Mad Magazine Alfred E. Neuman Pre-MAD Magazine card SCARCE ROOSEVELT NEW DEAL
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Mad Magazine Alfred E. Neuman Pre-MAD Magazine card SCARCE ROOSEVELT NEW DEAL. Historical reputation. Great Depression. Year Lebergott Darby. See also: Alphabet agencies. Roanoke, Virginia HOLC redlining map. World War II. Credited to "Kurtzman with Looey", suggesting Ferstadt handled the inking. Pre-MAD Magazine / Alfred E. Neuman "Sure I'm For The New Deal" Here's a super cool piece of Alfred E. Neuman memorabilia. Produced in the FDR-era 1930's, this is an early print of MAD Magazine's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman. For this piece, Alfred is promoting FDR's, New Deal, a series of programs and public works projects that were created to combat the effects of the Great Depression. Measuring approx. 4 5/8" by 7", this illustration is extremely rare. This item has hole punches in each corner and creases and small tears upper left and corners and is in fair shape. It is still in good display condition, and would look wonderful framed. On thick postcard like stock (not newspaper stock) Alfred E. Neuman is the fictitious mascot and cover boy of the American humor magazine Mad. The character's distinct smiling face, parted red hair, gap-tooth smile, freckles, protruding ears, and scrawny body first emerged in U.S. iconography decades prior to his association with the magazine, appearing in late 19th-century advertisements for painless dentistry – the origin of his "What, me worry?" motto. The magazine's editor, Harvey Kurtzman, claimed the character in 1954, and he was named "Alfred E. Neuman" by Mad's second editor, Al Feldstein, in 1956. Since his debut in Mad, Neuman's likeness has appeared on the cover of all but a handful of the magazine's over 550 issues. Rarely seen in profile, Neuman has almost always been recognizable in front view, silhouette, or directly from behind.[1] History Discovery Harvey Kurtzman first spotted the image on a postcard pinned to the office bulletin board of Ballantine Books editor Bernard Shir-Cliff. "It was a face that didn't have a care in the world, except mischief", recalled Kurtzman. Shir-Cliff was later a contributor to various magazines created by Kurtzman.[2] Mad debut In November 1954, Neuman made his Mad debut on the front cover of Ballantine's The Mad Reader, a paperback collection of reprints from the first two years of Mad. The character's first appearance in the comic book was on the cover of Mad #21 (March 1955), in a tiny image as part of a mock advertisement. A rubber mask bearing his likeness with "idiot" written underneath was offered for $1.29 (equivalent to $14 in 2022). First cover appearance of Neuman, on Mad #21 (third from viewer's left of the six faces approx. 40% down the viewer's-right side) Mad switched to a magazine format starting with issue #24, and Neuman's face appeared in the top, central position of the illustrated border used on the covers, with his now-familiar signature phrase "What, me worry?" written underneath. Initially, the phrase was rendered "What? Me worry?" These borders were used for five more issues, through Mad #30 (December 1956). The character was also shown on page 7 of Mad #24 as "Melvin Coznowski" and on page 63 as "Melvin Sturdley". In later issues he appeared as "Melvin Cowsnofsky" or "Mel Haney". In Mad #25, the face and name were shown together on separate pages as both Neuman and Mel Haney. The crowded cover shot on Mad #27 marked Neuman's first color appearance. Mad cover image When Al Feldstein took over as Mad's editor in 1956, he seized upon the face: I decided that I wanted to have this visual logo as the image of Mad, the same way that corporations had the Jolly Green Giant and the dog barking [sic] at the gramophone for RCA. This kid was the perfect example of what I wanted. So I put an ad in The New York Times that said, "National magazine wants portrait artist for special project". In walked this little old guy in his sixties named Norman Mingo, and he said, "What national magazine is this?" I said "Mad," and he said, "Goodbye." I told him to wait, and I dragged out all these examples and postcards of this idiot kid, and I said, "I want a definitive portrait of this kid. I don't want him to look like an idiot – I want him to be loveable and have an intelligence behind his eyes. But I want him to have this devil-may-care attitude, someone who can maintain a sense of humor while the world is collapsing around him." I adapted and used that portrait, and that was the beginning. Mingo's defining portrait was used on the cover of Mad #30 in late 1956 as a supposed write-in candidate for the presidency, and fixed his identity and appearance into the version that has been used ever since.[3] In November 2008, Mingo's original cover art featuring this first official portrait of Neuman sold at auction for $203,150. Mingo painted seven more Neuman covers through 1957, and later returned to become the magazine's signature cover artist throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Mingo produced 97 Mad covers in total, and also illustrated dozens of additional cover images for Mad's many reprint Specials and its line of paperbacks.[4][5] During Mingo's absence, Frank Kelly Freas rendered Neuman for Mad from 1958 to 1962. Mingo's total surpassed Freas' in 1965, and his leading status endured until 2016, when current contributor Mark Fredrickson became the most prolific Mad cover artist with his 98th cover. Neuman-free covers Neuman has appeared in one form or another on the cover of nearly every issue of Mad and its spinoffs since that issue and continuing to the present day, with a small handful of exceptions. Two such departures were Mad #233 (September 1982) which replaced Neuman's image with that of Pac-Man, and Mad #195 (December 1977) which instead featured the message "Pssst! Keep This Issue Out of the Hands of Your Parents! (Make 'Em Buy Their Own Copy!)". Even when Neuman is not part of the cover gag, or when the cover is entirely text-based, his disembodied head generally appears in miniature form. The most notorious Neuman-free cover was #166 (April 1974), which featured a human hand giving the profane "middle finger" gesture while declaring Mad to be "The Number One Ecch Magazine".[6] Some newsstands that normally carried Mad chose not to display or sell this issue.[7] Conversely, the two covers that featured Neuman the most times were #502 (January 2010), and #400 (December 2000). #502 featured a human hand giving the "thumbs down" signal, while wearing a silver-spangled glove in the style of singer Michael Jackson. Each individual spangle, more than 300 in all, was a tiny Alfred E. Neuman face.[8] The cover of issue #400 was a photomosaic of Neuman's face, composed of more than 2,700 images of previous Mad covers.[9] Popularity Neuman's ubiquity as a grinning cover boy grew as the magazine's circulation quadrupled, but the single highest-selling issue of Mad depicted only his feet. The cover image of issue #161,[10] spoofing the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, showed Neuman floating upside-down inside a life preserver. The original art for this cover was purchased at auction in 1992 for $2,200 by Annie Gaines, the widow of Mad founder and publisher William Gaines, and subsequently given on permanent loan to Mad writer Dick DeBartolo.[11] The image was copied in 1998 for issue #369 by famed illustrator Mick McGinty,[12] spoofing the hit film Titanic. Moxie Cowznofski A female version of Neuman, named "Moxie Cowznofski", appeared briefly during the late 1950s, occasionally described in editorial text as Neuman's "girlfriend". Neuman and Moxie were sometimes depicted side-by-side, defeating any speculation that Moxie was possibly Neuman in female guise. Her name was inspired by Moxie, a soft drink manufactured in Portland, Maine, which was sold nationwide in the 1950s and whose logo appeared as a running visual gag in many early issues of Mad. In late 1959, Mad released a 45 rpm single entitled "What – Me Worry?" (ABC-Paramount 10013), by "Alfred E. Neuman and His Furshlugginer Five", featuring an uncredited voice actor singing as Neuman. (The B-side of the single, "Potrzebie", is an instrumental.)[13] Mad routinely portrays Neuman in the guise of another character or inanimate object for its cover images. Since his initial unsuccessful run in 1956, Neuman has periodically been re-offered as a candidate for President with the slogan, "You could do worse... and always have!" Early image of the "Me Worry?" kid, from the early 1950s Along with his face, Mad also includes a short humorous quotation credited to Neuman with every issue's table of contents. (Example: "It takes one to know one... and vice versa!") Some of these quotations were collected in the 1997 book Mad: The Half-Wit and Wisdom of Alfred E. Neuman, which was illustrated by Sergio Aragonés. Early use Neuman is now used exclusively as a mascot and iconic symbol of the magazine, but before this status was codified, he was referenced in several early articles. In one, Neuman answered a letter from a suicidal reader by giving "expert advice" on the best technique for tying a hangman's knot. Other articles featured the school newspaper of "Neuman High School", and a bulletin from "Alfred E. Neuman University". An article entitled "Alfred E. Neuman's Family Tree" depicted historical versions of Neuman from various eras. Since then, Neuman has appeared only occasionally inside the magazine's articles. A recurring article titled "Alfred's Poor Almanac" (a parody of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack) showed his face atop the page, but otherwise the character had no role in the text. In a 1968 article, Neuman's face was assembled, feature by feature, from parts of photographs of well-known politicos, including then-President Lyndon B. Johnson (left ear), Richard Nixon (nose), Oregon Governor Mark Hatfield (eyes), and Ronald Reagan (hair). The gap in his teeth (which was otherwise the grin of Dwight D. Eisenhower) came from "The 'Credibility Gap' Created by Practically All Politicians". Motto Neuman's famous motto is the intellectually incurious "What, me worry?" This was changed for one issue to "Yes, me worry!" after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. On the cover of current printings of the paperback The Ides of Mad, as rendered by long-time cover artist Norman Mingo, Neuman is portrayed as a Roman bust with his catch phrase engraved on the base, translated into Dog Latin – Quid, Me Anxius Sum? Physical features Neuman's most prominent physical feature is his gap-toothed grin, with a few notable exceptions. On the cover of issue #236 (January 1983), Neuman was featured with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The cover showed E.T. using his famous "healing finger" to touch Neuman's mouth and cause the missing tooth to appear. The cover of issue #411 (November 2001), the first to be produced following the 9/11 attacks in the United States, showed a close-up of Neuman's face, but his gap was now filled with an American flag. A text gag on the cover of issue #263 (June 1986) claimed that the UPC was really a "Close-up Photograph of Neuman's Missing Tooth". Neuman also appeared as himself in a political cartoon[vague], after Newsweek had been criticized for using computer graphics to retouch the teeth of Bobbi McCaughey. The cartoon was rendered in the form of a split-screen comparison, in which Neuman was featured on the cover of Mad with his usual gap-toothed grin, then also featured on the cover of Newsweek, but with a perfect smile. Despite the primacy of Neuman's incomplete smile, his other facial features have occasionally attracted notice. Artist Andy Warhol said that seeing Neuman taught him to love people with big ears.[14] In 1958, Mad published letters from several readers noting the resemblance between Neuman and England's Prince Charles, then nine years old.[15] Shortly thereafter, an angry letter under a Buckingham Palace letterhead arrived at the Mad offices: "Dear Sirs No it isn't a bit – not the least little bit like me. So jolly well stow it! See! Charles. P." The letter was authenticated as having been written on triple-cream laid royal stationery bearing an official copper-engraved crest. The postmark indicated it had been mailed from a post office within a short walking distance of Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, the original disappeared years ago while on loan to another magazine and has never been recovered.[16] For many years, Mad sold prints of the official portrait of Neuman through a small house ad on the letters page of the magazine. In the early years, the price was one for 25 cents; three for 50 cents; nine for a dollar; or 27 for two dollars. The ad stated that the prints could also be used for wrapping fish. Supreme Court case In 1965, the origins and copyright of Neuman made it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.[17][18] A live-action version of Neuman – an uncredited actor wearing a mask – appears briefly in the 1980 film Up the Academy which was originally released to theaters as Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy. Mad later pulled its support from the film, and all footage of the Neuman character was excised from North American home video and television releases, although it was reinstated for the 2006 DVD release. Neuman appeared occasionally in the early seasons of MADtv during sketches and interstitials, and briefly appeared in the animated TV series Mad. Cowznofski A character similar to Alfred E. Neuman named Melvin Cowznofski – a tall man with a large, broad nose, receding hair, glasses, and an obvious small brain – appeared a number of times in the magazine in the 1950s.[19] In one issue he is described as an editor of Collier's Magazine, and manufacturer of souvenirs for the Brooklyn Dodgers. (Both Collier's and the Brooklyn Dodgers were defunct by then.) He was said to be "barred from 48 states (and Alaska will be voting any minute)"; Hawaii had not yet achieved statehood. Still, he "held a high position in our country, living atop Mt. Whitney." For a period in the 1950s, there was also a female character Moxie Cowznofski, named for a popular soft drink of the times, who may or may not have been related to Melvin.[20] Genesis The New Boy – 1894 The Yellow Kid, 1897 1908 Antikamnia Tablet Calendar Neuman's precise origin is shrouded in mystery and may never be fully known. A collection of early Neumanesque images can be found in Maria Reidelbach's comprehensive work, Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine (Little, Brown, 1991). Mad publisher Bill Gaines gave Reidelbach total access to the magazine's own files, including the collection of Neuman-related images that had been assembled for a 1965 copyright infringement lawsuit.[21] The earliest image cited in Reidelbach's book is from an advertisement for Atmore's Mince Meat, Genuine English Plum Pudding. She wrote that, "[d]ating from 1895, this is the oldest verified image of the boy.... The kid's features are fully developed and unmistakable, and the image was very likely taken from an older archetype..."[16] After the publication of the book, an older "archetype" was discovered in an advertisement for the comical stage play, The New Boy, which debuted on Broadway in 1894. The image is nearly identical to what later appears in the Atmore's ads.[22] A description of the stage play's advertisement was published in the December 2, 1894, Los Angeles Herald. Using words that could easily be describing the character of Alfred E. Neuman, the paper reported that the "comic red-headed urchin with a joyous grin all over his freckled face, whose phiz [face] is the trademark of the comedy, is so expressive of the rollicking and ridiculous that the New York Herald and the Evening Telegram have applied it to political cartoon purposes."[22] Elements of the plot of the play explain why the character has adult and childlike features, why the character is dressed as he is, and how he may have lost his teeth.[22] The original New Boy image was published with a two-part phrase that is similar in tone to Neuman's, "What? Me Worry?" catch phrase: "What's the good of anything? – Nothing!"[22] The New Boy advertising image was copied widely in advertising for "painless" dentistry and other products. It is also possible that the image influenced the look of The Yellow Kid, the 1890s character from Richard F. Outcault's strip Hogan's Alley. The image was used for a variety of purposes nearly continuously until it was adopted by Mad.[22] Postcard from period 1930–1945 with a similar boy and slogan to Mad's Neuman Similar faces turned up in advertising for "painless" dentistry. According to Gaines, 'Alfie' has his origin in Topeka with the Painless Romine Topeka Dental College, actually a dental group at 704 Kansas Avenue, at the office of William Romine – often misspelled as Romaine – , a dentist who resided and practiced in Wichita.[23][24] A face virtually identical to Neuman's appears in the 1923 issue of the University of Minnesota humor magazine The Guffer above the caption "Medic After Passing Con Exam in P. Chem." Another identical face shows up in the logo for Happy Jack Beverages, a soda drink produced by the A. B. Cook company in 1939. An almost-identical image appeared as "nose art" on an American World War II bomber, over the motto "Me Worry?" (this painted face was sometimes referred to as "The Jolly Boy").[25] Neuman's image was also used negatively, as a "supporter" of rival political candidates, with the idea that only an idiot would vote for them. In 1940, those opposing Franklin Delano Roosevelt's third-term reelection bid distributed postcards with a similar caricature bearing the caption, "Sure I'm for Roosevelt". In some instances, there was also the implication that the "idiot" was in fact a Jewish caricature. Carl Djerassi's autobiography claims that in Vienna after the Anschluss, he saw posters with a similar face and the caption Tod den Juden ("Death to Jews"). The EC editors grew up listening to radio, and this was frequently reflected in their stories, names and references. The name "Alfred E. Neuman" derived from comedian Henry Morgan's "Here's Morgan" radio series on Mutual, ABC and NBC. One character on his show had a name that was a reference to composer Alfred Newman, who scored many films and also composed the familiar fanfare that accompanies 20th Century Fox's opening film logo.[26] The possible inspiration for Henry Morgan was that Laird Cregar portrayed Sir Henry Morgan in The Black Swan (1942) with Tyrone Power, and the Oscar-nominated score for that film was by Newman. Listening to the sarcastic Morgan's brash broadcasts, the Mad staff took note and reworked the name into Neuman, as later recalled by Kurtzman: The name Alfred E. Neuman was picked up from Alfred Newman, the music arranger from back in the 1940s and 1950s. Actually, we borrowed the name indirectly through The Henry Morgan Show. He was using the name Newman for an innocuous character that you'd forget in five minutes. So we started using the name Alfred Neuman. The readers insisted on putting the name and the face together, and they would call the "What, Me Worry?" face Alfred Neuman.[26] Morgan later became a Mad contributor, with "The Truth about Cowboys" in issue #33. When Mad was sued for copyright infringement by a woman claiming to hold the rights to the image, the magazine argued that it had copied the picture from various materials dating back to 1911 (which pre-dated the plaintiff's own claim). The lawsuit was unsuccessful, and the boy's face is now permanently associated with Mad – so much so, in fact, that according to Mad writer Frank Jacobs, the US Post Office once delivered a letter to the Mad offices bearing only a picture of Neuman, without any other address or identifying features. In 2008, Eastern Michigan University held an exhibit and symposium on the evolution of Neuman images, dating back to 1877.[27][28] Several pre–New Boy images that bear some resemblance to Neuman have also been identified. A number may be seen on John Adcock's Mysteries of Melvin blog-posting[29] and another at leconcombre.com.[30] The earlier images, however, do not share the missing teeth/tooth or the head-and-shoulders framing and head-on pose. In 2012, longtime editor Nick Meglin offered a streamlined, exasperated version of Neuman's origins: Oh, don't ask me about Alfred E. Neuman. That story is so old and so meaningless. Does the average Playboy reader care about where the rabbit came from? It's just a symbol that lets you know what's on the inside. It's just a name we made up. We had 20, and that's the one we settled on.[31] Politics The August 1971 cover of National Lampoon (magazine) features a Frank Kelly Freas illustration that merges the features of William Calley Jr. with those of Alfred E. Neuman. The words "What, My Lai?" appear beneath the illustration. During the presidency of George W. Bush, Neuman's features were frequently merged with those of Bush by editorial cartoonists such as Mike Luckovich and Tom Tomorrow. The image has also appeared on magazine covers, notably The Nation.[32] A large Bush/Neuman poster was part of the Washington protests that accompanied Bush's 2001 inauguration. The alleged resemblance between the two has been noted more than once by Hillary Clinton. On July 10, 2005, speaking at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival, she said, "I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Neuman is in charge in Washington," referring to Bush's purported "What, me worry?" attitude.[33] At the October 2008 Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama joked, "It's often been said that I share the politics of Alfred E. Smith. And the ears of Alfred E. Neuman."[34] During an interview on May 10, 2019, President Donald Trump said "Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States", in reference to presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.[35] After Buttigieg said he didn't know who Neuman was, Mad subsequently referenced Pete Buttigieg on social media.[36] Neuman's features have also been compared to others in the public eye, including Charles III, Rick Astley, Ted Koppel, Oliver North and David Letterman.[3] German weekly Der Spiegel merged Neuman's likeness with that of then candidate for British Conservative Party leadership Boris Johnson for their July 20, 2019, issue.[37] Mad (stylized as MAD) is an American humor magazine first published in 1952. It was founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines,[2] launched as a comic book series before it became a magazine. It was widely imitated and influential, affecting satirical media, as well as the cultural landscape of the 20th century, with editor Al Feldstein increasing readership to more than two million during its 1973–1974 circulation peak.[3] The magazine, which is the last surviving title from the EC Comics line, publishes satire on all aspects of life and popular culture, politics, entertainment, and public figures. Its format includes TV and movie parodies, and satire articles about everyday occurrences that are changed to seem humorous. Mad's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, is usually on the cover, with his face replacing that of a celebrity or character who is being lampooned. From 1952 to 2018, Mad published 550 regular magazine issues, as well as scores of reprint "Specials", original-material paperbacks, reprint compilation books and other print projects. After AT&T acquired Time Warner in June 2018, Mad ended newsstand distribution, continuing in comic-book stores and via subscription. History Main articles: History of Mad and Harvey Kurtzman's editorship of Mad Harvey Kurtzman's cover for Mad No. 1 (cover-dated Oct./Nov. 1952) With issue 24 (July 1955), Mad switched to a magazine format. The "extremely important message" was "Please buy this magazine!". Mad began as a comic book published by EC, debuting in August 1952 (cover date October–November). The Mad office was initially located in lower Manhattan at 225 Lafayette Street, while in the early 1960s it moved to 485 Madison Avenue, the location listed in the magazine as "485 MADison Avenue". The first issue was written almost entirely by Harvey Kurtzman, and featured illustrations by him, Wally Wood, Will Elder, Jack Davis, and John Severin. Wood, Elder, and Davis were to be the three main illustrators throughout the 23-issue run of the comic book. To retain Kurtzman as its editor, the comic book converted to magazine format as of issue No. 24, in 1955. The switchover induced Kurtzman to remain for one more year, but the move had removed Mad from the strictures of the Comics Code Authority. William Gaines related in 1992 that Mad "was not changed [into a magazine] to avoid the Code" but "as a result of this [change of format] it did avoid the Code."[4] Gaines claimed that Kurtzman had at the time received "a very lucrative offer from...Pageant magazine," and seeing as he, Kurtzman, "had, prior to that time, evinced an interest in changing Mad into a magazine," Gaines, "not know[ing] anything about publishing magazines," countered that offer by allowing Kurtzman to make the change. Gaines further stated that "if Harvey [Kurtzman] had not gotten that offer from Pageant, Mad probably would not have changed format."[4] After Kurtzman's departure in 1956, new editor Al Feldstein swiftly brought aboard contributors such as Don Martin, Frank Jacobs, and Mort Drucker, and later Antonio Prohías, Dave Berg, and Sergio Aragonés. The magazine's circulation more than quadrupled during Feldstein's tenure, peaking at 2,132,655 in 1974; it later declined to a third of this figure by the end of his time as editor.[5] In its earliest incarnation, new issues of the magazine appeared erratically, between four and nine times a year. By the end of 1958, Mad had settled on an unusual eight-times-a-year schedule,[6] which lasted almost four decades.[7][8] Issues would go on sale 7 to 9 weeks before the start of the month listed on the cover. Gaines felt the atypical timing was necessary to maintain the magazine's level of quality. Beginning in 1994, Mad then began incrementally producing additional issues per year, until it reached a monthly schedule with issue No. 353 (Jan. 1997).[9][10] With its 500th issue (June 2009), amid company-wide cutbacks at Time Warner, the magazine temporarily regressed to a quarterly publication[2][11] before settling to six issues per year in 2010.[12] Gaines sold his company in 1961 to Premier Industries, a maker of venetian blinds.[13] A few years later, Premier sold Mad to Independent News, a division of National Periodical Publications, the publisher of DC Comics. In the summer of 1967, Kinney National Company purchased National Periodicals Publications. Kinney bought Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in early 1969.[14] As a result of the car parking scandal, Kinney Services spun off of its non-entertainment assets to form National Kinney Corporation in August 1971, and it reincorporated as Warner Communications, Inc. on February 10, 1972. In 1977, National Periodical Publications was renamed DC Comics. Feldstein retired in 1985, and was replaced by the senior team of Nick Meglin and John Ficarra, who co-edited Mad for the next two decades. Long-time production artist Lenny "The Beard" Brenner was promoted to art director and Joe Raiola and Charlie Kadau joined the staff as junior editors. Following Gaines's death in 1992, Mad became more ingrained within the Time Warner (now WarnerMedia) corporate structure. Eventually, the magazine was obliged to abandon its long-time home at 485 Madison Avenue and in the mid-1990s it moved into DC Comics's offices at the same time that DC relocated to 1700 Broadway. In issue No. 403 of March 2001, the magazine broke its long-standing taboo and began running paid advertising. The outside revenue allowed the introduction of color printing[15] and improved paper stock. After Meglin retired in 2004, the team of Ficarra (as executive editor) Raiola and Kadau (as senior editors), and Sam Viviano, who had taken over as art director in 1999, would helm Mad for the next 14 years. Throughout the years, MAD remained a unique mix of adolescent silliness and political humor. In November 2017, Rolling Stone wrote that "operating under the cover of barf jokes, MAD has become America's best political satire magazine."