat (12 March 1933, "On the Banking Crisis"): Roosevelt explained on radio (around 60 million listeners) what depositors should expect. Banks reopened on 13 March; by 15 March around 75 per cent of Federal Reserve member banks were operating with public confidence restored.
The Securities Act (27 May 1933): Imposed federal disclosure on new securities issues. The Securities Exchange Act (6 June 1934) created the Securities and Exchange Commission and regulated trading.
The Glass-Steagall Banking Act (16 June 1933): Separated commercial banking from investment banking and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, insuring deposits up to 2,500 dollars (raised to 5,000 in 1934).
Going off gold: Executive Order 6102 (5 April 1933) banned private holding of gold above 100 dollars in value. The Gold Reserve Act (30 January 1934) devalued the dollar to 35 dollars per ounce, from 20.67. The devaluation increased the dollar value of the gold stock and gave the Treasury room to expand the money supply.

Relief

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (12 May 1933): Granted 500 million dollars to states under Harry Hopkins (a former social worker from Iowa). FERA worked through state and local agencies, the constraint that had hobbled Hoover.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (31 March 1933): Employed young unmarried men (initially 18 to 25) on reforestation, parks, soil conservation, and flood control. The men lived in army camps, received 30 dollars a month (25 sent home to families), and worked under the Army's logistics direction. Around 3 million served over the CCC's life (1933 to 1942); they planted around 3 billion trees.
The Civil Works Administration (8 November 1933): Hopkins's emergency winter program employed around 4 million Americans on short-term public projects between November 1933 and March 1934. Schools, airports, and roads were built.

Recovery

The Agricultural Adjustment Act (12 May 1933). Paid farmers to reduce production of seven major commodities (wheat, corn, cotton, rice, tobacco, hogs, dairy). The payments were funded by a processing tax on the same commodities. Crop destruction in 1933 (around 10 million acres of cotton, around 6 million piglets) was politically toxic but raised farm prices around 50 per cent by 1936. The Supreme Court struck down the AAA in United States v. Butler (6 January 1936) on the ground that the processing tax was unconstitutional; the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act (1936) and the second AAA (1938) replaced it.

The National Industrial Recovery Act (16 June 1933). Created the National Recovery Administration under General Hugh Johnson. Industries drew up codes of fair competition setting minimum wages, maximum hours, and price stabilisation. Around 22 million workers were covered by 1934. The Blue Eagle ("we do our part") symbolised participating businesses. Section 7(a) guaranteed collective bargaining, the New Deal's first opening to unions.

The Public Works Administration under Interior Secretary Harold Ickes was funded by Title II of the NIRA with 3.3 billion dollars (about 6 per cent of GDP), eventually building around 34,000 projects including Grand Coulee Dam, the Triborough Bridge, and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.

The NRA was found unconstitutional in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (27 May 1935) for excessive delegation of legislative power and for federal regulation of intrastate commerce.

Reform

The Tennessee Valley Authority (18 May 1933): A federal corporation building dams, generating power, controlling floods, and electrifying rural homes across seven states (Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia) in the Tennessee River basin. By 1945 it operated around 16 dams and generated more electricity than any private utility. It was the New Deal's clearest regional planning success.
The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (13 June 1933): Refinanced around 1 million home mortgages between 1933 and 1936, with around 3 billion dollars in loans, preventing mass foreclosure. The HOLC also originated the practice of "redlining" Black neighbourhoods.
The Twenty-first Amendment (5 December 1933): Repealed Prohibition. The Cullen-Harrison Act (22 March 1933, in effect 7 April 1933) had re-legalised 3.2 per cent beer.

The alphabet agencies at a glance

The agencies of the First New Deal are easiest to hold in mind grouped by their purpose - the "three Rs" of Relief, Recovery and Reform.

