The+Third+American+Revolution

AVG – In “The Third American Revolution,” Carl N. Degler argues that Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal was such a radical departure from previous ideas that, like the Civil War and the war for independence, it should be considered one of America’s revolutions. As a result of the Depression, Degler argues that Americans suddenly abandoned traditional laissez-faire economics, and the government’s programs such as the Tennessee Valley Authority and Social Security intertwined government policies with individuals’ lives.

In contrast, Ronald Radosh questions this interpretation in “The Myth of the New Deal” and instead asserts that the New Deal was fundamentally conservative. Radosh argues that legislation such as the Social Security Act reflected businesses’ desire to avoid more radical programs. Similarly, the NRA’s support of industrial unions was actually favored by corporations who preferred negotiating with the industrial unions than with the craft unions that were previously dominant.

However, by Radosh’s own definition, “[r]evolution means a substantive fundamental change in the existing social structure” (361). By this definition, the New Deal could still be considered revolutionary even if supported by the powerful classes, just as the Founding Fathers were wealthier than most of their contemporaries. Prior to the Great Depression, the government offered no support to Americans no matter how dire their situation; only a few years before the New Deal, Calvin Coolidge repealed the McNary-Haugen bill twice to deny government relief to impoverished farmers. Such government apathy is a stark contrast to both Social Security’s care for those incapable of working (due to either age or disability) and FDR’s insistence on providing government jobs for the millions of unemployed. Because these policies were never instituted before and have endured to the present day, the social structure and perception of government drastically and permanently changed as a result of the New Deal, so these changes should be considered revolutionary.

SFH- America is known for having two major Revolutions in it's history yet the 1930's presented another less known revolution for America. The Great Depression was a culmination of the social, economic, and political forces of industrialization and urbanization that had been transforming the nation since 1865. No other economic collapse has brought so many Americans so near to starvation, had the potential overturned the basic institution of American life, or lasted as long. Carl N. Degler's article //The Third American Revolution// asserts starvation rates, abandonment of laissez faire, Americans revision of political preferences, change in the position and power of labor, are more than enough to qualify the years of and following the Great Depression as a revolution in America. Perhaps one of the most striking changes in American thought was the role which the government should play in the economy. Seeking change and reform in response to the Great Depression, Americans abandoned the laissez faire ideology and fully accepted and encouraged an increased role of government in the economy. America was founded on the principals of lack of governmental influence in the economy, but the gravity of the Great Depression instilled major change in American life. In passing through the abyss of the Great Depression Americans discarded more than their conventional economics, they revised their political preferences. Although the era was littered with dramatic political ideologies from individuals such as Huey Long, Francis Townsend, and Father Charles Coughlin, none of these men were as successful as Roosevelt, who rose the democratic party to a predominant place in American political life. The ordeal of the Great Depression purged the American people of the idea of limited power of federal government, and convinced the public of the necessity of the power of the state. The decade of the 1930's represents a time from which there was no going back, and this kind of change surly deserves the title of a revolution.

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