[16] Nevertheless, Mad ended its 65-year run in New York City at the end of 2017 with issue No. 550 (cover-dated April 2018),[17][18] in preparation for the relocation of its offices to DC Entertainment's headquarters in Burbank, California.[18][19] Bill Morrison was named in June 2017 to succeed Ficarra in January 2018.[18][20] None of MAD's New York staff made the move, resulting in a change in editorial leadership, tone, and art direction. More than a hundred new names made their Mad debuts including Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford, Luke McGarry, Akilah Hughes, and future Pulitzer Prize finalist Pia Guerra.[21][22] Scores of artists and writers from the New York run also returned to the pages of the California-based issues including contributors Sergio Aragones, Al Jaffee, Desmond Devlin, Tom Richmond, Peter Kuper, Teresa Burns Parkhurst, Rick Tulka, Tom Bunk, Jeff Kruse, Ed Steckley, Arie Kaplan, writer and former Senior Editor Charlie Kadau, and artist and former Art Director Sam Viviano.[23] The first California issue of Mad was renumbered as "#1." In 2019, the rebooted magazine earned two Eisner Award nominations—the first such nominations in MAD's history—for the Best Short Story and Best Humor Publication categories.[24] AT&T acquired Time Warner in June 2018.[25] Morrison exited MAD by March 2019, during a time of layoffs and restructuring at DC Entertainment.[26][27] After issue No. 10 (Dec. 2019) of the new Burbank edition, Mad began to consist mostly of curated reprints with new covers and fold-ins, although some new articles were periodically featured including parodies of The Batman ("The Bathroom") and Elon Musk's tenure at Twitter (in a Dr. Seuss parody called "Free Speeches On The Beaches").[28] Distribution to newsstands stopped, with the magazine initially becoming available only through comic-book shops and by subscription—although in 2022 distribution expanded to Barnes & Noble via a series of compilation issues dubbed The Treasure Trove of Trash.[29][30][31] Influence Though there are antecedents to Mad's style of humor in print, radio and film, Mad became a signature example of it. Throughout the 1950s, Mad featured groundbreaking parodies combining a sentimental fondness for the familiar staples of American culture—such as Archie and Superman—with a keen joy in exposing the fakery behind the image. Its approach was described by Dave Kehr in The New York Times: "Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding on the radio, Ernie Kovacs on television, Stan Freberg on records, Harvey Kurtzman in the early issues of Mad: all of those pioneering humorists and many others realized that the real world mattered less to people than the sea of sounds and images that the ever more powerful mass media were pumping into American lives."[32] Bob and Ray, Kovacs and Freberg all became contributors to Mad.[33] In 1977, Tony Hiss and Jeff Lewis wrote in The New York Times about the then-25-year-old publication's initial effect: The skeptical generation of kids it shaped in the 1950s is the same generation that, in the 1960s, opposed a war and didn't feel bad when the United States lost for the first time and in the 1970s helped turn out an Administration and didn't feel bad about that either ... It was magical, objective proof to kids that they weren't alone, that in New York City on Lafayette Street, if nowhere else, there were people who knew that there was something wrong, phony and funny about a world of bomb shelters, brinkmanship and toothpaste smiles. Mad's consciousness of itself, as trash, as comic book, as enemy of parents and teachers, even as money-making enterprise, thrilled kids. In 1955, such consciousness was possibly nowhere else to be found. In a Mad parody, comic-strip characters knew they were stuck in a strip. "Darnold Duck," for example, begins wondering why he has only three fingers and has to wear white gloves all the time. He ends up wanting to murder every other Disney character. G.I. Schmoe tries to win the sexy Asiatic Red Army broad by telling her, "O.K., baby! You're all mine! I gave you a chance to hit me witta gun butt ... But naturally, you have immediately fallen in love with me, since I am a big hero of this story."[34] Mad is often credited with filling a vital gap in political satire from the 1950s to 1970s, when Cold War paranoia and a general culture of censorship prevailed in the United States, especially in literature for teens. Activist Tom Hayden said, "My own radical journey began with Mad Magazine."[35] The rise of such factors as cable television and the Internet has diminished the influence and impact of Mad, although it remains a widely distributed magazine. In a way, Mad's power has been undone by its own success: what was subversive in the 1950s and 1960s is now commonplace.[citation needed] However, its impact on three generations of humorists is incalculable, as can be seen in the frequent references to Mad on the animated series The Simpsons.[36] The Simpsons producer Bill Oakley said, "The Simpsons has transplanted Mad magazine. Basically everyone who was young between 1955 and 1975 read Mad, and that's where your sense of humor came from. And we knew all these people, you know, Dave Berg and Don Martin—all heroes, and unfortunately, now all dead."[37] In 2009, The New York Times wrote, "Mad once defined American satire; now it heckles from the margins as all of culture competes for trickster status."[38] Longtime contributor Al Jaffee described the dilemma to an interviewer in 2010: "When Mad first came out, in 1952, it was the only game in town. Now, you've got graduates from Mad who are doing The Today Show or Stephen Colbert or Saturday Night Live. All of these people grew up on Mad. Now Mad has to top them. So Mad is almost in a competition with itself."[39] Mad's satiric net was cast wide. The magazine often featured parodies of ongoing American culture, including advertising campaigns, the nuclear family, the media, big business, education and publishing. In the 1960s and beyond, it satirized such burgeoning topics as the sexual revolution, hippies, the generation gap, psychoanalysis, gun politics, pollution, the Vietnam War and recreational drug use. The magazine took a generally negative tone towards counterculture drugs such as cannabis and LSD, but it also savaged mainstream drugs such as tobacco and alcohol. Mad always satirized Democrats as mercilessly as it did Republicans.[40] In 2007, Al Feldstein recalled, "We even used to rake the hippies over the coals. They were protesting the Vietnam War, but we took aspects of their culture and had fun with it. Mad was wide open. Bill loved it, and he was a capitalist Republican. I loved it, and I was a liberal Democrat. That went for the writers, too; they all had their own political leanings, and everybody had a voice. But the voices were mostly critical. It was social commentary, after all."[41] Mad also ran a good deal of less topical or contentious material on such varied subjects as fairy tales, nursery rhymes, greeting cards, sports, small talk, poetry, marriage, comic strips, awards shows, cars and many other areas of general interest.[42][43] In 2007, the Los Angeles Times' Robert Boyd wrote, "All I really need to know I learned from Mad magazine", going on to assert: Plenty of it went right over my head, of course, but that's part of what made it attractive and valuable. Things that go over your head can make you raise your head a little higher. The magazine instilled in me a habit of mind, a way of thinking about a world rife with false fronts, small print, deceptive ads, booby traps, treacherous language, double standards, half truths, subliminal pitches and product placements; it warned me that I was often merely the target of people who claimed to be my friend; it prompted me to mistrust authority, to read between the lines, to take nothing at face value, to see patterns in the often shoddy construction of movies and TV shows; and it got me to think critically in a way that few actual humans charged with my care ever bothered to.[44] Actor Michael Biehn autographing a copy of Mad No. 268 (Jan. 1987), which parodies Biehn's film Aliens In 1988, Geoffrey O'Brien wrote about the impact Mad had upon the younger generation of the 1950s: By now they knew the [nuclear survival] pamphlets lied ... Rod Serling knew a lot more than President Eisenhower. There were even jokes about the atom bomb in Mad, a gallows humor commenting on its own ghastliness: "The last example of this nauseating, busted-crutch type humor is to show an atom-bomb explosion! However, this routine, we feel, is giving way to the even more hilarious picture of the hydrogen bomb!" The jittery aftertaste of that joke clarified. It was a splinter driven through the carefully measured prose on the back of some Mentor book about Man and His Destiny ... By not fitting in, a joke momentarily interrupted the world. But after the joke you recognized it was a joke and went back to the integral world that the joke broke. But what if it never came back again, and the little gap stayed there and became everything?[45] In 1994, Brian Siano in The Humanist discussed the effect of Mad on that segment of people already disaffected from society: For the smarter kids of two generations, Mad was a revelation: it was the first to tell us that the toys we were being sold were garbage, our teachers were phonies, our leaders were fools, our religious counselors were hypocrites, and even our parents were lying to us about damn near everything. An entire generation had William Gaines for a godfather: this same generation later went on to give us the sexual revolution, the environmental movement, the peace movement, greater freedom in artistic expression, and a host of other goodies. Coincidence? You be the judge.[46] Pulitzer Prize-winning art comics maven Art Spiegelman said, "The message Mad had in general is, 'The media is lying to you, and we are part of the media.' It was basically ... 'Think for yourselves, kids.'" William Gaines offered his own view: when asked to cite Mad's philosophy, his boisterous answer was, "We must never stop reminding the reader what little value they get for their money!" Comics historian Tom Spurgeon picked Mad as the medium's top series of all time, writing, "At the height of its influence, Mad was The Simpsons, The Daily Show and The Onion combined."[47] Graydon Carter chose it as the sixth-best magazine of any sort ever, describing Mad's mission as being "ever ready to pounce on the illogical, hypocritical, self-serious and ludicrous" before concluding, "Nowadays, it's part of the oxygen we breathe."[48] Joyce Carol Oates called it "wonderfully inventive, irresistibly irreverent and intermittently ingenious."[49] Artist Dave Gibbons said, "When you think of the people who grew up in the '50s and '60s, the letters M-A-D were probably as influential as L-S-D, in that it kind of expanded people's consciousness and showed them an alternative view of society and consumer culture—mocked it, satirized it." Gibbons also noted that Mad was an overt influence on Watchmen, the acclaimed 12-issue comic book series created by writer Alan Moore and himself: When it comes to the kind of storytelling we did in Watchmen, we used many of the tricks Harvey Kurtzman perfected in Mad. The thing for instance where you have a background that remains constant, and have characters walk around in front of it. Or the inverse of that, where you have characters in the same place and move the background around. We quite mercilessly stole the wonderful techniques Harvey Kurtzman had invented in Mad.[50] In a 1985 Tonight Show appearance, when Johnny Carson asked Michael J. Fox, "When did you really know you'd made it in show business?", Fox replied, "When Mort Drucker drew my head."[51] In 2019, Terence Winter, writer and producer of The Sopranos, told Variety "When we got into Mad Magazine, that was the highlight for me. That said everything."[52] Monty Python's Terry Gilliam wrote, "Mad became the Bible for me and my whole generation."[53] Underground cartoonist Bill Griffith said of his youth, "Mad was a life raft in a place like Levittown, where all around you were the things that Mad was skewering and making fun of."[54] Robert Crumb remarked, "Artists are always trying to equal the work that impressed them in their childhood and youth. I still feel extremely inadequate when I look at the old Mad comics."[55] When Weird Al Yankovic was asked whether Mad had had any influence in putting him on a road to a career in parody, the musician replied, "[It was] more like going off a cliff."[56] Mystery Science Theater 3000 writer-actor Frank Conniff wrote, "Without Mad Magazine, MST3K would have been slightly different, like for instance, it wouldn't have existed."[57] Comedian Jerry Seinfeld talked about the magazine's impact on him, saying, "You start reading it, and you're going, 'These people don't respect anything.' And that just exploded my head. It was like, you don't have to buy it. You can say 'This is stupid. This is stupid.'"[58] Critic Roger Ebert wrote: I learned to be a movie critic by reading Mad magazine ... Mad's parodies made me aware of the machine inside the skin—of the way a movie might look original on the outside, while inside it was just recycling the same old dumb formulas. I did not read the magazine, I plundered it for clues to the universe. Pauline Kael lost it at the movies; I lost it at Mad magazine.[59] Rock singer Patti Smith said more succinctly, "After Mad, drugs were nothing."[60] Recurring features Main article: Recurring features in Mad (magazine) Mad is known for many regular and semi-regular recurring features in its pages, including "Spy vs. Spy", the "Mad Fold-in", "The Lighter Side of ..." and its television and movie parodies. The magazine has also included recurring gags and references, both visual (e.g. the Mad Zeppelin, or Arthur the potted plant) and linguistic (unusual words such as axolotl, furshlugginer, potrzebie and veeblefetzer). Alfred E. Neuman First cover appearance (issue 21, March 1955) of Alfred E. Neuman in a fake advertisement satirizing the popular mail-order house Johnson Smith Company Main article: Alfred E. Neuman The image most closely associated with the magazine is that of Alfred E. Neuman, the boy with misaligned eyes, a gap-toothed smile, and the perennial motto "What, me worry?" The original image was a popular humorous graphic for many decades before Mad adopted it, but the face is now primarily associated with Mad. Mad initially used the boy's face in November 1954. His first iconic full-cover appearance was as a write-in candidate for President on issue No. 30 (December 1956), in which he was identified by name and sported his "What, me worry?" motto. He has since appeared in a slew of guises and comic situations. According to Mad writer Frank Jacobs, a letter was once successfully delivered to the magazine through the U.S. mail bearing only Neuman's face, without any address or other identifying information.[61] Legal disputes The magazine has been involved in various legal actions over the decades, some of which have reached the United States Supreme Court. The most far-reaching was Irving Berlin et al. v. E.C. Publications, Inc. In 1961, a group of music publishers representing songwriters such as Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, and Cole Porter filed a $25 million lawsuit against Mad for copyright infringement following "Sing Along With Mad", a collection of parody lyrics which the magazine said could be "sung to the tune of" many popular songs. The publishing group hoped to establish a legal precedent that only a song's composers retained the right to parody that song. Judge Charles Metzner of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled largely in favor of Mad in 1963, affirming its right to print 23 of the 25 song parodies under dispute. However, in the case of two parodies, "Always" (sung to the tune of "Always") and "There's No Business Like No Business" (sung to the tune of "There's No Business Like Show Business"), Judge Metzner decided that the issue of copyright infringement was closer, requiring a trial because in each case the parodies relied on the same verbal hooks ("always" and "business") as the originals. The music publishers appealed the ruling, but the U.S. Court of Appeals not only upheld the pro-Mad decision in regard to the 23 songs, it adopted an approach that was broad enough to strip the publishers of their limited victory regarding the remaining two songs. Writing a unanimous opinion for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Circuit Judge Irving Kaufman observed, "We doubt that even so eminent a composer as plaintiff Irving Berlin should be permitted to claim a property interest in iambic pentameter."[62] The publishers again appealed, but the Supreme Court refused to hear it, allowing the decision to stand.[61] This precedent-setting 1964 ruling established the rights of parodists and satirists to mimic the meter of popular songs. However, the "Sing Along With Mad" songbook was not the magazine's first venture into musical parody. In 1960, Mad had published "My Fair Ad-Man", a full advertising-based spoof of the hit Broadway musical My Fair Lady. In 1959, "If Gilbert & Sullivan wrote Dick Tracy" was one of the speculative pairings in "If Famous Authors Wrote the Comics". In 1966, a series of copyright infringement lawsuits against the magazine regarding ownership of the Alfred E. Neuman image eventually reached the appellate level. Although Harry Stuff had copyrighted the image in 1914, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that, by allowing many copies of the image to circulate without any copyright notice, the owner of the copyright had allowed the image to pass into the public domain, thus establishing the right of Mad—or anyone else—to use the image. In addition, Mad established that Stuff was not himself the creator of the image, by producing numerous other examples dating back to the late 19th century. This decision was also allowed to stand.[43] Other legal disputes were settled more easily. Following the magazine's parody of the film The Empire Strikes Back, a letter from George Lucas's lawyers arrived in Mad's offices demanding that the issue be recalled for infringement on copyrighted figures. The letter further demanded that the printing plates be destroyed, and that Lucasfilm must receive all revenue from the issue plus additional punitive damages.[63] Unbeknownst to Lucas' lawyers, Mad had received a letter weeks earlier from Lucas himself, expressing delight over the parody and calling artist Mort Drucker and writer Dick DeBartolo "the Leonardo da Vinci and George Bernard Shaw of comic satire."[64] Publisher Bill Gaines made a copy of Lucas' letter, added the handwritten notation "Gee, your boss George liked it!" across the top, and mailed it to the lawyers. Said DeBartolo, "We never heard from them again."[65] Mad was one of several parties that filed amicus curiae briefs with the Supreme Court in support of 2 Live Crew and its disputed song parody, during the 1993 Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. case.[66] Advertising Mad was long noted for its absence of advertising, enabling it to satirize materialist culture without fear of reprisal. For decades, it was the most successful American magazine to publish ad-free,[67] beginning with issue No. 33 (April 1957) and continuing through issue No. 402 (February 2001). As a comic book, Mad had run the same advertisements as the rest of EC's line. The magazine later made a deal with Moxie soda that involved inserting the Moxie logo into various articles. Mad ran a limited number of ads in its first two years as a magazine, helpfully labeled "real advertisement" to differentiate the real from the parodies. The last authentic ad published under the original Mad regime was for Famous Artists School; two issues later, the inside front cover of issue No. 34 had a parody of the same ad. After this transitional period, the only promotions to appear in Mad for decades were house ads for Mad's own books and specials, subscriptions, and promotional items such as ceramic busts, T-shirts, or a line of Mad jewelry. This rule was bent only a few times to promote outside products directly related to the magazine, such as The Mad Magazine Game, a series of video games based on Spy vs. Spy, and the notorious Up the Academy movie (which the magazine later disowned). Mad explicitly promised that it would never make its mailing list available. Both Kurtzman and Feldstein wanted the magazine to solicit advertising, feeling this could be accomplished without compromising Mad's content or editorial independence. Kurtzman remembered Ballyhoo, a boisterous 1930s humor publication that made an editorial point of mocking its own sponsors. Feldstein went so far as to propose an in-house Mad ad agency, and produced a "dummy" copy of what an issue with ads could look like. But Bill Gaines was intractable, telling the television news magazine 60 Minutes, "We long ago decided we couldn't take money from Pepsi-Cola and make fun of Coca-Cola." Gaines' motivation in eschewing ad dollars was less philosophical than practical: We'd have to improve our package. Most advertisers want to appear in a magazine that's loaded with color and has super-slick paper. So you find yourself being pushed into producing a more expensive package. You get bigger and fancier and attract more advertisers. Then you find you're losing some of your advertisers. Your readers still expect the fancy package, so you keep putting it out, but now you don't have your advertising income, which is why you got fancier in the first place—and now you're sunk.[61] Contributors and criticism Mad has provided an ongoing showcase for many long-running satirical writers and artists and has fostered an unusual group loyalty. Although several of the contributors earn far more than their Mad pay in fields such as television and advertising, they have steadily continued to provide material for the publication.[68] Among the notable artists were the aforementioned Davis, Elder and Wood, as well as Sergio Aragonés, Mort Drucker, Don Martin, Dave Berg, George Woodbridge, Harry North and Paul Coker. Writers such as Dick DeBartolo, Stan Hart, Frank Jacobs, Tom Koch, and Arnie Kogen appeared regularly in the magazine's pages. In several cases, only infirmity or death has ended a contributor's run at Mad. Within the industry, Mad was known for the uncommonly prompt manner in which its contributors were paid. Publisher Gaines would typically write a personal check and give it to the artist upon receipt of the finished product. Wally Wood said, "I got spoiled ... Other publishers don't do that. I started to get upset if I had to wait a whole week for my check." Another lure for contributors was the annual "Mad Trip", an all-expenses-paid tradition that began in 1960. The editorial staff was automatically invited, along with freelancers who had qualified for an invitation by selling a set number of articles or pages during the previous year. Gaines was strict about enforcing this quota, and one year, longtime writer and frequent traveller Arnie Kogen was bumped off the list. Later that year, Gaines' mother died, and Kogen was asked if he would be attending the funeral. "I can't," said Kogen, "I don't have enough pages." Over the years, the Mad crew traveled to such locales as France, Kenya, Russia, Hong Kong, England, Amsterdam, Tahiti, Morocco, Italy, Greece, and Germany.[61] The tradition ended with Gaines' death, and a 1993 trip to Monte Carlo. Although Mad was an exclusively freelance publication, it achieved remarkable stability, with numerous contributors remaining prominent for decades.[69] Critics of the magazine felt that this lack of turnover eventually led to a formulaic sameness, although there is little agreement on when the magazine peaked or plunged. Proclaiming the precise moment that purportedly triggered the magazine's irreversible decline is a common pastime[citation needed]. Among the most frequently cited "downward turning points" are: creator-editor Harvey Kurtzman's departure in 1957;[70] the magazine's mainstream success;[38] adoption of recurring features starting in the early 1960s;[71] the magazine's absorption into a more corporate structure in 1968 (or later, the mid-1990s);[72] founder Gaines' death in 1992;[72] the magazine's publicized "edgy revamp" in 1997;[73] the arrival of paid advertising in 2001;[74] or the magazine's 2018 move to California. Mad has been criticized[citation needed] for its over-reliance on a core group of aging regulars throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and then criticized again[citation needed] for an alleged downturn as those same creators began to leave, die, retire, or contribute less frequently. It has been proposed that Mad is more susceptible to this criticism than many media because a sizable percentage of its readership turns over regularly as it ages, as Mad focuses greatly on current events and a changing popular culture.[61] In 2010, Sergio Aragones said, "Mad is written by people who never thought 'Okay, I'm going to write for kids,' or 'I'm going to write for adults.' ... And many people say 'I used to read Mad, but Mad has changed a lot.' Excuse me— you grew up! You have new interests. ... The change doesn't come from the magazine, it comes from the people who grow or don't grow."[75] Mad poked fun at the tendency of readers to accuse the magazine of declining in quality at various points in its history in its "Untold History of Mad Magazine", a self-referential faux history in the 400th issue which joked: "The second issue of Mad goes on sale on December 9, 1952. On December 11, the first-ever letter complaining that Mad 'just isn't as funny and original like it used to be' arrives." The magazine's art director, Sam Viviano, suggested in 2002 that historically, Mad was at its best "whenever you first started reading it."[76] According to former Mad Senior Editor Joe Raiola, "Mad is the only place in America where if you mature, you get fired." Among the loudest of those who insist the magazine is no longer funny are supporters of Harvey Kurtzman, who left Mad after just 28 issues.[70] However, just how much of that success was due to the original Kurtzman template that he left for his successor, and how much should be credited to the Al Feldstein system and the depth of the post-Kurtzman talent pool, can be argued without resolution. In 2009, an interviewer proposed to Al Jaffee, "There's a group of Mad aficionados who feel that if Harvey Kurtzman had stayed at Mad, the magazine would not only have been different, but better." Jaffee, a Kurtzman enthusiast, replied, "And then there's a large group who feel that if Harvey had stayed with Mad, he would have upgraded it to the point that only fifteen people would buy it."