The brain trust

Roosevelt drew on a cabinet of academics and lawyers without precedent in American government. The "Brains Trust" included Columbia University law professor Raymond Moley, agricultural economist Rexford Tugwell, and lawyer Adolf Berle. Key administrators included:

Harry Hopkins (FERA, CWA, WPA, eventually Secretary of Commerce).
Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, the first woman in a Presidential cabinet.
Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior and head of the PWA.
Henry Morgenthau, Secretary of the Treasury from January 1934.
Henry Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture.

The economic record

Unemployment fell from around 25 per cent (1933) to around 14 per cent (1937). Real GDP rose around 36 per cent from 1933 to 1937. Industrial production regained its 1929 level by 1937. Farm prices rose around 50 per cent from 1933 to 1936.

The recovery was incomplete (unemployment never fell below 14 per cent in the 1930s) and was partly reversed by the "Roosevelt recession" of 1937 to 1938, when Roosevelt and Morgenthau cut spending and the Federal Reserve doubled reserve requirements in an attempt to return to budget balance.

Historiography

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (The Age of Roosevelt, 3 vols, 1957 to 1960) is the founding liberal interpretation; treats the Hundred Days as the birth of modern American government.

Anthony Badger (The New Deal, 1989) is the standard British synthesis.

David Kennedy (Freedom from Fear, 1999) is the Pulitzer-winning narrative.

Alan Brinkley (The End of Reform, 1995) divides the First and Second New Deals and tracks the move from planning to compensation.

Jim Powell (FDR's Folly, 2003) is the major libertarian critique, arguing the New Deal prolonged the slump.

Model exam responses

A. Source response (5 marks). Source: a 1933 NRA poster showing the Blue Eagle emblem above the slogan "we do our part." Assess its usefulness for a historian studying the recovery aims of the First New Deal.

The poster is official government propaganda from 1933, produced by the National Recovery Administration to publicise the industry codes created under the NIRA (16 June 1933), so its purpose is persuasion rather than record. That makes it highly useful as evidence of the recovery STRATEGY: the Blue Eagle was displayed by businesses agreeing to NRA codes on minimum wages, maximum hours and price stabilisation, and the "we do our part" slogan reveals the New Deal's reliance on voluntary cooperation and patriotic appeal rather than compulsion. It is far less useful for measuring whether recovery actually worked - the NRA covered around 22 million workers but was criticised for favouring big business and was struck down in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (27 May 1935). Read critically, the poster is strong evidence for how the regime wanted recovery to be seen and weak on the codes' real economic results.

Marker's note: a top response states origin and purpose, separates what the source is useful FOR (the cooperative recovery strategy and its imagery) from what it cannot show (the limited results and the 1935 ruling), anchors this in specific own knowledge, and ends in a judgement rather than describing the poster.

B. Essay paragraph (from a 25-mark response on whether the First New Deal's achievements were chiefly political and psychological).

The banking rescue shows that the First New Deal's first achievement was confidence rather than output. Roosevelt took office on 4 March 1933 with banks closed in every state, then drove the Emergency Banking Act through Congress in about eight hours on 9 March, empowering the Treasury to reopen only sound banks. His first fireside chat on 12 March explained the reopening in plain language to around 60 million radio listeners, and the panic broke almost at once - by 15 March roughly 75 per cent of Federal Reserve member banks had reopened and deposits soon exceeded withdrawals. Glass-Steagall (16 June 1933) then made the recovery durable by creating the FDIC and insuring deposits up to 2,500 dollars. As David Kennedy argues in Freedom from Fear (1999), security was the New Deal's deepest gift; the banking sequence proves that the turning of public mood preceded, and made possible, any turning of the economy.

Marker's note: the paragraph argues a single proposition (the psychological achievement of restored confidence), supports it with dated specifics and figures, and uses a named historian to drive the judgement rather than to decorate it. Sustained argument plus evidence plus historiography is what lifts a paragraph into Band 6.