[77] During Kurtzman's final two-plus years at EC, Mad appeared erratically (ten issues appeared in 1954, followed by eight issues in 1955 and four issues in 1956). Feldstein was less well regarded creatively, but kept the magazine on a regular schedule, leading to decades of success. (Kurtzman and Will Elder returned to Mad for a short time in the mid-1980s as an illustrating team.) The magazine's sales peak came with issue No. 161 (September 1973), which sold 2.4 million copies in 1973. That period coincided with several other magazines' sales peaks, including TV Guide and Playboy. Mad's circulation dropped below one million for the first time in 1983. Many of the magazine's mainstays began retiring or dying by the 1980s. Newer contributors who appeared in the years that followed include Joe Raiola, Charlie Kadau, Tony Barbieri, Scott Bricher, Tom Bunk, John Caldwell, Desmond Devlin, Drew Friedman, Barry Liebmann, Kevin Pope, Scott Maiko, Hermann Mejia, Tom Richmond, Andrew J. Schwartzberg, Mike Snider, Greg Theakston, Nadina Simon, Rick Tulka, and Bill Wray. On April 1, 1997, the magazine publicized an alleged "revamp", ostensibly designed to reach an older, more sophisticated readership. However, Salon's David Futrelle opined that such content was very much a part of Mad's past: The October 1971 issue, for example, with its war crimes fold-in and back cover "mini-poster" of "The Four Horsemen of the Metropolis" (Drugs, Graft, Pollution and Slums). With its Mad Pollution Primer. With its "Reality Street" TV satire, taking a poke at the idealized images of interracial harmony on Sesame Street. ("It's a street of depression,/ Corruption, oppression!/ It's a sadist's dream come true!/ And masochists, too!") With its "This is America" photo feature, contrasting images of heroic astronauts with graphic photos of dead soldiers and junkies shooting up. I remember this issue pretty well; it was one of the ones I picked up at a garage sale and read to death. I seem to remember asking my parents what "graft" was. One of the joys of Mad for me at the time was that it was always slightly over my head. From "Mad's Up-Dated Modern Day Mother Goose" I learned about Andy Warhol, Spiro Agnew and Timothy Leary ("Wee Timmy Leary/ Soars through the sky/ Upward and Upward/ Till he's, oh, so, high/ Since this rhyme's for kiddies/ How do we explain/ That Wee Timmy Leary/ Isn't in a plane?"). From "Greeting Cards for the Sexual Revolution" I learned about "Gay Liberationists" and leather-clad "Sex Fetishists." I read the Mad versions of a whole host of films I never in a million years would have been allowed to see: Easy Rider ("Sleazy Riders"), Midnight Cowboy ("Midnight Wowboy"), Five Easy Pieces ("Five Easy Pages [and two hard ones].") I learned about the John Birch Society and Madison Avenue.[78] Mad editor John Ficarra acknowledged that changes in culture made the task of creating fresh satire more difficult, telling an interviewer, "The editorial mission statement has always been the same: 'Everyone is lying to you, including magazines. Think for yourself. Question authority.' But it's gotten harder, as they've gotten better at lying and getting in on the joke."[79] Mad contributor Tom Richmond has responded to critics who say the magazine's decision to accept advertising would make late publisher William Gaines "turn over in his grave", pointing out this is impossible because Gaines was cremated.[80] Contributors Mad creators at a November 2013 book signing for the Inside Mad collection. From left to right: Art director Sam Viviano, writers Tim Carvell and Desmond Devlin, editor-in-chief John Ficarra, and artist Al Jaffee. Mad is known for the stability and longevity of its talent roster, billed as "The Usual Gang of Idiots", with several creators enjoying 30-, 40- and even 50-year careers in the magazine's pages. According to the "Mad Magazine Contributor Appearances" website, more than 960 contributors have received bylines in at least one issue of Mad, but only 41 of those have contributed to 100 issues or more.[81] Writer-artist Al Jaffee has appeared in the most issues; No. 550 (April 2018) was the 500th issue with new work by Jaffee. The other three contributors to have appeared in more than 400 issues of Mad are Sergio Aragonés, Dick DeBartolo, and Mort Drucker; Dave Berg, Paul Coker, and Frank Jacobs have each topped the 300 mark. Jaffee, Aragonés, Berg, Don Edwing and Don Martin are the five writer-artists to have appeared in the largest total of issues; DeBartolo, Jacobs, Desmond Devlin, Stan Hart, and Tom Koch are the five most frequent writers, and Drucker, Coker, Bob Clarke, Angelo Torres and George Woodbridge are the five top illustrators on the list. (The list calculates appearances by issue only, not by individual articles or overall page count; e.g. although Jacobs wrote three separate articles that appeared in issue No. 172, his total is reckoned to have increased by one.) Each of the following contributors has created over 100 articles for the magazine: Writers: Dick DeBartolo Desmond Devlin Stan Hart Frank Jacobs Charlie Kadau Tom Koch Arnie Kogen Jeff Kruse Scott Maiko Joe Raiola Larry Siegel Lou Silverstone Mike Snider Writer-Artists: Sergio Aragonés Dave Berg John Caldwell Duck Edwing Al Jaffee Peter Kuper Don Martin Teresa Burns Parkhurst Paul Peter Porges Antonio Prohías Artists: Scott Bricher Tom Bunk Bob Clarke Paul Coker Jack Davis Mort Drucker Will Elder Hermann Mejia Joe Orlando Tom Richmond Jack Rickard John Severin Angelo Torres Rick Tulka Sam Viviano Wally Wood George Woodbridge Photographer: Irving Schild Over the years, the editorial staff, most notably Al Feldstein, Nick Meglin, John Ficarra, Joe Raiola, and Charlie Kadau have had creative input on countless articles and shaped Mad's distinctive satiric voice. Other notable contributors Among the irregular contributors with just a single Mad byline to their credit are Charles M. Schulz, Chevy Chase, Andy Griffith, Will Eisner, Kevin Smith, J. Fred Muggs, Boris Vallejo, Sir John Tenniel, Jean Shepherd, Winona Ryder, Jimmy Kimmel, Jason Alexander, Walt Kelly, Rep. Barney Frank, Tom Wolfe, Steve Allen, Jim Lee, Jules Feiffer, Donald Knuth, and Richard Nixon, who remains the only President credited with "writing" a Mad article.[81] (The entire text was taken from Nixon's speeches.) Those who have contributed twice apiece[81] include Tom Lehrer, Wally Cox, Gustave Doré, Danny Kaye, Stan Freberg, Mort Walker, and Leonardo da Vinci. (Da Vinci's check is still waiting in the Mad offices for him to pick it up.) Appearing slightly more frequently were Frank Frazetta (3 bylines), Ernie Kovacs (11), Bob and Ray (12), Henry Morgan (3), and Sid Caesar (4). In its earliest years, before amassing its own staff of regulars, the magazine frequently used outside "name" talent. Often, Mad would simply illustrate the celebrities' preexisting material while promoting their names on the cover.[82][83][84] The Bob and Ray association was particularly fruitful. When the magazine learned that Tom Koch was the writer behind the Bob and Ray radio sketches adapted by Mad, Koch was sought out by the editors and ultimately wrote more than 300 Mad articles over the next 37 years. The magazine has occasionally run guest articles in which notables from show business or comic books have participated. In 1964, an article called "Comic Strips They'd Really Like To Do" featured one-shot proposals by cartoonists including Mell Lazarus and Charles M. Schulz. More than once, the magazine has enlisted popular comic book artists such as Frank Miller or Jim Lee to design and illustrate a series of "Rejected Superheroes." In 2008, the magazine got national coverage[85] for its article "Why George W. Bush is in Favor of Global warming". Each of the piece's 10 punchlines was illustrated by a different Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist. In 2015, "Weird Al" Yankovic served as the magazine's first and only guest editor, writing some material and guiding the content in issue No. 533, while upping his own career Mad byline total from two to five.[56][86] Reprints In 1955, Gaines began presenting reprints of material for Mad in black-and-white paperbacks, the first being The Mad Reader.[87] Many of these featured new covers by Mad cover artist Norman Mingo. This practice continued into the 2000s, with more than 100 Mad paperbacks published. Gaines made a special effort to keep the entire line of paperbacks in print at all times, and the books were frequently reprinted in new editions with different covers. There were also dozens of Mad paperbacks featuring entirely new material by the magazine's contributors. Mad also frequently repackaged its material in a long series of "Special" format magazines, beginning in 1958 with two concurrent annual series entitled The Worst from Mad and More Trash from Mad. Later, the "Special" issue series expanded to "Super Special" editions. Various other titles have been used through the years.[88] These reprint issues were sometimes augmented by exclusive features such as posters, stickers and, on a few occasions, recordings on flexi-disc. A 1972 "Special" edition began Mad's including a comic book replica insert, consisting of reprinted material from the magazine's 1952–1955 era. Spin-offs Mad Kids Main article: Mad Kids Between 2005 and February 17, 2009, the magazine published 14 issues of Mad Kids, a spinoff publication aimed at a younger demographic.[2] Reminiscent of Nickelodeon's newsstand titles, it emphasized current kids' entertainment (i.e. Yu-Gi-Oh!, Naruto, High School Musical), albeit with an impudent voice. Much of the content of Mad Kids had originally appeared in the parent publication; reprinted material was chosen and edited to reflect grade schoolers' interests. But the quarterly magazine also included newly commissioned articles and cartoons, as well as puzzles, bonus inserts, a calendar, and the other activity-related content that is common to kids' magazines. Foreign editions This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Mad" magazine – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2023) (template removal help) Mad has been published in local versions in many countries, beginning with the United Kingdom in 1959, and Sweden in 1960. Each new market receives access to the publication's back catalog of articles and is also encouraged to produce its own localized material in the Mad vein. However, the sensibility of the American Mad has not always translated to other cultures, and many of the foreign editions have had short lives or interrupted publications. The Swedish, Danish, Italian and Mexican Mads were each published on three separate occasions; Norway has had four runs canceled. Brazil also had four runs, but without significant interruptions, spanning five decades. Australia (42 years), United Kingdom (35 years), and Sweden (34 years) have produced the longest uninterrupted Mad variants. Defunct foreign editions United Kingdom, 1959–1994; (still use the US version today) Australia, 1980-2022; Sweden, 1960–1993, 1997–2002; Denmark, 1962–1971, 1979–1997, 1998–2002; Netherlands, 1964–1996; 2011–2012; France, 1965, 1982; Germany, 1967–95, 1998–2018; Finland, 1970–1972, 1982–2005; Italy, 1971–1974, 1984, 1992–1993; Norway, 1971–1972, 1981–1996, 2001 (one-offs 2002–2003); Brazil, 1974–1983, 1984–2000, 2000–2006; 2008–2017; Spain, 1974, 1975 (as Locuras), 2006–2016; Argentina, 1977–1982; Mexico, 1977–1983, 1984–1986, 1993–1998; 2004–2010[89] Caribbean, 1977–1983; Greece, 1978–1985, 1995–1999; Japan, 1979–1980 (two oversized anthologies were released); Iceland, 1985; 1987–1988; South Africa, 1985–2009; Taiwan, 1990; Canada (Quebec), 1991–1992 (Past material in a "collection album" with Croc, another Quebec humor magazine); Hungary, 1994–2009;[90] Israel, 1994–1995; Turkey, 2000–2001; Poland, 2015–2018. Conflicts over content have occasionally arisen between the parent magazine and its international franchisees. When a comic strip satirizing England's royal family was reprinted in a Mad paperback, it was deemed necessary to rip out the page from 25,000 copies by hand before the book could be distributed in Great Britain.[91] But Mad was also protective of its own editorial standards. Bill Gaines sent "one of his typically dreadful, blistering letters" to his Dutch editors after they published a bawdy gag about a men's room urinal.[92] Mad has since relaxed its requirements, and while the U.S. version still eschews overt profanity, the magazine generally poses no objections to more provocative content. Other satiric-comics magazines The success of Mad inspired a rash of short-lived imitators. Following the success of Mad, other black-and-white magazines of topical, satiric comics began to be published. Most were short-lived. The three longest-lasting were Cracked, Sick, and Crazy Magazine. These three and many others featured a cover mascot along the lines of Alfred E. Neuman. Color comic-book competitors, primarily in the mid-to-late 1950s, were Nuts!, Get Lost, Whack, Riot, Flip, Eh!, From Here to Insanity, and Madhouse; only the last of these lasted as many as eight issues, and some were canceled after an issue or two.[93] Later color satiric comic books included Wild, Blast, Parody, Grin and Gag!.[94] EC Comics itself offered the color comic Panic, produced by future Mad editor Al Feldstein. Two years after EC's Panic had ceased publication in 1956, the title was used by another publisher for a similar comic. In 1967, Marvel Comics produced the first of 13 issues of the comic book Not Brand Echh, which parodied the company's own superhero titles as well as other publishers. From 1973 to 1976, DC Comics published the comic Plop!, which featured Mad stalwart Sergio Aragonés and frequent cover art by Basil Wolverton. Another publisher's comic was Trash (1978)[citation needed] featured a blurb on the debut cover reading, "We mess with Mad (p. 21)" and depicted Alfred E. Neuman with a stubbly beard; the fourth and last issue showed two bodybuilders holding up copies of Mud and Crocked with the frowning faces of Neuman and Cracked cover mascot Sylvester P. Smythe. Among other U.S. humor magazines that included some degree of comics art as well as text articles were former Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman's Trump, Humbug and Help!, as well as National Lampoon. Virginia Commonwealth University's Cabell Library has an extensive collection of Mad along with other comic books and graphic novels.[95] Claptrap With Mad ceasing the publication of new material, including film parodies, in future issues, the magazine's veteran writer Desmond Devlin and caricaturist Tom Richmond have teamed up to create Claptrap, a book full of twelve brand new movie parodies done in the classic Mad style. The movies are classics that Mad did not parody when they were first released. First scheduled to be released in November 2021, it was delayed four times, first to March, then August, then December 2022, and finally to June 2023. In other media Over the years, Mad has branched out from print into other media. During the Gaines years, the publisher had an aversion to exploiting his fan base and expressed the fear that substandard Mad products would offend them. He was known to personally issue refunds to anyone who wrote to the magazine with a complaint. Among the few outside Mad items available in its first 40 years were cufflinks, a T-shirt designed like a straitjacket (complete with lock), and a small ceramic Alfred E. Neuman bust. For decades, the letters page advertised an inexpensive portrait of Neuman ("suitable for framing or for wrapping fish") with misleading slogans such as "Only 1 Left!" (The joke being that the picture was so undesirable that only one had left their office since the last ad.) After Gaines' death came an overt absorption into the Time-Warner publishing umbrella, with the result that Mad merchandise began to appear more frequently. Items were displayed in the Warner Bros. Studio Stores, and in 1994 The Mad Style Guide was created for licensing use. Recordings Mad has sponsored or inspired a number of recordings. 1950s In 1959, Bernie Green "with the Stereo Mad-Men" recorded the album Musically Mad for RCA Victor, featuring humorous music, mostly instrumental, with an image of Alfred E. Neuman on the cover;[96] it was nominated for the Grammy for Best Comedy Recording - Musical and has been reissued on CD. That same year, The Worst from Mad No. 2 included an original recording, "Meet the staff of Mad", on a cardboard 33 rpm record, while a single credited to Alfred E. Neuman & The Furshlugginger Five: "What – Me Worry?" (b/w "Potrzebie"), was issued in late 1959 on the ABC Paramount label. 1960s Two full vinyl LP records were released under the aegis of Mad in the early 1960s:[97][98] Mad "Twists" Rock 'N' Roll (1962)[99] and Fink Along With Mad (1963; the title being a takeoff on the then-popular TV show Sing Along With Mitch, with "fink" being a general insult then current in American slang).[100] In 1961, New York City doo-wop group The Dellwoods (recording then as the "Sweet Sickteens") had released a novelty single on RCA Victor, written by Norman Blagman and Sam Bobrick, "The Pretzel" (a satiric take on then-current dance songs such as "The Twist"), b/w "Agnes (The Teenage Russian Spy)". Both songs were later included on Mad "Twists" Rock 'N' Roll. (The Sweet Sickteens were Victor Buccellato (lead singer), Mike Ellis (tenor), Andy Ventura (tenor), Amadeo Tese (baritone), and Saul Zeskand (bass),[97][101][better source needed][102][better source needed] It's surprisingly straightforward teen-era rock 'n' roll...lyrically the songs do a decent job of matching Mad's off-kilter look at society... a few of these songs would be hard to differentiate as parody when compared to other records from the era. "Blind Date" wouldn't be out of place slightly trashed up on a Kingsmen album... — Bob Koch, Vinyl Cave (Isthmus)[103] In 1962, the Dellwoods (as they were now named), along with vocalists Mike Russo and Jeanne Hayes, recorded an entire album of novelty songs by Bobrick and Blagman. The album had originally been written and produced as a Dellwoods album for RCA, but was instead sold to Mad and released on Bigtop Records as Mad "Twists" Rock 'N' Roll. There was a strong Mad tie in – besides the title, a portrait of Alfred E. Neuman was featured prominently on the cover, and "(She Got A) Nose Job" from the album was bound as a flexi disc into an issue of Mad. None of the material, however, referenced Mad magazine, Alfred E. Neuman, or any other Mad tropes or features, having been recorded before the sale by RCA. Other songs on the album included "(Throwing The) High School Basketball Game", "Please Betty Jean (Shave Your Legs)", "Somebody Else's Dandruff (On My Lover-Baby's Shirt)". "Agnes (The Teenage Russian Spy)" and "The Pretzel" (now titled as "Let's Do The Pretzel (And End Up Like One!))".[104][105][106][102] This was followed by another Dellwoods Bigtop release, Fink Along With Mad, again with Russo and Hayes, written by Bobrick and Blagman,[105] and tied in with Mad, in 1963. Album tracks included "She Lets Me Watch Her Mom And Pop Fight" which was bound as a flexi-disc into an issue of Mad (the performance credited to Mike Russo, and described by Josiah Hughes as "one dark pop song" since it makes light of domestic assault,[98] with lyrics such as "To see a lamp go through the window / And watch them kick and scratch and bite / I love her, I love her, oh boy how I love her / 'Cause she lets me watch her mom and pop fight.")[107] Other songs on Fink Along With Mad included "I'll Never Make Fun of Her Moustache Again", "When the Braces on our Teeth Lock", and "Loving A Siamese Twin". This album also featured a song titled "It's a Gas", which punctuated an instrumental track with belches (these "vocals" being credited to Alfred E. Neuman), along with a saxophone break by an uncredited King Curtis).[citation needed] Dr. Demento featured this gaseous performance on his radio show in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. Mad included some of these tracks as plastic-laminated cardboard inserts and (later) flexi discs with their reprint "Mad Specials". "Don't Put Onions On Your Hamburger" from the album was released as a single, credited to just the Dellwoods,[108][109][110][better source needed] and in 1963 the Dellwoods renamed themselves to the Dynamics and released a serious non-novelty single for Liberty Records, "Chapel On A Hill" backed with "Conquistador".[101][102] 1970s and later A number of original recordings also were released in this way in the 1970s and early 1980s, such as Gall in the Family Fare (a radio play adaptation of their previously illustrated All in the Family parody), a single entitled "Makin' Out", the octuple-grooved track "It's a Super Spectacular Day", which had eight possible endings, the spoken word Meet the staff insert, and a six-track, 30-minute Mad Disco EP (from the 1980 special of the same title) that included a disco version of "It's a Gas". The last turntable-playable recording Mad packaged with its magazines was "A Mad Look at Graduation", in a 1982 special. A CD-ROM containing several audio tracks was included with issue No. 350 (October 1996). Rhino Records compiled a number of Mad-recorded tracks as Mad Grooves (1996).[111] Stage show An Off-Broadway production, The Mad Show, was first staged in 1966. The show, which lasted for 871 performances during its initial run, featured sketches written by Mad regulars Stan Hart and Larry Siegel interspersed with comedic songs (one of which was written by an uncredited Stephen Sondheim).[43] The cast album is available on CD. Gaming In 1979, Mad released a board game. The Mad Magazine Game was an absurdist version of Monopoly in which the first player to lose all his money and go bankrupt was the winner. Profusely illustrated with artwork by the magazine's contributors, the game included a $1,329,063 bill that could not be won unless one's name was "Alfred E. Neuman". It also featured a deck of cards (called "Card cards") with bizarre instructions, such as "If you can jump up and stay airborne for 37 seconds, you can lose $5,000. If not, jump up and lose $500." In 1980 a second game was released: The Mad Magazine Card Game by Parker Brothers. In it, the player who first loses all their cards is declared the winner. The game is fairly similar to Uno by Mattel. Questions based on the magazine also appeared in the 1999 Trivial Pursuit: Warner Bros. Edition (which featured questions based around Time-Warner properties, including WB films and TV shows, the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons (and follow-up projects from Warner Bros. Animation)), as well as DC Comics, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network and assorted MGM properties owned by Turner Entertainment Co. that WB had come into possession of following the 1996 Turner/Time-Warner merger. Film and television MAD lent its name in 1980 to the risque comedy Up the Academy. Up The Academy was such a commercial debacle and critical failure that Mad successfully arranged for all references to the magazine (including a cameo by Alfred E. Neuman) to be removed from future TV and video releases of the film, although these references were eventually restored on the DVD version, which was titled Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy.[citation needed] In 1974, a Mad animated television pilot using selected material from the magazine was commissioned by ABC, but the network decided not to broadcast it. Dick DeBartolo noted, "Nobody wanted to sponsor a show that made fun of products that were advertised on TV, like car manufacturers." The program was instead reworked into The Mad Magazine TV Special, which also went unbroadcast for the same reasons. The special was made by Focus Entertainment Inc., and was available for online viewing in SD quality[112] until 2022, when a 2K resolution scan of a 16mm film print was released online; The print was provided by one of the special's animators. [113] In the mid-1980s, Hanna-Barbera developed another potential Mad animated television series that was never broadcast.[114] In 1995, Fox Broadcasting Company's Mad TV licensed the use of the magazine's logo and characters. However, aside from short bumpers which animated existing Spy vs. Spy (1994–1998) and Don Martin (1995–2000) cartoons during the show's first three seasons, there was no editorial or stylistic connection between the TV show and the magazine. Produced by Quincy Jones, the sketch comedy series was in the vein of NBC's Saturday Night Live and Global/CBC's SCTV, and ran for 14 seasons and 321 episodes. On January 12, 2016, The CW aired an hour-long special celebrating the series' 20th anniversary. A large portion of the original cast returned. An eight-episode revival featuring a brand new cast premiered on July 26, 2016. Animated Spy vs. Spy sequences were also seen in TV ads for Mountain Dew soda in 2004.[42] In September 2010, Cartoon Network began airing the animated series Mad, from Warner Bros. Animation and executive producer Sam Register. Produced by Kevin Shinick and Mark Marek,[115] the series was composed of animated shorts and sketches lampooning current television shows, films, games and other aspects of popular culture, in a similar manner to the adult stop-motion animated sketch comedy Robot Chicken (of which Shinick was formerly a writer and is currently a recurring voice actor); in fact, Robot Chicken co-creator Seth Green occasionally provided voices on Mad as well. Critics and viewers have often cited the series as a kid-friendly version of Robot Chicken[citation needed]. Much like Mad TV's, this series also features appearances by Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoons. The series ran from September 6, 2010, to December 2, 2013, lasting for four seasons and 103 episodes. Computer software In 1984, the Spy vs. Spy characters were given their own computer game series, in which players could set traps for each other. The games were made for various computer systems such as the Atari 8-bit family, Apple II, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Nintendo Entertainment System. Whereas the original game took place in a nondescript building, the sequels transposed the action to a desert island for Spy vs. Spy: The Island Caper and a polar setting for Spy vs. Spy: Arctic Antics. Not to be confused with the later television show, Mad TV is a television station management simulation computer game produced in 1991 by Rainbow Arts for the Mad franchise. It was released on the PC and the Amiga. It is faithful to the magazine's general style of cartoon humor but does not include any of the original characters except for a brief closeup of Alfred E. Neuman's eyes during the opening screens. In 1996, Mad No. 350 included a CD-ROM featuring Mad-related software as well as three audio files.[116] In 1999, Broderbund/The Learning Company released Totally Mad, a Microsoft Windows 95/98-compatible CD-ROM set collecting the magazine's content from No. 1 through No. 376 (December 1998), plus over 100 Mad Specials including most of the recorded audio inserts. Despite the title, it omitted a handful of articles due to problems clearing the rights on some book excerpts and text taken from recordings, such as Andy Griffith's "What It Was, Was Football". In 2006, Graphic Imaging Technology's DVD-ROM Absolutely Mad updated the original Totally Mad content through 2005. A single seven-gigabyte disc, it is missing the same deleted material from the 1999 collection.[117] It differs from the earlier release in that it is Macintosh compatible. Another Spy vs. Spy video game was made in 2005 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows. A Mad app was released for iPad on April 1, 2012.[118] It displays the contents of each new issue beginning with Mad No. 507, as well as video clips from Cartoon Network's Mad, and material from the magazine's website, The Idiotical. See also History of Mad Recurring features in Mad List of film spoofs in Mad List of television show spoofs in Mad 43-Man Squamish Mad (TV series) MADtv Potrzebie Cracked magazine Harvey Kurtzman (/ˈkɜːrtsmən/; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book Mad from 1952 until 1956, and writing the Little Annie Fanny strips in Playboy from 1962 until 1988. His work is noted for its satire and parody of popular culture, social critique, and attention to detail. Kurtzman's working method has been likened to that of an auteur, and he expected those who illustrated his stories to follow his layouts strictly. Kurtzman began to work on the New Trend line of comic books at EC Comics in 1950. He wrote and edited the Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat war comic books, where he also drew many of the carefully researched stories, before he created his most-remembered comic book, Mad, in 1952. Kurtzman scripted the stories and had them drawn by top EC cartoonists, most frequently Will Elder, Wally Wood, and Jack Davis; the early Mad was noted for its social critique and parodies of pop culture. The comic book switched to a magazine format in 1955, and Kurtzman left it in 1956 over a dispute with EC's owner William Gaines over financial control. Following his departure, he did a variety of cartooning work, including editing the short-lived Trump and the self-published Humbug. In 1959, he produced the first book-length work of original comics, the adult-oriented, satirical Jungle Book. He edited the low-budget Help! from 1960 to 1965, a humor magazine which featured work by future Monty Python member and film director Terry Gilliam and the earliest work of underground cartoonists such as Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton. He brought Help! to an end after the success of the risqué Playboy feature Little Annie Fanny began to take up his time. While Annie Fanny provided much of his income for the rest of his career, he continued to produce an eclectic body of work, including screenwriting the animated Mad Monster Party? in 1967 and directing, writing and designing several shorts for Sesame Street in 1969. From 1973, Kurtzman taught cartooning at the School of Visual Arts in New York. His work gained greater recognition toward the end of his life, and he oversaw deluxe reprintings of much of his work. The Harvey Award was named in Kurtzman's honor in 1988. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1989, and his work earned five positions on The Comics Journal's Top 100 Comics of the 20th Century. Personal and professional history Early life (1924–1942) Harvey Kurtzman spoke little of his parents in interviews, and not much is known of their pre-American lives.[1] David Kurtzman and Edith née Sherman grew up in Ukraine in Odesa,[2] and were literate urbanites.[1] They belonged to the city's large Jewish community, one that suffered generations of antisemitic oppression, and the city had fallen into economic hardship following the Russian Revolution.[3] Shortly after World War I David emigrated to New York and Edith soon followed in what she called "a desperate journey" escaping the new Soviet Union. There the non-observant pair married in a civil ceremony.[4] The first of their two sons, Zachary, was born April 8, 1923.[5] Harvey Kurtzman was born on October 3, 1924, in a tenement building on 428 East Ninety-Eighth Street in Brooklyn in New York City.[6] David joined the Christian Science church, and when he suffered a bleeding ulcer he turned to prayer to cure it; he died from it on November 29, 1928,[7] at age 36. The family was in such desperate financial straits that their mother placed the Kurtzman brothers in an orphanage[1] for three months until she secured work as a milliner.[7] Several months later, Edith remarried to Russian-Jewish immigrant Abraham Perkes, who worked in the printing industry as a brass engraver.[8] The Kurtzman boys kept their surname, while their mother took that of Perkes.[9] The couple had a son Daniel on February 17, 1931. In 1934, the family moved to the more upscale Bronx,[10] where the family lived at 2166 Clinton Avenue.[11] Perkes was not wealthy, but managed to provide for his family during the Great Depression of the 1930s.[12] He was a trade unionist, and the couple read the communist newspaper Daily Worker.[13] Perkes brought young Kurtzman to work, and encouraged him to help with design and drawing and to think of himself as a professional artist.[11] A black-and-white photograph of a middle-aged man with a short haircut. He wears a suit and tie, and faces left. Young Kurtzman imitated the work of Rube Goldberg. Though he was a shy boy[12] his teachers recognized Kurtzman's intelligence in grade school and allowed him to skip a grade. He displayed artistic talent early[13] and his sidewalk chalk drawings drew the attention of children and adults, who gathered around to watch him draw. He called these strips "Ikey and Mikey", inspired by Goldberg's comic strip Mike and Ike.[14] His stepfather also had an interest in art and took the boys to museums. His mother encouraged his artistic development and enrolled him in art lessons;[5] on Saturdays, he took the subway to Manhattan for formal art instruction. His parents had him attend the left-leaning Jewish Camp Kinderland, but he did not enjoy its dogmatic atmosphere. Though not ashamed of their Jewish heritage, neither of the Kurtzman brothers agreed to have a Bar Mitzvah.[13] Kurtzman fell in love with comic strips and the newly emerging comic books in the late 1930s.[15] Unsatisfied with what he found in his parents' newspapers, he searched through garbage cans for the Sunday comics sections of his neighbors' newspapers. He admired a wide variety of strips, including Hamlin's Alley Oop,[16] Caniff's Terry and the Pirates, Gould's Dick Tracy, Foster's Prince Valiant, Raymond's Flash Gordon, and Capp's Li'l Abner. He found Will Eisner's comic book The Spirit a "standard by which other comic books would be measured",[15] and called Eisner "the greatest ... a virtuoso cartoonist of a kind who had never been seen before".[15] Eisner's page layouts had considerable influence on Kurtzman's work.[15] At 14 Kurtzman won a cartooning contest for which he received a dollar and had his cartoon published in Tip Top Comics #36 (April 1939). Future collaborator Jack Davis had won the same contest a few issues earlier.[17] After winning the annual John Wanamaker Art Contest, Kurtzman received a scholarship to attend high school at The High School of Music & Art.[18] Future colleagues Will Elder, Al Feldstein, Al Jaffee, John Severin, and Charles Stern also attended the school.[19] His ambitions were apparent even then; at a 2016 New York Comic Con panel, Jaffee recounted how a 15-year-old Kurtzman told his fellow students Jaffee and Elder "Someday I'm going to have a magazine, and I'm going to hire you guys."[20] Kurtzman graduated at 16 in 1941 and went on to Cooper Union on a scholarship.[21] Kurtzman left after a year to focus on making comic books.[22] Early career (1942–1949) Comic book cover. Whalers attack a whale. Kurtzman assisted on the Classics Illustrated version of Moby Dick in 1942 as his first assignment at Louis Ferstadt's studio. Kurtzman met Alfred Andriola in 1942, encouraged by a quote in Martin Sheridan's Classic Comics and their Creators where Andriola offered help to aspiring cartoonists. Kurtzman made an appointment, but Andriola's response to his work was discouraging—he told Kurtzman to give up on cartooning. Kurtzman called this meeting "one of the worst days of [his] life", though he ignored Andriola's advice and continued to peddle his portfolio.[23] Kurtzman continued to do odd jobs in 1942 until he got his first break in the comics industry at Louis Ferstadt's studio, which produced comics for Quality, Ace, Gilberton,[24] and the Daily Worker.[25] His first published work there was assisting on issue #5 (September 1942)[a] of Gilberton's Classic Comics, which features an adaptation of Moby Dick. His first pencil job appeared in Four Favorites #8 (December 1942).[b][26] He produced a large amount of undistinguished work in 1942 and 1943, which he later called "very crude, very ugly stuff",[27] before he was drafted in 1943 for service in World War II.[27] Kurtzman trained for the infantry, but was never sent overseas. He was stationed in Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. He illustrated instruction manuals, posters, and flyers, and contributed cartoons to camp newspapers, and newsletters. While there, he was invited by publisher and cartoonist L. B. Cole to draw the "Black Venus" superheroine, packaged for publisher Rae Herman's Orbit Publications. In 1944, he did work for several local publications while stationed in North Carolina, and had several gag cartoons in Yank by the end of October 1945. The quantity of work allowed Kurtzman to hone his style, which became more refined and distinct.[28] After his discharge following the war, Kurtzman found competition fierce in the comics industry, as freelancing replaced the system of packaging shops.[29] He applied to the newspaper PM, but his portfolio was rejected by cartoon editor Walt Kelly.[30] After a series of short-lived assignments and partnerships, Kurtzman got together with former Music and Art alumni Will Elder[29] and Charles Stern. They opened Charles William Harvey Studio in 1947, but had difficulty getting work.[29] The three had little business sense. Kurtzman managed the bills. In their Broadway studio, which Kurtzman kept open until the end of 1951, they sublet space to cartoonists such as John Severin, Dave Berg,[31] and René Goscinny.[32] Kurtzman had been doing crossword puzzles for publisher Martin Goodman since early in his career. A distant relative of Goodman's, Stan Lee, worked as an editor for Goodman's Timely Comics (a precursor to Marvel Comics). He offered Kurtzman work doing one-page fillers, work that paid little. Lee named the strip Hey Look!,[33] and Kurtzman produced 150 episodes of it from 1946 until 1949.[34] At a Music and Art reunion in early 1946 Kurtzman met Adele Hasan, who was one of the staff members at Timely and was dating Will Elder. She fell for Kurtzman, confiding to Al Jaffee that he "was the kind of kind [she would] like to marry".[35] Later in the year, Timely ran a "Now You Can Be the Editor!" contest whose ballots Hasan was assigned to sort through. She was disappointed that readers did not enjoy Kurtzman's Hey Look! as much as she did. She "stuffed the ballot box"[35] in Kurtzman's favor, which prompted an astonished Stan Lee to assign Kurtzman more work.[35] Kurtzman was given the talking animal feature Pigtales at regular freelance rates, as well as miscellaneous other assignments. As Harvey stopped by the Timely offices more frequently, he and Adele would flirt, and eventually started dating. She left Timely for college that autumn, and corresponded frequently with Kurtzman;[36] soon she dropped out of college and the two married that September.[36] In 1948 Kurtzman produced a Sunday comic strip, Silver Linings, which ran infrequently in the New York Herald Tribune between March and June.[37] Lee had Hey Look! brought to an end in 1949 so Kurtzman could concentrate on longer features for Timely's family-oriented line. Kurtzman was assigned artwork duties for the Lee-scripted Rusty, an imitation of Chic Young's comic strip Blondie, but was disappointed with this type of work and began looking for other employment. He sold episodes of the one-pagers Egghead Doodle and Genius to Timely and Al Capp's Toby Press on a freelance basis.[37] He also sold longer pieces to Toby, including episodes of his Western parody Pot Shot Pete, a short-lived series that hinted at the pop-culture satire Kurtzman was to become known for.[38] Kurtzman came across Charles Biro's Crime Does Not Pay, a comic book Kurtzman describes as reading with "the same excitement ... that [he] felt about the underground comic books of twenty years later". These stories presented a view of reality quite different from the escapist entertainment typical of comics of the day, and was to influence the war and social drama work Kurtzman was soon to do at EC Comics.[38] EC and Mad (1949–1956) See also: Harvey Kurtzman's editorship of Mad Kurtzman continued to shop his work around, and produced work for Ace/Periodical, Quality, Aviation Press, Timely, and the magazines Varsity and Parents. He did a number of children's books, four of which were collaborations with René Goscinny. He brought some samples of educational comics into the EC Comics offices—"EC" had originally stood for "Educational Comics" when it was run by Max Gaines,[39] but his son Bill changed the company's focus and name to "Entertaining Comics" when he inherited the business. Gaines liked Kurtzman's Hey Look! samples but had no immediate use for his particular skills. Gaines directed Kurtzman to his brother, David, who gave him some low-paying work on Lucky Fights it Through, a two-fisted cowboy story with an educational health message about syphilis.[40] Circular logo with "EC" in the center, surround by the words "An Entertaining Comic" Kurtzman worked for EC Comics from 1950 to 1956. With the doors to EC open to him Kurtzman started getting regular work from the publisher in 1950. That spring, EC's "New Trend" line of horror, fantasy, and science fiction comics began, and Kurtzman contributed stories in these genres. His income doubled over the previous year's.[41] In late 1950, he began writing and editing an adventure title, Two-Fisted Tales, which he proposed as a comic book in the vein of Roy Crane's popular comic strip, Captain Easy. The comic book differed in offering realistic stories in place of Crane's idealism, a degree of realism not yet seen in American comics. The war stories of Frontline Combat followed in mid-1951.[42] The stories were not only about modern war, but also derived from deep in history, such as the Roman legions and Napoleonic campaigns.[43] Kurtzman rejected the idealization of war that had swept the US since World War II. He spent hours in the New York Public Library in search of the detailed truth behind the stories he was writing,[44] sometimes taking days or weeks to research a story.[45] His research included interviewing and corresponding with GIs[46] taking a ride aboard a rescue plane, and sending his assistant Jerry DeFuccio for a ride in a submarine to gather sound effects. (DeFuccio's first field report from this assignment was a 10-word telegram to Kurtzman reading "MANY BRAVE HEARTS ARE ASLEEP IN THE DEEP GLUB GLUB.")[47] The stories gave a sympathetic look to both sides of a conflict, regardless of nationality or ethnicity.[48] He sought to tell what he saw as the objective truth about war, deglamorizing it and showing its futility, though the stories were not explicitly anti-war.[49] Kurtzman was given a great deal of artistic freedom by Gaines, but was himself a strict taskmaster. He insisted that the artists who drew his stories not deviate from his layouts. The artists generally respected Kurtzman's wishes out of respect for his creative authority, but some, like Bernie Krigstein[44] and Dan Barry,[50] felt their own artistic autonomy impinged upon.[44] Cover of the first issue of Mad. On the left, a family of three cringes against a wall in the dark. A humanoid shadow falls from the right. The father says, "That thing! That slithering blob coming toward us!" The mother says, "What is it?" The child, says, "It's Melvin!" Kurtzman is best known for creating Mad in 1952. Those who worked for EC received payment based on output. Kurtzman's laborious working methods meant he was less prolific than fellow EC writer and editor Al Feldstein, and Kurtzman felt financially underappreciated for the amount of effort he poured into his work.[51] He was financially burdened with a mortgage and a family.[52] He also detested the horror content of the books Feldstein was producing, and which consistently outsold his own work. He believed these stories had the same sort of influence on children that the chauvinism of war comics which he believed he worked hard against in his own work.[53] Remembering Kurtzman's humor work from the 1940s,[51] Gaines proposed a humor magazine to increase Kurtzman's income,[54] as he believed it would take far less time and effort to research.[52] Mad debuted in August 1952,[c] and Kurtzman scripted every story in the first twenty-three issues. The stories in Mad targeted what Kurtzman saw as fundamental untruths in the subjects parodied, inspired by the irreverent humor found in college humor magazines. They were developed in the same incremental way Kurtzman had developed for the war stories, and his layouts were followed faithfully by the artists who drew them—most frequently, Will Elder, Jack Davis and Wally Wood.[55] Mad did not have instant success, but found its audience by the fourth issue, which quickly sold out. The issue featured the Wood-drawn "Superduperman", a parody of Superman and Captain Marvel, including the copyright infringement lawsuit that National Periodicals (now DC Comics) had recently brought against Fawcett Comics.[56] National, the owners of Superman's copyright, threatened to file another lawsuit over the parody. EC and National shared the same lawyer, who advised Gaines to quit publishing parodies. While Gaines was weighing this advice, Kurtzman discovered a legal precedent that backed Mad's right to parody. Gaines hired the author of that precedent to write a brief substantiating EC's position, but the lawyer sided with National. Gaines consulted a third lawyer, who advised Gaines to ignore the threat and continue publishing parodies. National never filed suit.[57] When Kurtzman parodied National's Batman character just four issues later, the spoof included six separate picket signs, posters and other notices proclaiming that "Batboy and Rubin" was a comedic imitation, e.g.: "Not a spittoon, not a cartoon, not a harpoon, but a LAMPOON!" Parodying specific targets became a staple of Mad.[58] Beginning April 1954, the bimonthly Mad went monthly after the cancelation of Frontline Combat, whose sales had flagged when the Korean War ended.[59] Soon, large numbers of Mad imitators sprang up from other publishers, as well as from EC itself with the Feldstein-edited Panic.[60] Kurtzman poured himself into Mad, putting as much effort into it as he had into his war books. This defeated the purpose of having an easy-to-produce third book, but with Frontline Combat's cancelation, Kurtzman focused on Mad.[61] During the early 1950s, Kurtzman became one of the writers for Dan Barry's relaunched Flash Gordon daily comic strip. He scripted two sequences for the strip, with portions pencilled by Frank Frazetta.[62] The strip soon became one of Mad's targets in "Flesh Garden!", drawn by Wood, who had earlier assisted Barry on the Flash Gordon strip.[63] In 1954, Kurtzman dreamed up a full-color, 100-page adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol called Marley's Ghost, and proposed the project to Simon & Schuster and other publishers. The proposal included seven finished pages,[64] as well as a page redone by Jack Davis in case publishers' rejections were due to Kurtzman's drawing style.[65] The ambitious project did not find a willing publisher, as comics were still seen as too low-brow for such lavish treatment.[64] Since the 1940s, crime and horror comics had been drawing fire from those worried about a rise in juvenile delinquency.[66][page needed] The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency brought pressure on such comic books in 1954, and EC, one of the major purveyors of such fare, found their wares being refused by their distributor. Gaines brought those titles to an end and tried to replace them with the New Direction line, but by autumn 1955 the only remaining EC title was Mad.[61] Gaines had just allowed Kurtzman to change Mad's format to a magazine in July, in order to keep him at EC after Kurtzman had received an offer of employment from Pageant magazine.[59] Color poster illustration of a boy with a goofy grin, captioned "Me Worry?" Kurtzman appropriated the "Me Worry?" character as Mad's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman. Kurtzman had long dreamed of joining the slick magazine publishing world, and had been trying to convince Gaines to publish Mad in a larger, more adult format. The August issue of Pageant featured an article "Now Comics Have Gone Mad", and Pageant's publisher Alex Hillman offered Kurtzman a job. With the prospect of losing his lone editor and writer, Gaines gave in to Kurtzman's demands. The magazine-format twenty-fourth issue of Mad (July 1955) was more successful than anticipated, and had to be reprinted, an unusual occurrence in magazine publishing.[67] The new presentation was ambitious, and included meticulously rendered advertisement parodies and text pieces by humorists such as Ernie Kovacs, Stan Freberg, and Steve Allen. It was around this time that Kurtzman introduced Mad's gap-toothed mascot and his slogan, "What, me worry?",[68] whom Feldstein later named Alfred E. Neuman.[69] Elsewhere, the one-time cartoonist Hugh Hefner had become a media mogul by the mid-1950s with his Playboy magazine. He had admired Kurtzman's Mad, and met Kurtzman in New York to express his appreciation. He told Kurtzman that if he were ever to leave Mad, a place would be waiting for him in the Hefner empire. With this promise to back him, Kurtzman demanded legal control of Mad from Gaines in the form of stocks. Reluctant to lose the editor of his sole remaining publication, Gaines offered a 10% share. As this would not give Kurtzman the control he wanted, Kurtzman countered with a demand for 51%. Gaines refused, and the two parted ways.[70] Kurtzman contacted Hefner[71] and Gaines hired Al Feldstein to edit Mad.[72] Trump, Humbug and Jungle Book (1957–1959) ... we all somehow talked ourselves into a very foolish thing, which was an artists' magazine ... All of us chipped in money, and we went into the publishing business, which artists should never, never do, for the simple reason that they lose sight of the practical considerations of business survival. Art becomes everything and the marketplace becomes secondary. — Kurtzman, in interview[73] With Trump (1957), Kurtzman began a long relation with Hugh Hefner and Playboy. Hefner employed Kurtzman from April 1956. The slick, full-color Trump appeared on newsstands in January 1957. Cartoonists who contributed to Trump included Mad regulars such as Elder, Wood, Davis, and Jaffee, as well as Russ Heath and newer artists such as Irving Geis, Arnold Roth, and R. O. Blechman. Writers Mel Brooks, Roger Price, Doodles Weaver, and Max Shulman also made contributions. The fifty-cent magazine was a luxurious, more risqué version of Mad, and sold well. Unfortunately, Hefner began to have financial problems, and canceled Trump after its second issue. The magazine had been a success in the market, but had already accrued $100,000 in expenses, about which Hefner quipped, "I gave Harvey Kurtzman an unlimited budget, and he exceeded it."[74] Hefner delivered the news in person to Kurtzman—in the hospital where his third child, Elizabeth, was being born. Adele said it was the only time she had seen her husband cry. Kurtzman later said that Trump was the closest he ever came to producing "the perfect humor magazine".[75] While the Trump artists were mulling over the situation in the Playboy offices, Roth approached with a bottle of scotch. By the time they left the office, the group had agreed to embark on a publishing venture of their own: Humbug. The publication was financed and run by the artists who created it,[73] though none of the group had business experience. Only artist Jack Davis became an equal shareholder and the only salaried employee despite declining to financially back the project; his participation was considered vital to its success. The others would joke in years to come that Davis was the only one to make any money from Humbug. With Kurtzman in the lead the reinvigorated, close-knit group set out to produce a classy publication in the vein of college humor magazines, but aimed at a general readership.[76] Along with the pop-cultural satire that had been the staple of Mad and Trump, Humbug included more topical and political satire, mostly from writers other than Kurtzman.[77] Hefner provided the group desirable office space at an inexpensive rate, out of guilt for canceling Trump so quickly.[78] Humbug ran into snags right away due to its small format, which made it difficult for consumers to find it on the newsstands.[76] It also suffered distribution problems.[79] For its last two issues, Humbug was printed in a standard magazine size, and the price was raised from fifteen cents to twenty-five. At the last minute, the page count of the eleventh issue was increased from thirty-two pages to forty-eight, reprinting material from Trump. This last issue included a self-deprecating message from Kurtzman which summarized the artists' careers and announced Humbug's farewell. The group followed divergent career paths following the breakup.[80] After the demise of Humbug, Kurtzman spent a few years as a freelance contributor to magazines such as Playboy, Esquire, Madison Avenue, The Saturday Evening Post, TV Guide, and Pageant.[44] With Elliot Caplin he produced a poorly received comic strip, Kermit the Hermit, among other miscellaneous work.[81] In 1958 Kurtzman proposed a strip to TV Guide parodying adult Western TV shows; its rejection particularly disappointed him.[82] In 1959, Ballantine Books was looking for something to replace its successful line of Mad mass-market paperback reprints after Gaines had taken it to another publisher.[83] Ballantine had earlier published The Humbug Digest in the same format,[84] though it fared poorly in the market.[85] Kurtzman proposed a book of original material designed for the format,[83] which Ian Ballantine, with reservations, accepted on faith out of respect for Kurtzman.[84] Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book was the first mass-market paperback of original comics content in the United States,[86] and to Kurtzman biographer Denis Kitchen was a precursor to the graphic novel.[84] Whereas his Mad stories had been aimed at an adolescent audience, Kurtzman made Jungle Book for adults, which was unusual in American comics.[83] Jungle Book sold poorly, but remained a favorite among its small number of devoted fans.[87] If it had been a success, Kurtzman intended to continue with more books in the same vein.[88] Help! and Little Annie Fanny (1960–1965) Kurtzman had "The Grasshopper and the Ant" printed in Esquire magazine in 1960. The strip was a social allegory of a hipster grasshopper and a hard-working ant with opposing worldviews, both of whom lose out in the end. It was a rarity for Kurtzman in that he created it in full color, rather in black-and-white lineart with color added afterward.[64] Kurtzman once more proposed Marley's Ghost to a number of publishers in 1962, including The Saturday Evening Post, but again it was rejected.[64] In 1960, Harvey teamed up with publisher James Warren to co-publish Help!. Warren Publishing ran the business end, while co-ownership of the magazine allowed Kurtzman the control that he wanted, though its tight budget restricted that control. The magazine made frequent use of fumetti photographic comics, which sometimes starred celebrities[89] such as Woody Allen and a pre-Monty Python John Cleese. The first issue was cover-dated August 1960.[89] Gloria Steinem and Terry Gilliam were among those the magazine employed.[90] By the end of its run, Help! had introduced a number of young cartoonists who were to play a major part in the underground comix movement, including Robert Crumb, Jay Lynch, Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez, and Skip Williamson.