Command words and weaving historiography

Read the verb first. "Assess the success / Evaluate / To what extent" want a JUDGEMENT defending a thesis, not a story of agencies - rank the achievements (banking vs relief vs recovery vs reform) and weigh political against economic. "Assess the usefulness/reliability" of a source wants ORIGIN, MOTIVE and PERSPECTIVE, then a verdict; with New Deal posters always ask whether you are reading the strategy and image or the actual results. A clean structure is the three Rs - Relief, Recovery, Reform - which lets you organise any New Deal answer fast. Weave historians as a clash, not a list: pit the confidence-and-state-building reading (Schlesinger, Kennedy) against the limits-of-coherence reading (Brinkley) and the libertarian critique (Powell), then say which carries more weight and why. One historian used in genuine tension beats five name-dropped.

In one sentence

Roosevelt's First Hundred Days (4 March to 16 June 1933) restored banking confidence (Emergency Banking Act of 9 March, first fireside chat of 12 March, Glass-Steagall and the FDIC of 16 June), launched relief (FERA, CCC, and from November 1933 the CWA under Harry Hopkins), attempted recovery through the AAA (12 May 1933) and the NRA (16 June 1933, struck down in May 1935), and built structural reform through the TVA (18 May 1933), the SEC (1934), and the HOLC, achieving a substantial psychological recovery and unemployment back to around 14 per cent by 1937 while leaving the deeper economic problem only partly solved.

Examples in context

Example 1. The Emergency Banking Act (9 March 1933). Passed in eight hours, the Act ratified FDR's 6 March bank holiday and structured reopening. The first Fireside Chat (12 March) calmed depositors; deposits exceeded withdrawals by USD 1.2 billion in the week after reopening. David M. Kennedy (Freedom from Fear, 1999) and Ira Katznelson (Fear Itself, 2013) document the speed.

Example 2. The NIRA, AAA, and TVA (May to June 1933). The National Industrial Recovery Act created the NRA Blue Eagle; the Agricultural Adjustment Act paid farmers to limit production; the Tennessee Valley Authority created the first regional development agency. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (May 1935) struck down the NIRA. Kennedy and Anthony Badger (FDR: The First Hundred Days, 2008) integrate the policy and political dimensions.

Try this

Q1. Source A is FDR's first Fireside Chat (12 March 1933). Using Source A and your own knowledge, explain the legislative achievements of the First Hundred Days. [5 marks]

What the marker wants. Identify Emergency Banking Act, NIRA, AAA, TVA; cite alphabet-agency scale.

Q2. Evaluate the extent to which the First Hundred Days established the foundations of the modern American state. [25 marks]

What the marker wants. Weigh banking, agriculture, industry, and regional development; use Kennedy, Katznelson, Badger.

Q3. Compare the views of David Kennedy and Ira Katznelson on the First Hundred Days. [10 marks]

What the marker wants. Kennedy (transformative federal expansion) versus Katznelson (constrained by southern Democratic veto, exclusion of African Americans from key programmes); judgement.

Exam-style practice questions

Practice questions written in the style of NESA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.

Practice (NESA)15 marksAssess the success of the First New Deal in addressing the Great Depression.

Show worked answer →

A 15-mark "assess" needs a judgement plus three or four developed strands.

Thesis: The First New Deal restored confidence and prevented the collapse of the banking system, but its recovery measures were uneven, contradictory, and economically modest. The political and psychological achievement was greater than the economic one.
Banking and confidence: Roosevelt took office on 4 March 1933 in the middle of a national banking crisis. The Emergency Banking Act (9 March) authorised the Treasury to inspect and reopen sound banks. The first fireside chat (12 March) explained the reopening. By 15 March around 75 per cent of Federal Reserve member banks had reopened. The Securities Act (27 May 1933) created federal disclosure rules. The Glass-Steagall Act (16 June 1933) separated commercial and investment banking and created the FDIC (deposits insured to 2,500 dollars). The dollar was taken off gold on 5 April 1933 (Executive Order 6102) and devalued to 35 dollars an ounce in January 1934.
Relief: The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (12 May 1933) granted around 500 million dollars to states under Harry Hopkins. The Civilian Conservation Corps (31 March 1933) employed around 3 million young men over its life on reforestation and parks. The Civil Works Administration (November 1933) employed 4 million through the winter of 1933 to 1934.
Recovery: The Agricultural Adjustment Act (12 May 1933) paid farmers to cut production; processing taxes funded the payments. Around 6 million piglets and around 10 million acres of cotton were destroyed in 1933. The National Industrial Recovery Act (16 June 1933) created the NRA under Hugh Johnson, with industry codes covering around 22 million workers, and the PWA under Harold Ickes with 3.3 billion dollars for major public works.