[91] Comic strip panel The parodic depictions of Archie Comics characters in "Goodman Goes Playboy" prompted a copyright infringement lawsuit. Help!'s most famous story[92] starred Kurtzman's character Goodman Beaver in "Goodman Goes Playboy" in the February 1962 issue.[93][d] The story satirized Hefner and his lifestyle, while parodying Archie comics in a much more risqué way than the previous "Starchie" parody in Mad had. The Archie characters were drinking, partying skirt-chasers home from college. Archie's publishers sued, and Warren agreed to settle out of court rather than risk an expensive lawsuit. The actual target of the strip had however been Hefner, who loved it; Kurtzman began working for Hefner again soon after.[94] Kurtzman approached Hefner in 1960 with the idea of a comic strip feature for Playboy that would star Goodman Beaver.[95] Playboy ran a lot of cartoons, but a comic strip was something new to the magazine. After discussing ideas, Kurtzman's proposal was accepted under the condition that Goodman Beaver be transformed into a voluptuous female.[96] Little Annie Fanny was Playboy's first comic strip and the first multi-page comics feature in an American slick magazine.[97] As his primary collaborator, Kurtzman had Will Elder[96] provide the strip's labor-intensive, fully painted full-color final rendering.[98] Little Annie Fanny began appearing in Playboy in 1962.[99] Kurtzman and Warren disagreed on Kurtzman's editorial decisions on Help!,[100] and Kurtzman found himself unsatisfied with the partnership. Help!'s sales were declining, and the magazine quietly came to an end with its twenty-sixth issue, cover-dated September 1965. This allowed Kurtzman and Elder to focus full-time on Little Annie Fanny.[101] Hefner was a demanding editor and delivered critiques to Kurtzman that could reach twenty pages.[102] Later years (1965–1993) Kurtzman participated in a number of film projects beginning in the late 1960s. He co-scripted the stop-motion animated film Mad Monster Party? (1967), a job he got through the recommendation of Jack Davis, who had been doing character designs for the film's production company Rankin/Bass.[103] Kurtzman wrote, co-directed, and designed several short animated pieces for Sesame Street in 1969; he was particularly proud of the Phil Kimmelman-animated Boat, in which a left prosthetic-legged sea captain voiced by Hal Smith orders a series of increasingly larger numerals to load into a boat, eventually sinking it. In 1972, he appeared in a television advertisement for Scripto pens.[104] Kurtzman turned down a number of well-paying opportunities in the 1970s. In early 1972, Stan Lee offered Kurtzman a senior position at Marvel Comics, and proposed another Mad-like magazine; Kurtzman turned these opportunities down, as he felt unprepared to return to the comic book industry after being out of it for so long since leaving EC.[105] Marvel launched Crazy Magazine without him in 1973.[106] Michael C. Gross asked him to contribute to National Lampoon around this time. The magazine's staff revered Kurtzman and had published a parody of Mad in 1971 that included "Citizen Gaines", a piece critical of Gaines' handling of Mad and treatment of Kurtzman. Kurtzman turned the offer down, as he felt out of step with the younger cartoonists' approach.[107] He turned down an offer from René Goscinny in 1973 to act as the US agent for the French comics magazine Pilote.[108] Photograph of School of Visual Arts Main Building Kurtzman taught at the School of Visual Arts in the 1970s. In 1973, New York's School of Visual Arts asked Kurtzman and Will Eisner to take teaching positions there in cartooning. Kurtzman had no earlier teaching experience and found the prospect daunting,[109] but Eisner convinced him to take the job. Eisner's class was called "Sequential Art" and Kurtzman's was "Satirical Cartooning",[110] which focused on single-panel gag cartooning.[111] Kurtzman had a soft touch with his students, and was well respected and well liked.[112] He frequently had professional cartoonists appear as guest lecturers.[113] When the school refused to publish his students' work, Kurtzman had them published in an ad-supported, student-produced anthology that came to be called Kar-Tünz.[e][114] Kar-Tünz ran for fifteen years.[115] Beginning in the late 1970s, Kurtzman's stature began to grow. His protégés such as Crumb, Spiegelman and Gilliam sang his praises, his reputation grew with the spread of comics fandom,[116] and collector Glenn Bray published The Illustrated Harvey Kurtzman Index in 1976.[117] He also found he had a following in Europe; his work appeared there for the first time in the French magazine Charlie Mensuel in October 1970, and in 1973 the European Academy of Comic Book Art awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award for 1972.[108] A series of reprint projects and one-shot efforts appeared in the 1970s and 1980s, including Kurtzman Komix, published in 1976 by Kitchen Sink Press. In his later years, Kurtzman continued to work on anthologies and various other projects, including editing two volumes of a YA original anthology series, Nuts, packaged by Byron Preiss and published by Bantam Books in 1985. He oversaw[115] reprints of his work in deluxe editions from Russ Cochran, who did The Complete EC Library, and Kitchen Sink Press, who did collections of Goodman Beaver (1984), Hey Look! (1992), and others, and reprinted Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book (1988). Lengthy interviews were conducted with The Comics Journal and Squa Tront. The comics industry's Harvey Award was named in his honor in 1988.[116] Kurtzman toured and gave speeches frequently to fans in the 1980s.[118] Kurtzman had reconciled with Gaines by the mid-1980s, and in collaboration with Elder, illustrated 19 pieces and covers for Mad from 1986 to 1989.[104][119] Kurtzman brought Little Annie Fanny to an end in 1988, amid failing health, a poor relationship with Playboy cartoon editor Michelle Urry, and resentment over the discovery that he did not own the rights to the strip.[102] Harvey Kurtzman's Strange Adventures assembled a wide cast of cartoonists in 1990 to illustrate stories from Kurtzman's layouts, though the book was not a success, nor was a revival of Two-Fisted Tales.[104] He had long planned to write a comics history, but other work had taken priority. Towards the end of his life, he agreed to collaborate with comics historian Michael Barrier to complete From Aargh! to Zap! Harvey Kurtzman's Visual History of the Comics, which was published in 1991, though it was shorter than the more complete history Kurtzman had planned.[120] Kurtzman, who had suffered from Parkinson's disease[121] and colon cancer in later life,[18] died at Mount Vernon, New York on February 21, 1993, of complications from liver cancer,[122] nine months after Bill Gaines' death. The New Yorker commissioned a commemorative cartoon by Will Elder and ran an elegy by writer Adam Gopnik.[123] Cartoonist Jules Feiffer remarked at the time that cartooning had lost its Orson Welles.[116] Personal life Kurtzman stood 5 feet 6 inches (168 cm) and was of slight build. He had an unassuming demeanor; humorist Roger Price likened him to "a beagle who is too polite to mention that someone is standing on his tail". Rolf Malcolm described him as someone who smiles little and speaks slowly.[124] Al Jaffee said he "was not an easy person to get too close to".[125] Kurtzman and wife Adele (née Hasan[35]) were married in September 1948.[36] They had three daughters and one son:[116] Meredith, born July 28, 1950;[126] Peter, born June 29, 1954;[127] Elizabeth, born January 21, 1957;[128] and Cornelia "Nellie", born April 15, 1969.[129] (Meredith in 1970 went on to become one of the contributors to It Ain't Me, Babe, the first comic book produced entirely by women.)[130] Kurtzman's work allowed him to be at home with his children during the day, and he gave them much of his attention.[120] As Peter had low-functioning autism,[131] the Kurtzmans volunteered locally for work with special needs children,[120] and in 1986 began an annual charity auction, raising money by selling the artwork of cartoonists for the Association for Mentally Ill Children of Westchester, which Adele continued to oversee following her husband's death.[132] Style and working method Though it may look deceptively simple to the casual observer, [Kurtzman's art] is the end product of a long process of paring an elaborate drawing down to its essential line. Nature is not straight. In Kurtzman's art even the horizon is curved. — Comics historian Jacques Dutrey[133] According to Kurtzman, "Cartooning consists of the two elements, graphics and texts [sic] ... Obviously it is to the advantage of the total product to have good text and good art and the more closely integrated the good text and good art are, the greater the opportunity is to create the capital-A Art."[134] The stories he created and had others illustrate balance captions and dialogue, in contrast with, for example, Al Feldstein's EC stories, in which the artists had to compensate for the text which dominated the page.[134] In the war stories he drew himself he employed a drawing style that distorted figures in expressive ways more akin to modern art than the stylizations of contemporary superhero or talking animal comics.[48] R. C. Harvey described this style as "abstract and telepathic" in stories that were realistic in the telling, but in which "his figures were exaggerated and contorted, demonstrations of posture as drama rather than reality as perceived".[135] French comics historian Jacques Dutrey described Kurtzman's style as "movement and shapes, energy and aesthetics".[133] Many liken Kurtzman's working method to that of an auteur.[136] In developing stories in this way Kurtzman aimed to reach a balance between text and graphics. He developed a way of creating stories incrementally, beginning with a paragraph-long treatment of the story. After deciding on a story and an ending which had impact, he laid out thumbnail sketches in miniature, with captions and dialogue. He proceeded to revise repeatedly on tracing paper, tacking one layer on top of another,[135] as he worked out "what characters have to say".[46] He prepared layouts on large pieces of vellum to pass on to the artists, with supplemental photographs and drawings,[46] and personally led the artist through the story before the finished artwork was begun. According to Jack Davis, "When you'd pick up a story, Harvey would sit down with you and he ... acted it out, all the way through ... You felt like you'd lived the story."[44] Typically when working on Little Annie Fanny, after researching the background story, Kurtzman prepared a penciled layout on Bristol board a color guide for Elder on an 8+1⁄2-by-11-inch (22 cm × 28 cm) vellum overlay. He would then create a larger version of the page on vellum with a 10+1⁄2-by-15-inch (27 cm × 38 cm) image area, which he would create using colored markers, working his way up from lighter to darker colors as he tightened the composition. He then traced this onto another sheet of vellum, or more if still unsatisfied with the results. He would pass this on to Elder to render the final image following Kurtman's layouts exactly after having the image transferred to illustration board.[137] Kurtzman's layouts owed considerable debt to Will Eisner's work on The Spirit. He derived a chiaroscuro technique from Milt Caniff in his 1940s studio work.[15] Legacy Along with cartoonists such as Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, and Carl Barks, Kurtzman is regularly cited as one of the defining creators of the Golden Age of American comic books.[138] In 2003, The New York Times described Kurtzman as "one of the most important figures in postwar America" over Mad's influence on popular culture.[139] This was an upgrade from the Times' obituary for Kurtzman in 1993, which said he had "helped found Mad Magazine." This prompted an angry response to the newspaper from Art Spiegelman, who complained that awarding Kurtzman partial credit for starting Mad was "like saying Michelangelo helped paint the Sistine Chapel just because some Pope owned the ceiling."[140] An elderly man with a white beard, round glasses, a beret-like hat, a dark vest, and a necktie. He faces down right, looking into an open book. Kurtzman mentored cartoonists such as Robert Crumb. Kurtzman acted as mentor to a large number of cartoonists,[141] such as Terry Gilliam,[142] Robert Crumb,[143] and Gilbert Shelton.[144] Students of his at the School of Visual Arts included John Holmstrom,[145] Batton Lash, and Drew Friedman.[146] Kurtzman, and particularly his work on Mad, is the most frequently cited influence on the underground comix movement[147]—comics historian Mark Estren called Mad "the granddaddy of the underground comics".[148] In 1958, Robert Crumb and his older brother Charles self-published three issues of the Humbug-inspired fanzine Foo in 1958. The venture was not a financial success, and Crumb turned to producing comics to satisfy himself. In 1964 Kurtzman published his work in Help!.[149] Kurtzman's style of humor influenced countercultural comedians from the 1960s on, including the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, according to member Harry Shearer.[150] Help! contributor Terry Gilliam, who went on to be a member of Monty Python, called Kurtzman "[i]n many ways ... one of the godparents of Monty Python".[151] In his 1985 film Brazil, Terry Gilliam gave Ian Holm's character the name "Kurtzmann".[152] Underground cartoonist Robert Crumb asserted that one of Kurtzman's cover images for Humbug "changed [his] life" and that another Mad cover image "changed the way [he] saw the world forever!"[153] On Kurtzman's influence Time editor Richard Corliss stated, "Almost all American satire today follows a formula that Harvey Kurtzman thought up."[123] Discussion panel on Jungle Book at the 2014 New York Comic Con. From left to right are Kurtzman's daughter, Nellie, David Hajdu, Denis Kitchen, Jay Lynch, John Holmstrom, and Bill Kartalopoulos. While some, such as R. C. Harvey considered it a masterpiece,[135] others such as Michael Dooley felt Little Annie Fanny was "known more for its lavish production values than its humor",[153] or that it compromised Kurtzman's genius.[154] A minority of underground cartoonists considered him a sell out for compromising his ideals by working for Playboy for twenty-six years.[155] Many fans consider Help! to be Kurtzman's "last hurrah".[99] The Kirby Awards came to an end in 1987, and the Harvey Awards and Eisner Awards took its place. Named in Kurtzman's honor, the Harveys are administered by Fantagraphics Books, and nominees and winners are selected by comics professionals.[156] Kurtzman was one of seven cartoonists featured in the traveling "Masters of American Comics" exhibition in 2005–2006.[157] To Comics Journal editor and Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth, Kurtzman's style "achieves some sort of Platonic ideal of cartooning. Harvey was a master of composition, tone and visual rhythm, both within the panel and among the panels comprising the page. He was also able to convey fragments of genuine humanity through an impressionistic technique that was fluid and supple."[153] Comics critic and historian R. C. Harvey conjectured that Kurtzman "may be the most influential American cartoonist since Walt Disney",[22] and comics historian Don Markstein considered him "among the most influential cartoonists of the 20th century".[158] In its list of 100 best English-language comics of the 20th century, The Comics Journal awarded Kurtzman five of the slots:[159] Mad #1–24, 1952–1956, Edited by Harvey Kurtzman[160] The War Comics of Harvey Kurtzman, 1950–1955, Harvey Kurtzman and various[161] Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book, 1959[162] Hey Look!, 1946–1949, Harvey Kurtzman[163] Goodman Beaver, 1962, Harvey Kurtzman & Will Elder[164] In 2012, Kurtzman's estate and Al Feldstein filed to reclaim the copyrights on their 1950s work at EC. The claim was based on changes to copyright laws made in 1976, in which copyrights sold could be reclaimed by the original independent creators at the time of copyright renewal. The basis of the Kurtzman and Feldstein claims was that they were not employees of EC, but subcontractors.[165] Comics collector Glenn Bray published The Illustrated Harvey Kurtzman Index in 1976, a complete guide to everything Kurtzman had published to that point.[117] Howard Zimmerman adapted interviews with Kurtzman conducted by Zimmerman and Byron Preiss into a short autobiography in 1988 titled Harvey Kurtzman: My Life as a Cartoonist.[166][167] Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle produced a biography of Kurtzman in 2009 titled The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics, with an introduction by comedian Harry Shearer.[168] Bill Schelly spent three years to research and write[169] another, longer one in 2015, titled Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created MAD and Revolutionized Humor in America,[170] with an introduction by Terry Gilliam.[169] In 2014, Dark Horse Comics via their Kitchen Sink Books imprint began reprinting deluxe, expanded editions of Kurtzman work in The Essential Kurtzman series, beginning with Harvey Kurtzman’s Jungle Book, edited and designed by John Lind and including new essays on the work from Lind, Denis Kitchen, R.Crumb, Peter Poplaski, and an introduction by Gilbert Shelton.[171] The work received two nominations (Best Reprint and Excellence in Publication) in the 2015 Harvey Awards.[172] The second volume in the series Playboy’s TRUMP, a collection of the 1950s satire magazine created by Kurtzman and Hugh Hefner, was published in 2016.[173] Notes The artwork for the issue was penciled by Louis Zansky and inked by Fred Eng.[26] Credited to "Kurtzman with Looey", suggesting Ferstadt handled the inking.[26] The October–November cover-dated first issue of Mad appeared on newsstands in August 1952.[54] The February 1962 issue of Help! appeared in late 1961.[94] The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938. Major federal programs and agencies, including the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Farm Security Administration (FSA), the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA), provided support for farmers, the unemployed, youth, and the elderly. The New Deal included new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and efforts to re-inflate the economy after prices had fallen sharply. New Deal programs included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs focused on what historians refer to as the "3 R's": relief for the unemployed and for the poor, recovery of the economy back to normal levels, and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.[1] The New Deal produced a political realignment, making the Democratic Party the majority (as well as the party that held the White House for seven out of the nine presidential terms from 1933 to 1969) with its base in progressive ideas, the South, big city machines and the newly empowered labor unions, and various ethnic groups. The Republicans were split, with progressive Republicans in support but conservatives opposing the entire New Deal as hostile to business and economic growth. The realignment crystallized into the New Deal coalition that dominated presidential elections into the 1960s and the opposing conservative coalition largely controlled Congress in domestic affairs from 1937 to 1964. Roosevelt was supportive of the idea of creating a progressive Democratic Party that could lure away progressives from the Republican Party. Indeed, Roosevelt had appealed to progressive Republicans for support for New Deal programs. As noted by one historian, however, there were limits "as to how far Roosevelt would go to establish a unified progressive party. He would not actively support progressive candidates in Senate and House electoral contests if the progressive was a Republican. The most notable example of this was his hands-off policy in a Pennsylvania Senate election despite an appeal by Gifford Pinchot, a prominent progressive and friend of Roosevelt, for help. Reluctant to alienate the conservative wing of the Democratic Party, Roosevelt at least made this minimal concession to party loyalty. He was willing to manage the tensions between ideology and party as long as progressives predominated in Congress and some Southern conservative Democrats were willing to trade their support for New Deal economic programs for federal tolerance of racial discrimination in the South. A prudent balancing of the conflicting demands of party and ideology at this time served the end of furthering his own reform agenda."[2] Summary of First and Second New Deal programs The First New Deal (1933–1934) dealt with the pressing banking crisis through the Emergency Banking Act and the 1933 Banking Act. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided US$500 million (equivalent to $11.3 billion in 2022) for relief operations by states and cities, and the short-lived CWA gave locals money to operate make-work projects from 1933 to 1934.[3] The Securities Act of 1933 was enacted to prevent a repeated stock market crash. The controversial work of the National Recovery Administration (NRA) was also part of the First New Deal. The Second New Deal in 1935–1936 included the National Labor Relations Act to protect labor organizing, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief program (which made the federal government the largest employer in the nation),[4] the Social Security Act and new programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. The final major items of New Deal legislation were the creation of the United States Housing Authority and the FSA, which both occurred in 1937; and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set maximum hours and minimum wages for most categories of workers.[5] The FSA was also one of the oversight authorities of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, which administered relief efforts to Puerto Rican citizens affected by the Great Depression.[6] Roosevelt had built a New Deal coalition, but the economic downturn of 1937–1938 and the bitter split between the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) labor unions led to major Republican gains in Congress in 1938. Conservative Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined the informal conservative coalition. By 1942–1943, they shut down relief programs such as the WPA and the CCC and blocked major progressive proposals. Noting the composition of the new Congress, one study argued The Congress that assembled in January 1939 was quite unlike any with which Roosevelt had to contend before. Since all Democratic losses took place in the North and the West, and particularly in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, southerners held a much stronger position. The House contained 169 non-southern Democrats, 93 southern Democrats, 169 Republicans, and 4 third-party representatives. For the first time, Roosevelt could not form a majority without the help of some southerners or Republicans. In addition, the president had to contend with several senators who, having successfully resisted the purge, no longer owed him anything. Most observers agreed, therefore, that the president could at best hope to consolidate, but certainly not to extend, the New Deal. James Farley thought that Roosevelt's wisest course would be "to clean up odds and ends, tighten up and improve things [he] already has but not try [to] start anything new." In any event, Farley predicted that Congress would discard much of Roosevelt's program.[7] As noted by another study, "the 1938 elections proved a decisive point in the consolidation of the conservative coalition in Congress. The liberal bloc in the House had been halved, and conservative Democrats had escaped 'relatively untouched'". In the House elected in 1938 there were at least 30 anti-New Deal Democrats and another 50 who were "not at all enthusiastic". In addition, "The new Senate was split about evenly between pro- and anti-New Deal factions."[8] The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was the last major New Deal legislation that Roosevelt succeeded in enacting into law before the conservative coalition won control of Congress. Though he could usually use the veto to restrain Congress, Congress could block any Roosevelt legislation it disliked.[9] Nonetheless, Roosevelt turned his attention to the war effort and won reelection in 1940–1944. Furthermore, the Supreme Court declared the NRA and the first version of the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) unconstitutional, but the AAA was rewritten and then upheld. Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961) left the New Deal largely intact, even expanding it in some areas. In the 1960s, Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society used the New Deal as inspiration for a dramatic expansion of progressive programs, which Republican Richard Nixon generally retained. However, after 1974 the call for deregulation of the economy gained bipartisan support.[10] The New Deal regulation of banking (Glass–Steagall Act) lasted until it was suspended in the 1990s. Several organizations created by New Deal programs remain active and those operating under the original names include the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The largest programs still in existence are the Social Security System and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Origins Economic collapse (1929–1933) US annual real GDP from 1910 to 1960, with the years of the Great Depression (1929–1939) highlighted Unemployment rate in the United States from 1910 to 1960, with the years of the Great Depression (1929–1939) highlighted (accurate data begins in 1939) From 1929 to 1933 manufacturing output decreased by one third,[11] which economist Milton Friedman later called the Great Contraction. Prices fell by 20%, causing deflation that made repaying debts much harder. Unemployment in the United States increased from 4% to 25%.[12] Additionally, one-third of all employed persons were downgraded to working part-time on much smaller paychecks. In the aggregate, almost 50% of the nation's human work-power was going unused.[13] Before the New Deal, USA bank deposits were not "guaranteed" by government.[14] When thousands of banks closed, depositors temporarily lost access to their money; most of the funds were eventually restored but there was gloom and panic. The United States had no national safety net, no public unemployment insurance and no Social Security.[15] Relief for the poor was the responsibility of families, private charity and local governments, but as conditions worsened year by year demand skyrocketed and their combined resources increasingly fell far short of demand.[13] The depression had psychologically devastated the nation. As Roosevelt took the oath of office at noon on March 4, 1933, all state governors had authorized bank holidays or restricted withdrawals—many Americans had little or no access to their bank accounts.[16][17] Farm income had fallen by over 50% since 1929. Between 1930 and 1933, an estimated 844,000 non-farm mortgages were foreclosed on, out of a total of five million.[18] Political and business leaders feared revolution and anarchy. Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., who remained wealthy during the Depression, recalled that "in those days I felt and said I would be willing to part with half of what I had if I could be sure of keeping, under law and order, the other half."[19] Campaign The phrase "New Deal" was coined by an adviser to Roosevelt, Stuart Chase, who used A New Deal as the title for an article published in the progressive magazine The New Republic a few days before Roosevelt's speech. Speechwriter Rosenman added it to his draft of FDR's speech at the last minute.[20][21] Upon accepting the 1932 Democratic nomination for president, Roosevelt promised "a new deal for the American people", saying: Throughout the nation men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the Government, look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth... I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people. This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms.[22] First New Deal (1933–1934) 1935 cartoon by Vaughn Shoemaker in which he parodied the New Deal as a card game with alphabetical agencies Roosevelt entered office without a specific set of plans for dealing with the Great Depression—so he improvised as Congress listened to a very wide variety of voices.[23] Among Roosevelt's more famous advisers was an informal "Brain Trust", a group that tended to view pragmatic government intervention in the economy positively.[24] His choice for Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, greatly influenced his initiatives. Her list of what her priorities would be if she took the job illustrates: "a forty-hour workweek, a minimum wage, worker's compensation, unemployment compensation, a federal law banning child labor, direct federal aid for unemployment relief, Social Security, a revitalized public employment service and health insurance".[25] The New Deal policies drew from many different ideas proposed earlier in the 20th century. Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold led efforts that hearkened back to an anti-monopoly tradition rooted in American politics by figures such as Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, an influential adviser to many New Dealers, argued that "bigness" (referring, presumably, to corporations) was a negative economic force, producing waste and inefficiency. However, the anti-monopoly group never had a major impact on New Deal policy.[26] Other leaders such as Hugh S. Johnson of the NRA took ideas from the Woodrow Wilson Administration, advocating techniques used to mobilize the economy for World War I. They brought ideas and experience from the government controls and spending of 1917–1918. Other New Deal planners revived experiments suggested in the 1920s, such as the TVA. The "First New Deal" (1933–1934) encompassed the proposals offered by a wide spectrum of groups (not included was the Socialist Party, whose influence was all but destroyed).[27] This first phase of the New Deal was also characterized by fiscal conservatism (see Economy Act, below) and experimentation with several different, sometimes contradictory, cures for economic ills. Roosevelt created dozens of new agencies. They are traditionally and typically known to Americans by their alphabetical initials. The First 100 Days (1933) Main article: First 100 days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency The American people were generally extremely dissatisfied with the crumbling economy, mass unemployment, declining wages, and profits, and especially Herbert Hoover's policies such as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act and the Revenue Act of 1932. Roosevelt entered office with enormous political capital. Americans of all political persuasions were demanding immediate action and Roosevelt responded with a remarkable series of new programs in the "first hundred days" of the administration, in which he met with Congress for 100 days. During those 100 days of lawmaking, Congress granted every request Roosevelt asked and passed a few programs (such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to insure bank accounts) that he opposed. Ever since, presidents have been judged against Roosevelt for what they accomplished in their first 100 days. Walter Lippmann famously noted: At the end of February we were a congeries of disorderly panic-stricken mobs and factions. In the hundred days from March to June, we became again an organized nation confident of our power to provide for our own security and to control our own destiny.[28] The economy had hit bottom in March 1933 and then started to expand. Economic indicators show the economy reached its lowest point in the first days of March, then began a steady, sharp upward recovery. Thus the Federal Reserve Index of Industrial Production sank to its lowest point of 52.8 in July 1932 (with 1935–1939 = 100) and was practically unchanged at 54.3 in March 1933. However, by July 1933 it reached 85.5, a dramatic rebound of 57% in four months. Recovery was steady and strong until 1937. Except for employment, the economy by 1937 surpassed the levels of the late 1920s. The Recession of 1937 was a temporary downturn. Private sector employment, especially in manufacturing, recovered to the level of the 1920s but failed to advance further until the war. The U.S. population was 124,840,471 in 1932 and 128,824,829 in 1937, an increase of 3,984,468.[29] The ratio of these numbers, times the number of jobs in 1932, means there was a need for 938,000 more jobs in 1937, to maintain the same employment level. Fiscal policy The Economy Act, drafted by Budget Director Lewis Williams Douglas, was passed on March 15, 1933. The act proposed to balance the "regular" (non-emergency) federal budget by cutting the salaries of government employees and cutting pensions to veterans by fifteen percent. It saved $500 million per year and reassured deficit hawks, such as Douglas, that the new president was fiscally conservative. Roosevelt argued there were two budgets: the "regular" federal budget, which he balanced; and the emergency budget, which was needed to defeat the depression. It was imbalanced on a temporary basis.[30][31] Roosevelt initially favored balancing the budget, but soon found himself running spending deficits to fund his numerous programs. However, Douglas—rejecting the distinction between a regular and emergency budget—resigned in 1934 and became an outspoken critic of the New Deal. Roosevelt strenuously opposed the Bonus Bill that would give World War I veterans a cash bonus. Congress finally passed it over his veto in 1936 and the Treasury distributed $1.5 billion in cash as bonus welfare benefits to 4 million veterans just before the 1936 election.[32][33] New Dealers never accepted the Keynesian argument for government spending as a vehicle for recovery. Most economists of the era, along with Henry Morgenthau of the Treasury Department, rejected Keynesian solutions and favored balanced budgets.[34][35] Banking reform Crowd at New York's American Union Bank during a bank run early in the Great Depression Roosevelt's ebullient public personality, conveyed through his declaration that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" and his "fireside chats" on the radio did a great deal to help restore the nation's confidence Fireside Chat 1 On the Banking Crisis Duration: 13 minutes and 9 seconds.13:09 Roosevelt's first Fireside Chat on the Banking Crisis (March 12, 1933) Problems playing this file? See media help. At the beginning of the Great Depression, the economy was destabilized by bank failures followed by credit crunches. The initial reasons were substantial losses in investment banking, followed by bank runs. Bank runs occur when a large number of customers withdraw their deposits because they believe the bank might become insolvent. As the bank run progressed, it generated a self-fulfilling prophecy: as more people withdrew their deposits, the likelihood of default increased and this encouraged further withdrawals. Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz have argued that the drain of money out of the banking system caused the monetary supply to shrink, forcing the economy to likewise shrink. As credit and economic activity diminished, price deflation followed, causing further economic contraction with disastrous impact on banks.[36] Between 1929 and 1933, 40% of all banks (9,490 out of 23,697 banks) failed.[37] Much of the Great Depression's economic damage was caused directly by bank runs.[38] Herbert Hoover had already considered a bank holiday to prevent further bank runs but rejected the idea because he was afraid to incite a panic. However, Roosevelt gave a radio address, held in the atmosphere of a Fireside Chat. He explained to the public in simple terms the causes of the banking crisis, what the government would do, and how the population could help. He closed all the banks in the country and kept them all closed until new legislation could be passed.[39] On March 9, 1933, Roosevelt sent to Congress the Emergency Banking Act, drafted in large part by Hoover's top advisors. The act was passed and signed into law the same day. It provided for a system of reopening sound banks under Treasury supervision, with federal loans available if needed. Three-quarters of the banks in the Federal Reserve System reopened within the next three days. Billions of dollars in hoarded currency and gold flowed back into them within a month, thus stabilizing the banking system.[40] By the end of 1933, 4,004 small local banks were permanently closed and merged into larger banks. Their deposits totaled $3.6 billion. Depositors lost $540 million (equivalent to $12,207,609,254 in 2022) and eventually received on average 85 cents on the dollar of their deposits.[41] The Glass–Steagall Act limited commercial bank securities activities and affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms to regulate speculations. It also established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insured deposits for up to $2,500, ending the risk of runs on banks.[42][page needed] This banking reform offered unprecedented stability because throughout the 1920s more than five hundred banks failed per year, and then it was less than ten banks per year after 1933.[43] Monetary reform Under the gold standard, the United States kept the dollar convertible to gold. The Federal Reserve would have had to execute an expansionary monetary policy to fight the deflation and to inject liquidity into the banking system to prevent it from crumbling—but lower interest rates would have led to a gold outflow.[44] Under the gold standards, price–specie flow mechanism countries that lost gold, but nevertheless wanted to maintain the gold standard, had to permit their money supply to decrease and the domestic price level to decline (deflation).[45] As long as the Federal Reserve had to defend the gold parity of the dollar it had to sit idle while the banking system crumbled.[44] In March and April in a series of laws and executive orders, the government suspended the gold standard. Roosevelt stopped the outflow of gold by forbidding the export of gold except under license from the Treasury. Anyone holding significant amounts of gold coinage was mandated to exchange it for the existing fixed price of U.S. dollars. The Treasury no longer paid out gold for dollars and gold would no longer be considered valid legal tender for debts in private and public contracts.[46] The dollar was allowed to float freely on foreign exchange markets with no guaranteed price in gold. With the passage of the Gold Reserve Act in 1934, the nominal price of gold was changed from $20.67 per troy ounce to $35. These measures enabled the Federal Reserve to increase the amount of money in circulation to the level the economy needed. Markets immediately responded well to the suspension in the hope that the decline in prices would finally end.[46] In her essay "What ended the Great Depression?" (1992), Christina Romer argued that this policy raised industrial production by 25% until 1937 and by 50% until 1942.[47] Securities Act of 1933 Before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, securities were unregulated at the federal level. Even firms whose securities were publicly traded published no regular reports, or even worse, rather misleading reports based on arbitrarily selected data. To avoid another crash, the Securities Act of 1933 was passed. It required the disclosure of the balance sheet, profit and loss statement, and the names and compensations of corporate officers for firms whose securities were traded. Additionally, the reports had to be verified by independent auditors. In 1934, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was established to regulate the stock market and prevent corporate abuses relating to corporate reporting and the sale of securities.[48] Repeal of Prohibition In a measure that garnered substantial popular support for his New Deal, Roosevelt moved to put to rest one of the most divisive cultural issues of the 1920s. He signed the bill to legalize the manufacture and sale of alcohol, an interim measure pending the repeal of prohibition, for which a constitutional amendment of repeal (the 21st) was already in process. The repeal amendment was ratified later in 1933. States and cities gained additional new revenue and Roosevelt secured his popularity especially in the cities and ethnic areas by legalizing alcohol.[49] Relief Relief was the immediate effort to help the one-third of the population that was hardest hit by the depression. Relief was also aimed at providing temporary help to suffering and unemployed Americans. Local and state budgets were sharply reduced because of falling tax revenue, but New Deal relief programs were used not just to hire the unemployed but also to build needed schools, municipal buildings, waterworks, sewers, streets, and parks according to local specifications. While the regular Army and Navy budgets were reduced, Roosevelt juggled relief funds to provide for their claimed needs. All of the CCC camps were directed by army officers, whose salaries came from the relief budget. The PWA built numerous warships, including two aircraft carriers; the money came from the PWA agency. PWA also built warplanes, and the WPA built military bases and airfields.[50] Public works Public Works Administration Project Bonneville Dam To prime the pump and cut unemployment, the NIRA created the Public Works Administration (PWA), a major program of public works, which organized and provided funds for the building of useful works such as government buildings, airports, hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, and dams.[51] From 1933 to 1935, PWA spent $3.3 billion with private companies to build 34,599 projects, many of them quite large.[52][53] The NIRA also contained a provision for the "construction, reconstruction, alteration, or repair under public regulation or control of low-cost housing and slum-clearance projects".[54] Many unemployed people were put to work under Roosevelt on a variety of government-financed public works projects, including the construction of bridges, airports, dams, post offices, hospitals, and hundreds of thousands of miles of road. Through reforestation and flood control, they reclaimed millions of hectares of soil from erosion and devastation. As noted by one authority, Roosevelt's New Deal "was literally stamped on the American landscape".[55] Farm and rural programs Pumping water by hand from the sole water supply in this section of Wilder, Tennessee (Tennessee Valley Authority, 1942) The rural U.S. was a high priority for Roosevelt and his energetic Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace. Roosevelt believed that full economic recovery depended upon the recovery of agriculture and raising farm prices was a major tool, even though it meant higher food prices for the poor living in cities. Many rural people lived in severe poverty, especially in the South. Major programs addressed to their needs included the Resettlement Administration (RA), the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), rural welfare projects sponsored by the WPA, National Youth Administration (NYA), Forest Service and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), including school lunches, building new schools, opening roads in remote areas, reforestation and purchase of marginal lands to enlarge national forests. In 1933, the Roosevelt administration launched the Tennessee Valley Authority, a project involving dam construction planning on an unprecedented scale to curb flooding, generate electricity, and modernize poor farms in the Tennessee Valley region of the Southern United States. Under the Farmers' Relief Act of 1933, the government paid compensation to farmers who reduced output, thereby raising prices. Because of this legislation, the average income of farmers almost doubled by 1937.[51] In the 1920s, farm production had increased dramatically thanks to mechanization, more potent insecticides, and increased use of fertilizer. Due to an overproduction of agricultural products, farmers faced severe and chronic agricultural depression throughout the 1920s. The Great Depression even worsened the agricultural crises and, at the beginning of 1933, agricultural markets nearly faced collapse.[56] Farm prices were so low that in Montana wheat was rotting in the fields because it could not be profitably harvested. In Oregon, sheep were slaughtered and left to rot because meat prices were not sufficient to warrant transportation to markets.[57] Roosevelt was keenly interested in farm issues and believed that true prosperity would not return until farming was prosperous. Many different programs were directed at farmers. The first 100 days produced the Farm Security Act to raise farm incomes by raising the prices farmers received, which was achieved by reducing total farm output. The Agricultural Adjustment Act created the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) in May 1933. The act reflected the demands of leaders of major farm organizations (especially the Farm Bureau) and reflected debates among Roosevelt's farm advisers such as Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace, M.L. Wilson, Rexford Tugwell and George Peek.[58] The AAA aimed to raise prices for commodities through artificial scarcity. The AAA used a system of domestic allotments, setting total output of corn, cotton, dairy products, hogs, rice, tobacco, and wheat. The farmers themselves had a voice in the process of using the government to benefit their incomes. The AAA paid land owners subsidies for leaving some of their land idle with funds provided by a new tax on food processing. To force up farm prices to the point of "parity", 10 million acres (40,000 km2) of growing cotton was plowed up, bountiful crops were left to rot and six million piglets were killed and discarded.[59] The idea was to give farmers a "fair exchange value" for their products in relation to the general economy ("parity level").[60] Farm incomes and the income for the general population recovered fast since the beginning of 1933.[61][62] Food prices remained still well below the 1929 peak.[63] The AAA established an important and long-lasting federal role in the planning of the entire agricultural sector of the economy and was the first program on such a scale for the troubled agricultural economy. The original AAA targeted landowners, and therefore did not provide for any sharecroppers or tenants or farm laborers who might become unemployed.[64] A Gallup poll printed in The Washington Post revealed that a majority of the American public opposed the AAA.[65] In 1936, the Supreme Court declared the AAA to be unconstitutional, stating, "a statutory plan to regulate and control agricultural production, [is] a matter beyond the powers delegated to the federal government". The AAA was replaced by a similar program that did win Court approval. Instead of paying farmers for letting fields lie barren, this program subsidized them for planting soil-enriching crops such as alfalfa that would not be sold on the market. Federal regulation of agricultural production has been modified many times since then, but together with large subsidies is still in effect. A number of other measures affecting rural areas were introduced under Roosevelt. The Farm Credit Act of 1933 authorized farmers “to organize a nationwide system of local credit cooperatives -- production credit associations -- to make operating credit readily accessible to farmers throughout the country.”[66] The Farm Mortgage Foreclosure Act of 1934 provided for debt reduction and the redemption of foreclosed farms, and the Homestead Settler's Act of 1934 liberalized homestead residence requirements. The Farm Research Act of 1935 included various provisions such as the development of cooperative agricultural extension, and the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936 enabled "the Commodity Credit Corporation to better serve the needs of farmers in orderly marketing, and provided credit and facilities for carrying surpluses from season to season". The Farmers Mortgage Amendatory Act of 1936 authorized the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to make loans to drainage, levee, and irrigation districts,[67] while under the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936 payments to farmers to encourage conservation were authorized.[68] In 1937, the Water Facilities Act was enacted “to provide loans for individuals and association farm water systems in 17 Western states where drought and water shortage were familiar hardships.” [69] The Bankhead–Jones Farm Tenant Act of 1937 was the last major New Deal legislation that concerned farming. It created the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which replaced the Resettlement Administration. The Food Stamp Plan, a major new welfare program for urban poor, was established in 1939 to provide stamps to poor people who could use them to purchase food at retail outlets. The program ended during wartime prosperity in 1943 but was restored in 1961. It survived into the 21st century with little controversy because it was seen to benefit the urban poor, food producers, grocers, wholesalers, and farmers, so it gained support from both progressive and conservative Congressmen. In 2013, Tea Party activists in the House nonetheless tried to end the program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, while the Senate fought to preserve it.[70][71] Recovery Recovery was the effort in numerous programs to restore the economy to normal levels. By most economic indicators, this was achieved by 1937—except for unemployment, which remained stubbornly high until World War II began. Recovery was designed to help the economy bounce back from depression. Economic historians led by Price Fishback have examined the impact of New Deal spending on improving health conditions in the 114 largest cities, 1929–1937. They estimated that every additional $153,000 in relief spending (in 1935 dollars, or $1.95 million in the year 2000 dollars) was associated with a reduction of one infant death, one suicide, and 2.4 deaths from infectious diseases.[72][73] NRA "Blue Eagle" campaign Main article: National Recovery Administration National Recovery Administration Blue Eagle Manufacturing employment in the U.S. from 1920 to 1940[74] From 1929 to 1933, the industrial economy suffered from a vicious cycle of deflation. Since 1931, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the voice of the nation's organized business, promoted an anti-deflationary scheme that would permit trade associations to cooperate in government-instigated cartels to stabilize prices within their industries. Though existing antitrust laws clearly forbade such practices, the organized business were entertained by the Roosevelt Administration.[75] Roosevelt's advisors believed that excessive competition and technical progress had led to overproduction and lowered wages and prices, which they believed lowered demand and employment (deflation). He argued that government economic planning was necessary to remedy this.[76] New Deal economists argued that cut-throat competition had hurt many businesses and that with prices having fallen 20% and more, "deflation" exacerbated the burden of debt and would delay recovery. They rejected a strong move in Congress to limit the workweek to 30 hours. Instead, their remedy, designed in cooperation with big business, was the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). It included stimulus funds for the WPA to spend and sought to raise prices, give more bargaining power for unions (so the workers could purchase more), and reduce harmful competition. At the center of the NIRA was the National Recovery Administration (NRA), headed by former General Hugh S. Johnson, who had been a senior economic official in World War I. Johnson called on every business establishment in the nation to accept a stopgap "blanket code": a minimum wage of between 20 and 45 cents per hour, a maximum workweek of 35–45 hours and the abolition of child labor. Johnson and Roosevelt contended that the "blanket code" would raise consumer purchasing power and increase employment.[77] To mobilize political support for the NRA, Johnson launched the "NRA Blue Eagle" publicity campaign to boost what he called "industrial self-government". The NRA brought together leaders in each industry to design specific sets of codes for that industry—the most important provisions were anti-deflationary floors below which no company would lower prices or wages and agreements on maintaining employment and production. In a remarkably short time, the NRA announced agreements from almost every major industry in the nation. By March 1934, industrial production was 45% higher than in March 1933.[78] NRA Administrator Hugh Johnson was showing signs of a mental breakdown due to the extreme pressure and workload of running the National Recovery Administration.[79] Johnson lost power in September 1934, but kept his title. Roosevelt replaced his position with a new National Industrial Recovery Board,[80][81] of which Donald Richberg was named Executive Director. On May 27, 1935, the NRA was found to be unconstitutional by a unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States. After the end of the NRA, quotas in the oil industry were fixed by the Railroad Commission of Texas with Tom Connally's federal Hot Oil Act of 1935, which guaranteed that illegal "hot oil" would not be sold.[82] By the time NRA ended in May 1935, well over 2 million employers accepted the new standards laid down by the NRA, which had introduced a minimum wage and an eight-hour workday, together with abolishing child labor.[51] These standards were reintroduced by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Historian William E. Leuchtenburg argued in 1963: The NRA could boast some considerable achievements: it gave jobs to some two million workers; it helped stop a renewal of the deflationary spiral that had almost wrecked the nation; it did something to improve business ethics and civilize competition; it established a national pattern of maximum hours and minimum wages; and it all but wiped out child labor and the sweatshop. But this was all it did. It prevented things from getting worse, but it did little to speed recovery, and probably actually hindered it by its support of restrictionism and price raising. The NRA could maintain a sense of national interest against private interests only so long as the spirit of national crisis prevailed. As it faded, restriction-minded businessmen moved into a decisive position of authority. By delegating power over price and production to trade associations, the NRA created a series of private economic governments.[83] Other labor measures were carried out under the First New Deal. The Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 established a national system of public employment offices,[84] and the Anti-Kickback Act of 1934 "established penalties for employers on Government contracts who induce employees to return any part of pay to which they are entitled".