Practice questions

Original practice questions graded from foundation to exam level, each with a full worked solution. Try them before revealing the solution.

foundation3 marksOutline the banking measures Roosevelt took in the Hundred Days to restore confidence.

Show worked solution →

A 3-mark "outline" wants three distinct, correctly dated measures, each in a sentence.

The Emergency Banking Act (9 March 1933): Passed in about eight hours, it let the Treasury inspect banks and reopen the sound ones, ending the panic of withdrawals.
The first fireside chat (12 March 1933): FDR explained the reopening by radio to around 60 million listeners; by 15 March around 75 per cent of member banks had reopened.
Glass-Steagall and the FDIC (16 June 1933): The Act separated commercial from investment banking and insured deposits up to 2,500 dollars, so a bank failure no longer wiped out savers.
Marking criteria: 1 mark each for three distinct, correctly dated measures; do not simply narrate the inauguration.

foundation4 marksExplain the difference between the Relief, Recovery and Reform aims of the First New Deal, naming an agency for each.

Show worked solution →

A 4-mark "explain" needs the three aims distinguished and anchored in named agencies.

Relief: Immediate help to the unemployed and destitute. The Civilian Conservation Corps (31 March 1933) and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (12 May 1933) under Harry Hopkins delivered work and grants.
Recovery: Restarting production and raising prices. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (12 May 1933) paid farmers to cut output, and the National Industrial Recovery Act (16 June 1933) set industry codes through the NRA.
Reform: Structural change to prevent another collapse. The FDIC (Glass-Steagall, 16 June 1933) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (18 May 1933) reshaped banking and regional planning.
Marking criteria: 1 mark for each aim correctly defined with a named agency; 1 mark for showing the three aims are distinct (immediate help vs restarting the economy vs preventing a repeat).

core5 marksSource A (paraphrased, owned): In his first fireside chat on 12 March 1933, Roosevelt told listeners by radio that it was safer to keep their money in a reopened bank than under the mattress, and asked the public to have faith and not rush to withdraw their deposits. Using Source A and your own knowledge, explain how Roosevelt restored confidence in the banking system in 1933. [5 marks]

Show worked solution →

A 5-mark "explain ... using the source" wants the source decoded, then linked to own knowledge.

Decode the source: The 12 March fireside chat was a deliberate act of reassurance: by speaking plainly to around 60 million radio listeners, Roosevelt converted a banking panic into renewed trust, asking depositors to return their money rather than hoard it.
What underpinned the words (own knowledge): The Emergency Banking Act (9 March 1933) let the Treasury inspect and reopen only sound banks, so FDR's reassurance was credible. Banks reopened on 13 March and by 15 March around 75 per cent of Federal Reserve member banks were operating; deposits soon exceeded withdrawals.
The lasting reform: Glass-Steagall (16 June 1933) created the FDIC, insuring deposits up to 2,500 dollars, so confidence rested on guarantee rather than rhetoric alone.
Marking criteria: 1 mark for reading the source as an act of reassurance to the public; 1-2 marks for own knowledge of the Emergency Banking Act and the reopening figures; 1 mark for the FDIC as durable reform; 1 mark for linking words and policy to restored confidence.

core5 marksSource B (paraphrased, owned): A later historian argues that the Hundred Days created not a single coherent plan but a tangle of improvised and sometimes contradictory agencies - paying farmers to grow less while paying industry to produce more - whose real achievement was psychological rather than economic. Using Source B and your own knowledge, assess the usefulness of this interpretation for understanding the First New Deal. [5 marks]

Show worked solution →

A 5-mark "assess the usefulness" question rewards origin/perspective plus own knowledge, ending in a judgement.