[85] That same year, the Railway Labor Act of 1926 was amended "to outlaw company unions and yellow dog contracts, and to provide that the majority of any craft or class of employees shall determine who shall represent them in collective bargaining".[86] In July 1933, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins held at the Department of Labor what was described as "a very successful conference of 16 state minimum wage boards (some of the states had minimum wage laws long before the Federal Government)". The following year she held a two-day conference on state labor legislation in which 39 states were represented. According to one study, "State officials in attendance were gratified that the U.S. Department of Labor was showing interest in their problems. They called on Perkins to make the labor legislation conferences an annual event. She did so and participated actively in them every year until she left office. The conferences continued under Labor Department auspices for another ten years, by which time they had largely accomplished their goal of improving and standardizing state labor laws and administration." As a means of institutionalizing the work she tried to achieve with these conferences, Perkins established the Division of Labor Standards (which was later redesignated a bureau) in 1934 as a service agency and informational clearinghouse for state governments and other federal agencies. Its goal was to promote (through voluntary means) improved conditions of work, and the Division "offered many services in addition to helping the states deal with administrative problems". It offered, for instance, training for factory inspectors, and drew national attention "to the area of workers' health with a series of conferences on silicosis. This wide-spread lung disease had been dramatized by the 'Gauley Bridge Disaster' in which hundreds of tunnel workers died from breathing silica-filled air. The Division also worked with unions, whose support was needed in passing labor legislation in the States."[87] The Muscle Shoals Act contained various provisions of interest to labor, including prevailing wage rate and workmen's compensation.[88] A resolution approved by the Senate, June 13, authorized the President to accept membership for the Government of the United States in the International Labor Organization, without assuming any obligation under the covenant of the League of Nations. The resolution was approved by the House, June 16, by a vote of 232 to 109.[89] Public Act 448 amended the Federal Employees' Civil Service Retirement Act of 1930 by, as noted by one study, "giving to the employee the right to name a beneficiary irrespective of the amount to his credit without the need of an appointment of an administrator". Public Act No. 245 "provided for the development of vocational education in the States by appropriating funds for the fiscal years 1935, 1936 and 1937, and Public Act 296 amended the United States Bankruptcy Act with safeguards for labor. Public Act No. 349 provided for hourly rates of pay for substitute laborers in the mail service and time credits when appointed as regular laborers, and Public Act No. 461 authorized the President to create a "federal prison industries", in which inmates hereafter "receiving injuries while in the course of their employment will receive the benefits of compensation, limited however to that amount prescribed in the Federal Employees' Compensation Act". Public Act No. 467 created a Federal Credit Union Law, one of the main purposes of which was to make a system of credit for provident purposes available to people of small means. For those in the District of Columbia, an Act concerning fire escapes on certain buildings was amended by Public Act No. 284."[90] Housing sector See also: National Housing Act of 1934 and Racial segregation in the US § New Deal era The New Deal had an important impact on the housing field. The New Deal followed and increased President Hoover's lead-and-seek measures. The New Deal sought to stimulate the private home building industry and increase the number of individuals who owned homes.[91] The New Deal implemented two new housing agencies: Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Roanoke, Virginia HOLC redlining map This also marked the beginning of discriminatory redlining within the United states under the HOLC. Their maps broadly determined what housing loans would be backed by the federal government. Though other criteria existed, the most major criteria was race. Any neighborhood with "inharmonious racial groups" would either be marked red or yellow, depending on the proportion of black residents.[92] This was explicitly stated within the FHA underwriting manual that the HOLC used as a guideline for its maps.[93] Alongside other discriminatory housing policy, this meant in practice is that Black Americans were denied federally backed mortgages locking most out of the housing market and all Americans were denied backing for any loans within black neighborhood.[92] Lastly, for the other policies in place meant for neighborhood building projects, the federal government required they be explicitly segregated to be backed.[92] The federal government's financial backing also required the use of racially restrictive covenants, that banned white homeowners from reselling their house to any black buyers.[92] HOLC set uniform national appraisal methods and simplified the mortgage process. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) created national standards for home construction.[94] In 1934 the Alley Dwelling Authority was established by Congress "to provide for the discontinuation of the use as dwellings of the buildings situated in alleys in the District of Columbia".[95] That year, a National Housing Act was approved which was aimed at improving employment while making private credit available for repairing and homebuilding.[96] In 1938 this act was amended and as noted by one study "provision was made renewing the insurance on repair loans, for insuring mortgages up to 90 percent of the value of small-owner –occupied homes, and for insuring mortgages on rental property".[97] Reform Reform was based on the assumption that the depression was caused by the inherent instability of the market and that government intervention was necessary to rationalize and stabilize the economy and to balance the interests of farmers, business, and labor. Reforms targeted the causes of the depression and sought to prevent a crisis like it from happening again. In other words, this sought to financially rebuild the U.S. while ensuring not to repeat history. Trade liberalization Most economic historians assert that protectionist policies, culminating in the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930, worsened the Depression.[98] Roosevelt already spoke against the act while campaigning for president during 1932.[99] In 1934, the Reciprocal Tariff Act was drafted by Cordell Hull. It gave the president power to negotiate bilateral, reciprocal trade agreements with other countries. The act enabled Roosevelt to liberalize American trade policy around the globe and it is widely credited with ushering in the era of liberal trade policy that persists to this day.[100] Puerto Rico The Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration oversaw a separate set of programs in Puerto Rico. It promoted land reform and helped small farms, it set up farm cooperatives, promoted crop diversification, and helped the local industry.[101] Second New Deal (1935–1936) See also: Second New Deal In the spring of 1935, responding to the setbacks in the Court, a new skepticism in Congress, and the growing popular clamor for more dramatic action, New Dealers passed important new initiatives. Historians refer to them as the "Second New Deal" and note that it was more progressive and more controversial than the "First New Deal" of 1933–1934.[102] Social Security Act A poster publicizing Social Security benefits Until 1935, only a dozen states had implemented old-age insurance, and these programs were woefully underfunded. Just one state (Wisconsin) had an insurance program. The United States was the only modern industrial country where people faced the Depression without any national system of social security. The work programs of the "First New Deal" such as CWA and FERA were designed for immediate relief, for a year or two.[103] The most important program of 1935, and perhaps of the New Deal itself, was the Social Security Act. It established a permanent system of universal retirement pensions (Social Security), unemployment insurance and welfare benefits for the handicapped and needy children in families without a father present.[104] It established the framework for the U.S. welfare system. Roosevelt insisted that it should be funded by payroll taxes rather than from the general fund—he said: "We put those payroll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program".[105] Labor relations See also: Strikes in the United States in the 1930s The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, finally guaranteed workers the rights to collective bargaining through unions of their own choice. The Act also established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to facilitate wage agreements and to suppress the repeated labor disturbances. The Wagner Act did not compel employers to reach agreement with their employees, but it opened possibilities for American labor.[106] The result was a tremendous growth of membership in the labor unions, especially in the mass-production sector, led by the older and larger American Federation of Labor and the new, more radical Congress of Industrial Organizations. Labor thus became a major component of the New Deal political coalition. However, the intense battle for members between the AFL and the CIO coalitions weakened labor's power.[107] To help agricultural labor, the 1934 Jones-Costigan Act included provisions such as the prohibition of child labor under the age of 14, limited the working hours of children aged 14–16, and the granting to the USDA "the authority to fix minimum wages, but only after holding public hearings 'at a place accessible to producers and workers'". In addition, the Act called for farmers "to pay their workers 'promptly' and 'in full' before collecting their benefit payments as a way to deal with the historic inequalities embedded in staggered payments and hold-back clauses". This Act was replaced by the 1937 Sugar Act after the Supreme Court ruled the AAA unconstitutional. In passing the Act, Congress not only followed Roosevelt's advice by continuing the previous Act's labor provisions but strengthened them. As noted by one study, the Act "once again prohibited child labor and made the 'fair, reasonable and equitable' minimum wage determinations mandatory".[108] The Public Contracts (Walsh-Healey) Act of 1936 established labor standards on government contracts, "including minimum wages, overtime compensation for hours in excess of 8 a day or 40 a week, child and convict labor provisions, and health and safety requirements". The Anti-Strikebreaker (Byrnes) Act from that same year declared it unlawful "to transport or aid in transporting strikebreakers in interstate or foreign commerce".[109] The Davis-Bacon Act Amendment (Public Act 403) was approved in August 1935, "Establishing prevailing wages for mechanics and laborers employed on public buildings and public works".[110] Under the Miller Act of 1935, as noted by one study, "every construction worker or person who furnished material on a covered contract has the right to sue the contractor or surety if not fully paid within 90 days after performing labor or furnishing such material".[111] The Motor Carrier Act of 1935, as noted by one study, "authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to limit the hours of service and to prescribe other measures to safeguard motor carrier employees and passengers, as well as the users of highways generally".[112] The Merchant Marine Act of 1936 directed the Maritime Commission "to investigate and specify suitable wage and manning scales and working conditions with respect to subsidized ships".[113] Public Act 783 of March 1936 sought to extend "the facilities of the Public Health Service to seamen on Government vessels not in the military or Naval establishments".[114] The Railway Labor Act Amendment (Public Act 487) was approved in April 1936, "Extending protection of Railway Labor Act to employees of air transportation companies engaged in interstate and foreign commerce".[115] The Bituminous Coal Act of 1937 contained various labor provisions such as prohibiting "requiring an employee or applicant for employment to join a company union".[116] A national Railroad Retirement program was introduced that year, which in 1938 also introduced unemployment benefits.[117] The Randolph-Sheppard Act provided for "licensing of blind persons to operate vending stands in Federal buildings".[118] Public Law No. 814 of the 74th Congress, as noted by one study, conferred jurisdiction "upon each of the several states to extend the provisions of their State workmen's compensation laws to employments on Federal property and premises located within the respective States".[119] The National Apprenticeship Act of 1937 established standards for apprenticeship programs.[120] The Chandler Act of 1938 allowed wage earners “to extend debt payments over longer periods of time.”[121] That same year the Interstate Commerce Commission "issued an order regulating the hours of drivers of motor vehicles engaged in interstate commerce".[122] The Wagner-O'Day Act in 1938 set up a program "designed to increase employment opportunities for persons who are blind so they could manufacture and sell their goods to the federal government".[123] Public Act No. 702 provided an 8-hour day for officers and seamen on certain vessels that navigated the Great Lakes and adjacent waters, and the Second Deficiency Appropriation Act (Public, No. 723) contained an appropriation for investigating labor conditions in Hawaii. Public Act No. 706 provided for the preservation of the right of air carrier employees "to obtain higher compensation and better working conditions so as to conform to a decision of the National Labor Board of May 10, 1934 (No. 83). Under Public Act No. 486 the provisions of section 13 of the air-mail act of 1934 "relating to pay, working conditions, and relations of pilots and other employees shall apply to all contracts awarded under the act".[124] A number of laws affecting federal employees were also enacted.[125] An act of 1936, for instance, provided vacations and accumulated leaves for Government employees, and another 1936 act provided for accumulated sick leave with pay for Government employees.[67] The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set maximum hours (44 per week) and minimum wages (25 cents per hour) for most categories of workers. Child labor of children under the age of 16 was forbidden and children under 18 years were forbidden to work in hazardous employment. As a result, the wages of 300,000 workers, especially in the South, were increased and the hours of 1.3 million were reduced.[126] Consumer rights Various laws were also passed to advance consumer rights. In 1935 the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 was passed "to protect consumers and investors from abuses by holding companies with interests in gas and electric utilities".[127] The Federal Power Act of 1935 sought "to protect customers and to assure reasonableness in the provision of a service essential to life in modern society".[128] The Natural Gas Act of 1938 sought protect consumers "against exploitation at the hands of natural gas companies".[129] The Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 granted to the Food and Drug Administration "the power to test and license drugs and to test the safety of cosmetics, and to the Department of Agriculture the authority to set food quality standards." In addition, the Wheeler-Lea Act "gave the Free Trade Commission, an old Progressive agency, the power to prohibit unfair and deceptive business acts or practices."[130] Works Progress Administration Works Progress Administration (WPA) poster promoting the LaGuardia Airport project (1937) Roosevelt nationalized unemployment relief through the Works Progress Administration (WPA), headed by close friend Harry Hopkins. Roosevelt had insisted that the projects had to be costly in terms of labor, beneficial in the long term and the WPA was forbidden to compete with private enterprises—therefore the workers had to be paid smaller wages.[131] The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was created to return the unemployed to the workforce.[132] The WPA financed a variety of projects such as hospitals, schools, and roads,[51] and employed more than 8.5 million workers who built 650,000 miles of highways and roads, 125,000 public buildings as well as bridges, reservoirs, irrigation systems, parks, playgrounds and so on.[133] Prominent projects were the Lincoln Tunnel, the Triborough Bridge, the LaGuardia Airport, the Overseas Highway and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.[134] The Rural Electrification Administration used cooperatives to bring electricity to rural areas, many of which still operate.[135] Between 1935 and 1940, the percentage of rural homes lacking electricity fell from 90% to 40.%[136] The National Youth Administration was another semi-autonomous WPA program for youth. Its Texas director, Lyndon B. Johnson, later used the NYA as a model for some of his Great Society programs in the 1960s.[137] The WPA was organized by states, but New York City had its own branch Federal One, which created jobs for writers, musicians, artists and theater personnel. It became a hunting ground for conservatives searching for communist employees.[138] The Federal Writers' Project operated in every state, where it created a famous guide book—it also catalogued local archives and hired many writers, including Margaret Walker, Zora Neale Hurston and Anzia Yezierska, to document folklore. Other writers interviewed elderly ex-slaves and recorded their stories. Under the Federal Theater Project, headed by charismatic Hallie Flanagan, actresses and actors, technicians, writers and directors put on stage productions. The tickets were inexpensive or sometimes free, making theater available to audiences unaccustomed to attending plays.[137] One Federal Art Project paid 162 trained woman artists on relief to paint murals or create statues for newly built post offices and courthouses. Many of these works of art can still be seen in public buildings around the country, along with murals sponsored by the Treasury Relief Art Project of the Treasury Department.[139][140] During its existence, the Federal Theatre Project provided jobs for circus people, musicians, actors, artists, and playwrights, together with increasing public appreciation of the arts.[51] Tax policy In 1935, Roosevelt called for a tax program called the Wealth Tax Act (Revenue Act of 1935) to redistribute wealth. The bill imposed an income tax of 79% on incomes over $5 million. Since that was an extraordinarily high income in the 1930s, the highest tax rate actually covered just one individual—John D. Rockefeller. The bill was expected to raise only about $250 million in additional funds, so revenue was not the primary goal. Morgenthau called it "more or less a campaign document". In a private conversation with Raymond Moley, Roosevelt admitted that the purpose of the bill was "stealing Huey Long's thunder" by making Long's supporters of his own. At the same time, it raised the bitterness of the rich who called Roosevelt "a traitor to his class" and the wealth tax act a "soak the rich tax".[141] A tax called the undistributed profits tax was enacted in 1936. This time the primary purpose was revenue, since Congress had enacted the Adjusted Compensation Payment Act, calling for payments of $2 billion to World War I veterans. The bill established the persisting principle that retained corporate earnings could be taxed. Paid dividends were tax deductible by corporations. Its proponents intended the bill to replace all other corporation taxes—believing this would stimulate corporations to distribute earnings and thus put more cash and spending power in the hands of individuals.[142] In the end, Congress watered down the bill, setting the tax rates at 7 to 27% and largely exempting small enterprises.[143] Facing widespread and fierce criticism,[144] the tax deduction of paid dividends was repealed in 1938.[142] Housing Act of 1937 Main article: Housing Act of 1937 The United States Housing Act of 1937 created the United States Housing Authority within the U.S. Department of the Interior. It was one of the last New Deal agencies created. The bill passed in 1937 with some Republican support to abolish slums.[145] Political alignment By 1936, the term "progressive" was typically used for supporters of the New Deal[146] and "conservative" for its opponents.[147][page needed] Roosevelt was assisted in his endeavors by the election of a liberal Congress in 1932. According to one source "We recognize that the best liberal legislation in American history was enacted following the election of President Roosevelt and a liberal Congress in 1932. After the midterm congressional election setbacks in 1938, labor was faced with a hostile congress until 1946. Only the presidential veto prevented the enactment of reactionary anti-labor laws."[148] In noting the composition of the Seventy-Third Congress, one study has stated: "Though much of the Democratic congressional leadership remained old-guard, southern, agrarian, and conservative, the rank-and-file Democratic majorities in both houses were largely made up of fresh, northern, urban-industrial representatives of at least potentially liberal bent. At a minimum they were impatient with inaction, and not likely to be silenced by appeals to tradition. They were, as yet, an unformed and reckoned force, one that Roosevelt might mould to his purposes of remaking his party – or one whose very strength and impetuosity might force the president's hand."[149] As stated by another study, in regards to the gains the Democrats made in the 1932 midterm elections, “The party gained ninety seats in the house and thirteen in the Senate. Even more significant, from the standpoint of potential support for urban programs, was that non-Southern Democrats represented a working majority in the House for the first of what would be only a few times in the twentieth century. Roosevelt’s political instincts mood paralleled the mood of Congress, and he sought policies to tie the party’s new urban supporters into a permanent majority coalition behind the Democratic Party.”[150] As noted by another study, "President Roosevelt's extraordinary legislative accomplishments between 1933 and 1938 owed much to his personal political qualities, but ideologically favourable large partisan majorities in the House and the Senate were a prerequisite of success."[151] As one journal reflected in 1950 “Look back to the 1930’s and you can see how winning in mid-terms years affects the kind of laws that are passed. A tremendous liberal majority was swept in with Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. In the 1934 mid-term races that liberal majority was increased. After 1936 it went even higher.”[152] From 1934 to 1938, there existed a "pro-spender" majority in Congress (drawn from two-party, competitive, non-machine, progressive and left party districts). In the 1938 midterm election, Roosevelt and his progressive supporters lost control of Congress to the bipartisan conservative coalition.[153] Many historians distinguish between the First New Deal (1933–1934) and a Second New Deal (1935–1936), with the second one more progressive and more controversial. Court-packing plan and jurisprudential shift Main article: Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 When the Supreme Court started abolishing New Deal programs as unconstitutional, Roosevelt launched a surprise counter-attack in early 1937. He proposed adding five new justices, but conservative Democrats revolted, led by the Vice President. The Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 failed—it never reached a vote. Momentum in Congress and public opinion shifted to the right and very little new legislation was passed expanding the New Deal. However, retirements allowed Roosevelt to put supporters on the Court and it stopped killing New Deal programs.[154] Recession of 1937 and recovery Main article: Recession of 1937 The Roosevelt administration was under assault during Roosevelt's second term,[clarification needed] which presided over a new dip in the Great Depression in the fall of 1937 that continued through most of 1938. Production and profits declined sharply. Unemployment jumped from 14.3% in May 1937 to 19.0% in June 1938. The downturn could have been explained by the familiar rhythms of the business cycle, but until 1937 Roosevelt had claimed responsibility for the excellent economic performance. That backfired in the recession and the heated political atmosphere of 1937.[155] John Maynard Keynes did not think that the New Deal under Roosevelt single-handedly ended the Great Depression: "It is, it seems, politically impossible for a capitalistic democracy to organize expenditure on the scale necessary to make the grand experiments which would prove my case—except in war conditions."[156] World War II and full employment Female factory workers in 1942, Long Beach, California The U.S. reached full employment after entering World War II in December 1941. Under the special circumstances of war mobilization, massive war spending doubled the gross national product (GNP).[157] Military Keynesianism brought full employment and federal contracts were cost-plus. Instead of competitive bidding to get lower prices, the government gave out contracts that promised to pay all the expenses plus a modest profit. Factories hired everyone they could find regardless of their lack of skills—they simplified work tasks and trained the workers, with the federal government paying all the costs. Millions of farmers left marginal operations, students quit school and housewives joined the labor force.[158] The emphasis was for war supplies as soon as possible, regardless of cost and inefficiencies. Industry quickly absorbed the slack in the labor force and the tables turned such that employers needed to actively and aggressively recruit workers. As the military grew, new labor sources were needed to replace the 12 million men serving in the military. Propaganda campaigns started pleading for people to work in the war factories. The barriers for married women, the old, the unskilled—and (in the North and West) the barriers for racial minorities—were lowered.[159] Federal budget soars In 1929, federal expenditures accounted for only 3% of GNP. Between 1933 and 1939, federal expenditures tripled, but the national debt as a percent of GNP showed little change. Spending on the war effort quickly eclipsed spending on New Deal programs. In 1944, government spending on the war effort exceeded 40% of GNP. These controls shared broad support among labor and business, resulting in cooperation between the two groups and the U.S. government. This cooperation resulted in the government subsidizing business and labor through both direct and indirect methods.[160] Wartime welfare projects Conservative domination of Congress during the war meant that all welfare projects and reforms had to have their approval, which was given when business supported the project. For example, the Coal Mines Inspection and Investigation Act of 1941 significantly reduced fatality rates in the coal-mining industry, saving workers' lives and company money.