Perspective: Source B is a sceptical historian's view (close to Alan Brinkley and the critics of New Deal coherence) that stresses improvisation over design - useful because it corrects the myth of the Hundred Days as a single master plan.
Corroboration from own knowledge: It fits the record: the AAA (12 May 1933) cut farm output while the NRA (16 June 1933) pushed industrial production, and both were later ruled unconstitutional (Schechter 1935, Butler 1936). The psychological achievement was real - the fireside chats and the reopening of banks restored confidence faster than the economy recovered.
Limitation: By stressing incoherence it can understate genuine structural reforms that did endure: the FDIC, the SEC (1934) and the TVA outlasted the contradictory recovery agencies.
Judgement: Highly useful for puncturing the master-plan myth and foregrounding the psychological win, but it must be read alongside the lasting reforms that show the Hundred Days were more than improvisation.
Marking criteria: 1 mark for identifying the sceptical perspective; 1-2 marks for own knowledge corroborating the contradictions (AAA vs NRA, the court rulings); 1 mark for a limitation (the durable reforms); 1 mark for a judgement on usefulness.

exam25 marksTo what extent were the achievements of the First New Deal political and psychological rather than economic?

Show worked solution →

This is an extended-response/essay. Markers reward a sustained, evidence-based argument that addresses the question directly and weaves in historiography - not a narrative.

Band-6 PLAN

Thesis. The First New Deal's greatest achievement was political and psychological - it restored confidence, legitimised the activist federal state and saved the banking system - while its economic recovery was real but partial, uneven and at times self-contradictory. The change in mood and in the role of government outran the change in the numbers.
Argument 1 - The political and psychological achievement (its real weight). The banking rescue and the fireside chats turned panic into trust. Evidence: the Emergency Banking Act (9 March 1933), the first fireside chat (12 March, around 60 million listeners), and around 75 per cent of member banks reopened by 15 March. The New Deal also redefined the citizen's relationship to Washington.
Argument 2 - The economic record was real but limited. Recovery happened but never finished. Evidence: unemployment fell from around 25 per cent (1933) to around 14 per cent (1937) but no lower; real GDP rose around 36 per cent from 1933 to 1937; the "Roosevelt recession" of 1937 to 1938 reversed much of the gain.
Argument 3 - The recovery agencies were contradictory and contested. The AAA paid farmers to grow less while the NRA pushed industry to produce more; both were struck down (Schechter, 27 May 1935; Butler, 6 January 1936). The durable wins were the reforms (FDIC, SEC, TVA), not the recovery programs.
Historiography. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (The Age of Roosevelt, 1957 to 1960) treats the Hundred Days as the heroic birth of modern American government; David Kennedy (Freedom from Fear, 1999) stresses security and confidence as the central achievement; Alan Brinkley (The End of Reform, 1995) tracks the shift from planning to compensation and the limits of coherence; Jim Powell (FDR's Folly, 2003) argues from the libertarian right that the New Deal prolonged the slump.
Judgement. Weigh the confidence-and-state-building case (Schlesinger, Kennedy) against the economic-limits case (Brinkley, Powell): the political and psychological transformation was decisive and lasting, the economic recovery genuine but incomplete. The achievement was greater in mood and machinery of government than in output.

MODEL PARAGRAPH (Argument 1)

The clearest achievement of the Hundred Days was psychological: Roosevelt restored confidence faster than he restored the economy. Taking office on 4 March 1933 amid a national banking collapse, he pushed the Emergency Banking Act through Congress in about eight hours on 9 March, letting the Treasury reopen only sound banks, and then explained the reopening directly to around 60 million radio listeners in his first fireside chat on 12 March. The effect was immediate - by 15 March roughly 75 per cent of Federal Reserve member banks had reopened, and deposits soon exceeded withdrawals as Americans carried their hoarded cash back to the counter. No new factories had been built and no unemployed worker yet rehired, yet the panic was broken. As David Kennedy argues in Freedom from Fear, the New Deal's deepest gift was a restored sense of security; the banking rescue shows that the turning of public mood, not the turning of the economic cycle, was the Hundred Days' first and most durable success.

Marker's note. A band-6 response keeps "to what extent" in view throughout - ranking the political and psychological achievement against the economic record rather than describing each in turn - anchors every claim in dated evidence, sets at least two historians in genuine tension (confidence and state-building vs the limits of recovery), and reaches a graded judgement. Narrating the agencies without weighing political against economic achievement caps the response in the middle bands.

exam25 marksAssess the view that the First New Deal lacked a coherent plan.

Show worked solution →

This is an extended-response/essay. Markers reward a sustained, evidence-based argument that addresses the question directly and weaves in historiography - not a narrative.

Band-6 PLAN

Thesis. The First New Deal lacked a single master plan but was not incoherent: it was held together by the consistent logic of Relief, Recovery and Reform and by FDR's pragmatic willingness to "try something" - so the charge of incoherence is half right, capturing the improvisation and contradiction but missing the underlying purpose.
Argument 1 - The case FOR incoherence. Agencies pulled in opposite directions and were hastily drafted. Evidence: the AAA (12 May 1933) paid farmers to cut output while the NRA (16 June 1933) drove industrial production up; the NIRA was so loosely framed it was struck down for excessive delegation in Schechter (27 May 1935).
Argument 2 - The case AGAINST: a coherent framework of Relief, Recovery, Reform. The legislation maps cleanly onto three aims - Relief (CCC, FERA, CWA), Recovery (AAA, NRA) and Reform (FDIC, SEC, TVA). The banking sequence alone (Emergency Banking Act, Glass-Steagall, going off gold) was a deliberate, staged rescue, not random activity.
Argument 3 - Pragmatism as a unifying principle. FDR himself called for "bold, persistent experimentation," and the Brains Trust (Moley, Tugwell, Berle) supplied competing blueprints by design. The plan was to experiment; contradiction was the price of speed in a genuine emergency.
Historiography. Alan Brinkley (The End of Reform, 1995) stresses the shift from planning to compensation and the limits of coherence; Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (The Age of Roosevelt, 1957 to 1960) reads the Hundred Days as purposeful state-building; David Kennedy (Freedom from Fear, 1999) emphasises pragmatic improvisation toward security; Jim Powell (FDR's Folly, 2003) treats the contradictions as proof the program did harm.
Judgement. Weigh the contradiction case (Brinkley, Powell) against the framework-and-pragmatism case (Schlesinger, Kennedy): the First New Deal lacked a blueprint but not a purpose. The verdict is "improvised, not incoherent."

MODEL PARAGRAPH (Argument 2)

Beneath the apparent chaos, the First New Deal followed a recognisable framework of Relief, Recovery and Reform. Relief came first and fastest - the Civilian Conservation Corps (31 March 1933) and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (12 May 1933) under Harry Hopkins put money and work into the hands of the destitute. Recovery followed through the Agricultural Adjustment Act (12 May 1933) and the National Industrial Recovery Act (16 June 1933), which tried, however clumsily, to raise farm and factory prices. Reform came last and lasted longest: the FDIC created by Glass-Steagall (16 June 1933), the Securities and Exchange Commission (1934) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (18 May 1933) rebuilt the structures whose failure had caused the crash. The banking rescue in particular - the Emergency Banking Act, the fireside chat, then permanent deposit insurance - was a staged, deliberate sequence, not improvisation. As Schlesinger argues, the Hundred Days represented purposeful state-building; the contradictions between agencies are real, but they sit inside a clear three-part design rather than replacing it.

Marker's note. A band-6 response keeps "assess the view" in view - testing the incoherence claim rather than simply describing the agencies - anchors every claim in dated evidence, sets at least two historians in genuine tension (the limits of coherence vs purposeful design), and reaches a graded judgement. Listing the alphabet agencies without weighing coherence against contradiction caps the response in the middle bands.