[161] In terms of welfare, the New Dealers wanted benefits for everyone according to need. However, conservatives proposed benefits based on national service—especially tied to military service or working in war industries—and their approach won out. The Community Facilities Act of 1940 (the Lanham Act) provided federal funds to defense-impacted communities where the population had soared and local facilities were overwhelmed. It provided money for the building of segregated housing for war workers as well as recreational facilities, water, and sanitation plants, hospitals, day care centers, and schools.[162][163][164] The Servicemen's Dependents Allowance Act of 1942 provided family allowances for dependents of enlisted men. Emergency grants to states were authorized in 1942 for programs for day care for children of working mothers. In 1944, pensions were authorized for all physically or mentally helpless children of deceased veterans regardless of the age of the child at the date the claim was filed or at the time of the veteran's death, provided the child was disabled at the age of sixteen and that the disability continued to the date of the claim. The Public Health Service Act, which was passed that same year, expanded federal-state public health programs and increased the annual amount for grants for public health services.[165] The Emergency Maternity and Infant Care Program (EMIC), introduced in March 1943 by the Children's Bureau, provided free maternity care and medical treatment during an infant's first year for the wives and children of military personnel in the four lowest enlisted pay grades. One out of seven births was covered during its operation. EMIC paid $127 million to state health departments to cover the care of 1.2 million new mothers and their babies. The average cost of EMIC maternity cases completed was $92.49 for medical and hospital care. A striking effect was the sudden rapid decline in home births as most mothers now had paid hospital maternity care.[166][167][168][169] Under the 1943 Disabled Veterans Rehabilitation Act, vocational rehabilitation services were offered to wounded World War II veterans and some 621,000 veterans would go on to receive assistance under this program.[170] The G.I. Bill (Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944) was a landmark piece of legislation, providing 16 million returning veterans with benefits such as housing, educational and unemployment assistance and played a major role in the postwar expansion of the American middle class.[171] Fair Employment Practices Main article: Fair Employment Practice Committee In response to the March on Washington Movement led by A. Philip Randolph, Roosevelt promulgated Executive Order 8802 in June 1941, which established the President's Committee on Fair Employment Practices (FEPC) "to receive and investigate complaints of discrimination" so that "there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin".[172] Growing equality of income A major result of the full employment at high wages was a sharp, long-lasting decrease in the level of income inequality (Great Compression). The gap between rich and poor narrowed dramatically in the area of nutrition because food rationing and price controls provided a reasonably priced diet to everyone. White collar workers did not typically receive overtime and therefore the gap between white collar and blue collar income narrowed. Large families that had been poor during the 1930s had four or more wage earners and these families shot to the top one-third income bracket. Overtime provided large paychecks in war industries[173] and average living standards rose steadily, with real wages rising by 44% in the four years of war, while the percentage of families with an annual income of less than $2,000 fell from 75% to 25% of the population.[174] In 1941, 40% of all American families lived on less than the $1,500 per year defined as necessary by the Works Progress Administration for a modest standard of living. The median income stood at $2,000 per year, and 8 million workers earned below the legal minimum. From 1939 to 1944, wages and salaries more than doubled, with overtime pay and the expansion of jobs leading to a 70% rise in average weekly earnings during the course of the war. Membership in organized labor increased by 50% between 1941 and 1945 and because the War Labor Board sought labor-management peace, new workers were encouraged to participate in the existing labor organizations, thereby receiving all the benefits of union membership such as improved working conditions, better fringe benefits, and higher wages. As noted by William H. Chafe, "with full employment, higher wages and social welfare benefits provided under government regulations, American workers experienced a level of well-being that, for many, had never occurred before".[citation needed] According to one study over 60% of Americans lived in poverty in 1933, and under 40% did so by 1945.[175] As a result of the new prosperity, consumer expenditures rose by nearly 50%, from $61.7 billion at the start of the war to $98.5 billion by 1944. Individual savings accounts climbed almost sevenfold during the course of the war. The share of total income held by the top 5% of wage earners fell from 22% to 17% while the bottom 40% increased their share of the economic pie. In addition, during the course of the war, the proportion of the American population earning less than $3,000 (in 1968 dollars) fell by half.[176] Legacy New Deal Era 1930s–1970s The New Deal was the inspiration for President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society in the 1960s: Johnson (on right) headed the Texas NYA and was elected to Congress in 1938 The New Deal was the inspiration for President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society in the 1960s: Johnson (on right) headed the Texas NYA and was elected to Congress in 1938 Location United States Including Fifth Party System Great Depression World War II Cold War Post-war Era President(s) Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson Key events First New Deal Second New Deal Proposed Second Bill of Rights Fair Deal New Frontier War on Poverty Civil Rights Act of 1964 Great Society Voting Rights Act of 1965 Chronology Great Depression - System of 1896 1964-1980 - Reagan Era According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "perhaps the greatest achievement of the New Deal was to restore faith in American democracy at a time when many people believed that the only choice left was between communism and fascism".[177] Analysts agree the New Deal produced a new political coalition that sustained the Democratic Party as the majority party in national politics into the 1960s.[178] A 2013 study found, "an average increase in New Deal relief and public works spending resulted in a 5.4 percentage point increase in the 1936 Democratic voting share and a smaller amount in 1940. The estimated persistence of this shift suggests that New Deal spending increased long-term Democratic support by 2 to 2.5 percentage points. Thus, it appears that Roosevelt's early, decisive actions created long-lasting positive benefits for the Democratic party... The New Deal did play an important role in consolidating Democratic gains for at least two decades".[179] However, there is disagreement about whether it marked a permanent change in values. Cowie and Salvatore in 2008 argued that it was a response to Depression and did not mark a commitment to a welfare state because the U.S. has always been too individualistic.[180] MacLean rejected the idea of a definitive political culture. She says they overemphasized individualism and ignored the enormous power that big capital wields, the Constitutional restraints on radicalism and the role of racism, antifeminism and homophobia. She warns that accepting Cowie and Salvatore's argument that conservatism's ascendancy is inevitable would dismay and discourage activists on the left.[181] Klein responds that the New Deal did not die a natural death—it was killed off in the 1970s by a business coalition mobilized by such groups as the Business Roundtable, the Chamber of Commerce, trade organizations, conservative think tanks and decades of sustained legal and political attacks.[182] Historians generally agree that during Roosevelt's 12 years in office there was a dramatic increase in the power of the federal government as a whole.[183][184] Roosevelt also established the presidency as the prominent center of authority within the federal government. Roosevelt created a large array of agencies protecting various groups of citizens—workers, farmers, and others—who suffered from the crisis and thus enabled them to challenge the powers of the corporations. In this way, the Roosevelt administration generated a set of political ideas—known as New Deal Progressivism[185]—that remained a source of inspiration and controversy for decades. New Deal liberalism lay the foundation of a new consensus. Between 1940 and 1980, there was the progressive consensus about the prospects for the widespread distribution of prosperity within an expanding capitalist economy.[178] Especially Harry S. Truman's Fair Deal and in the 1960s Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society used the New Deal as inspiration for a dramatic expansion of progressive programs. The New Deal's enduring appeal on voters fostered its acceptance by moderate and progressive Republicans.[186] As the first Republican president elected after Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961) built on the New Deal in a manner that embodied his thoughts on efficiency and cost-effectiveness. He sanctioned a major expansion of Social Security by a self-financed program.[187] He supported such New Deal programs as the minimum wage and public housing—he greatly expanded federal aid to education and built the Interstate Highway system primarily as defense programs (rather than jobs program).[188] In a private letter, Eisenhower wrote: Should any party attempt to abolish social security and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group of course, that believes you can do these things [...] Their number is negligible and they are stupid.[189] In 1964, Barry Goldwater, an unreconstructed anti–New Dealer, was the Republican presidential candidate on a platform that attacked the New Deal. The Democrats under Lyndon B. Johnson won a massive landslide and Johnson's Great Society programs extended the New Deal. However, the supporters of Goldwater formed the New Right which helped to bring Ronald Reagan into the White House in the 1980 presidential election. Once an ardent supporter of the New Deal, Reagan turned against it, now viewing government as the problem rather than solution and, as president, moved the nation away from the New Deal model of government activism, shifting greater emphasis to the private sector.[190] A 2016 review study of the existing literature in the Journal of Economic Literature summarized the findings of the research as follows:[191] The studies find that public works and relief spending had state income multipliers of around one, increased consumption activity, attracted internal migration, reduced crime rates, and lowered several types of mortality. The farm programs typically aided large farm owners but eliminated opportunities for share croppers, tenants, and farm workers. The Home Owners' Loan Corporation's purchases and refinancing of troubled mortgages staved off drops in housing prices and home ownership rates at relatively low ex-post cost to taxpayers. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation's loans to banks and railroads appear to have had little positive impact, although the banks were aided when the RFC took ownership stakes. Historiography and evaluation of New Deal policies Historians debating the New Deal have generally been divided between progressives who support it, conservatives who oppose it, and some New Left historians who complain it was too favorable to capitalism and did too little for minorities. There is consensus on only a few points, with most commentators favorable toward the CCC and hostile toward the NRA. Consensus historians of the 1950s, such as Richard Hofstadter, according to Lary May: [B]elieved that the prosperity and apparent class harmony of the post-World War II era reflected a return to the true Americanism rooted in liberal capitalism and the pursuit of individual opportunity that had made fundamental conflicts over resources a thing of the past. They argued that the New Deal was a conservative movement that built a welfare state, guided by experts, that saved rather than transformed liberal capitalism.[192] Progressive historians argue that Roosevelt restored hope and self-respect to tens of millions of desperate people, built labor unions, upgraded the national infrastructure, and saved capitalism in his first term when he could have destroyed it and easily nationalized the banks and the railroads.[104] Historians generally agree that apart from building up labor unions, the New Deal did not substantially alter the distribution of power within American capitalism. "The New Deal brought about limited change in the nation's power structure".[193] The New Deal preserved democracy in the United States in a historic period of uncertainty and crises when in many other countries democracy failed.[194] The most common arguments can be summarized as follows: Harmful Further information: List of critics of the New Deal The New Deal vastly increased the federal debt (Billington and Ridge).[195] However, Keynesians argue that the federal deficit between 1933 and 1939 averaged only 3.7% which was not enough to offset the reduction in private sector spending during the Great Depression[196] Fostered bureaucracy and administrative inefficiency (Billington and Ridge)[195] and enlarged the powers of the federal government[197] Slowed the growth of civil service reform by multiplying offices outside the merit system (Billington and Ridge)[195] Infringed upon free business enterprise (Billington and Ridge)[195] Prolonged the Great Depression (revisionist economists)[198] Rescued capitalism when the opportunity was at hand to nationalize banking, railroads, and other industries (New Left critique)[199] Neutral Stimulated the growth of class consciousness among farmers and workers (Billington and Ridge)[195] Raised the issue of how far economic regulation could be extended without sacrificing the liberties of the people (Billington and Ridge)[195] Beneficial Allowed the nation to come through its greatest depression without undermining the capitalist system (Billington and Ridge)[195] Made the capitalist system more beneficial by enacting banking and stock market regulations to avoid abuses and providing greater financial security, through, for example, the introduction of Social Security or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (David M. Kennedy)[200] Created a better balance among labor, agriculture, and industry (Billington and Ridge)[195] Produced a more equal distribution of wealth (Billington and Ridge)[195] Help conserve natural resources (Billington and Ridge)[195] Permanently established the principle that the national government should take action to rehabilitate and preserve America's human resources (Billington and Ridge)[195] Fiscal policy National debt as gross national product climbs from 20% to 40% under President Herbert Hoover; levels off under Roosevelt; and soars during World War II from Historical States US (1976) Julian Zelizer (2000) has argued that fiscal conservatism was a key component of the New Deal.[201] A fiscally conservative approach was supported by Wall Street and local investors and most of the business community—mainstream academic economists believed in it as apparently did the majority of the public. Conservative southern Democrats, who favored balanced budgets and opposed new taxes, controlled Congress and its major committees. Even progressive Democrats at the time regarded balanced budgets as essential to economic stability in the long run, although they were more willing to accept short-term deficits. As Zelizer notes, public opinion polls consistently showed public opposition to deficits and debt. Throughout his terms, Roosevelt recruited fiscal conservatives to serve in his administration, most notably Lewis Douglas the Director of Budget in 1933–1934; and Henry Morgenthau Jr., Secretary of the Treasury from 1934 to 1945. They defined policy in terms of budgetary cost and tax burdens rather than needs, rights, obligations, or political benefits. Personally, Roosevelt embraced their fiscal conservatism, but politically he realized that fiscal conservatism enjoyed a strong wide base of support among voters, leading Democrats, and businessmen. On the other hand, there was enormous pressure to act and spending money on high visibility work programs with millions of paychecks a week.[201] Douglas proved too inflexible and he quit in 1934. Morgenthau made it his highest priority to stay close to Roosevelt, no matter what. Douglas's position, like many of the Old Right, was grounded in a basic distrust of politicians and the deeply ingrained fear that government spending always involved a degree of patronage and corruption that offended his Progressive sense of efficiency. The Economy Act of 1933, passed early in the Hundred Days, was Douglas's great achievement. It reduced federal expenditures by $500 million, to be achieved by reducing veterans' payments and federal salaries. Douglas cut government spending through executive orders that cut the military budget by $125 million, $75 million from the Post Office, $12 million from Commerce, $75 million from government salaries and $100 million from staff layoffs. As Freidel concludes: "The economy program was not a minor aberration of the spring of 1933, or a hypocritical concession to delighted conservatives. Rather it was an integral part of Roosevelt's overall New Deal".[202] Revenues were so low that borrowing was necessary (only the richest 3% paid any income tax between 1926 and 1940).[203] Douglas, therefore, hated the relief programs, which he said reduced business confidence, threatened the government's future credit and had the "destructive psychological effects of making mendicants of self-respecting American citizens".[201] Roosevelt was pulled toward greater spending by Hopkins and Ickes, and as the 1936 election approached he decided to gain votes by attacking big business. Morgenthau shifted with Roosevelt, but at all times tried to inject fiscal responsibility—he deeply believed in balanced budgets, stable currency, reduction of the national debt, and the need for more private investment. The Wagner Act met Morgenthau's requirement because it strengthened the party's political base and involved no new spending. In contrast to Douglas, Morgenthau accepted Roosevelt's double budget as legitimate—that is a balanced regular budget and an "emergency" budget for agencies, like the WPA, PWA, and CCC, that would be temporary until full recovery was at hand. He fought against the veterans' bonus until Congress finally overrode Roosevelt's veto and gave out $2.2 billion in 1936. His biggest success was the new Social Security program as he managed to reverse the proposals to fund it from general revenue and insisted it be funded by new taxes on employees. It was Morgenthau who insisted on excluding farm workers and domestic servants from Social Security because workers outside industry would not be paying their way.[201] Race and gender African Americans While many Americans suffered economically during the Great Depression, African Americans also had to deal with social ills, such as racism, discrimination, and segregation. Black workers were especially vulnerable to the economic downturn since most of them worked the most marginal jobs such as unskilled or service-oriented work, therefore they were the first to be discharged and additionally many employers preferred white workers. When jobs were scarce some employers even dismissed black workers to create jobs for white citizens. In the end, there were three times more African American workers on public assistance or relief than white workers.[204] Roosevelt appointed an unprecedented number of African Americans to second-level positions in his administration—these appointees were collectively called the Black Cabinet. The WPA, NYA, and CCC relief programs allocated 10% of their budgets to blacks (who comprised about 10% of the total population, and 20% of the poor). They operated separate all-black units with the same pay and conditions as white units.[205] Some leading white New Dealers, especially Eleanor Roosevelt, Harold Ickes and Aubrey Williams, worked to ensure blacks received at least 10% of welfare assistance payments.[205] However, these benefits were small in comparison to the economic and political advantages that whites received. Most unions excluded blacks from joining and enforcement of anti-discrimination laws in the South was virtually impossible, especially since most blacks worked in hospitality and agricultural sectors.[206] The New Deal programs put millions of Americans immediately back to work or at least helped them to survive.[207] The programs were not specifically targeted to alleviate the much higher unemployment rate of blacks.[208] Some aspects of the programs were even unfavorable to blacks. The Agricultural Adjustment Acts, for example, helped farmers which were predominantly white but reduced the need of farmers to hire tenant farmers or sharecroppers which were predominantly black. Though the AAA stipulated that a farmer had to share the payments with those who worked the land, this policy was never enforced.[209] The Farm Service Agency (FSA), a government relief agency for tenant farmers, created in 1937, made efforts to empower African Americans by appointing them to agency committees in the South. Senator James F. Byrnes of South Carolina raised opposition to the appointments because he stood for white farmers who were threatened by an agency that could organize and empower tenant farmers. Initially, the FSA stood behind their appointments, but after feeling national pressure FSA was forced to release the African Americans from their positions. The goals of the FSA were notoriously progressive and not cohesive with the southern voting elite. Some harmful New Deal measures inadvertently discriminated against blacks. Thousands of blacks were thrown out of work and replaced by whites on jobs where they were paid less than the NRA's wage minimums because some white employers considered the NRA's minimum wage "too much money for Negroes". By August 1933, blacks called the NRA the "Negro Removal Act".[210] An NRA study found that the NIRA put 500,000 African Americans out of work.[211] However, since blacks felt the sting of the depression's wrath even more severely than whites, they welcomed any help. In 1936, almost all African Americans (and many whites) shifted from the "Party of Lincoln" to the Democratic Party.[208] This was a sharp realignment from 1932 when most African Americans voted the Republican ticket. New Deal policies helped establish a political alliance between blacks and the Democratic Party that survives into the 21st century.[205][212] There was no attempt whatsoever to end segregation or to increase black rights in the South, and a number of leaders that promoted the New Deal were racist and anti-semitic.[213] The wartime Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) executive orders that forbade job discrimination against African Americans, women, and ethnic groups was a major breakthrough that brought better jobs and pay to millions of minority Americans. Historians usually treat FEPC as part of the war effort and not part of the New Deal itself. Segregation The New Deal was racially segregated as blacks and whites rarely worked alongside each other in New Deal programs. The largest relief program by far was the WPA—it operated segregated units, as did its youth affiliate the NYA.[214] Blacks were hired by the WPA as supervisors in the North, but of 10,000 WPA supervisors in the South only 11 were black.[215] Historian Anthony Badger said, "New Deal programs in the South routinely discriminated against blacks and perpetuated segregation."[216] In its first few weeks of operation, CCC camps in the North were integrated. By July 1935, practically all the camps in the United States were segregated, and blacks were strictly limited in the supervisory roles they were assigned.[217] Kinker and Smith argue, "even the most prominent racial liberals in the New Deal did not dare to criticize Jim Crow." Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes was one of the Roosevelt Administration's most prominent supporters of blacks and former president of the Chicago chapter of the NAACP. In 1937, when Senator Josiah Bailey Democrat of North Carolina accused him of trying to break down segregation laws Ickes wrote him to deny that: I think it is up to the states to work out their social problems if possible, and while I have always been interested in seeing that the Negro has a square deal, I have never dissipated my strength against the particular stone wall of segregation. I believe that wall will crumble when the Negro has brought himself to a high educational and economic status…. Moreover, while there are no segregation laws in the North, there is segregation in fact and we might as well recognize this.[218][219][220] The New Deal's record came under attack by New Left historians in the 1960s for its pusillanimity in not attacking capitalism more vigorously, nor helping blacks achieve equality. The critics emphasize the absence of a philosophy of reform to explain the failure of New Dealers to attack fundamental social problems. They demonstrate the New Deal's commitment to save capitalism and its refusal to strip away private property. They detect a remoteness from the people and indifference to participatory democracy and call instead for more emphasis on conflict and exploitation.[221][222] Women Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) camp for unemployed women in Maine, 1934 At first, the New Deal created programs primarily for men as it was assumed that the husband was the "breadwinner" (the provider) and if they had jobs the whole family would benefit. It was the social norm for women to give up jobs when they married—in many states, there were laws that prevented both husband and wife holding regular jobs with the government. So too in the relief world, it was rare for both husband and wife to have a relief job on FERA or the WPA.[223] This prevailing social norm of the breadwinner failed to take into account the numerous households headed by women, but it soon became clear that the government needed to help women as well.[224] Many women were employed on FERA projects run by the states with federal funds. The first New Deal program to directly assist women was the Works Progress Administration (WPA), begun in 1935. It hired single women, widows, or women with disabled or absent husbands. The WPA employed about 500,000 women and they were assigned mostly to unskilled jobs. 295,000 worked on sewing projects that made 300 million items of clothing and bedding to be given away to families on relief and to hospitals and orphanages. Women also were hired for the WPA's school lunch program.[225][226][227] Both men and women were hired for the small but highly publicized arts programs (such as music, theater, and writing). The Social Security program was designed to help retired workers and widows but did not include domestic workers, farmers or farm laborers, the jobs most often held by blacks. However, Social Security was not a relief program and it was not designed for short-term needs, as very few people received benefits before 1942. Relief Anti-relief protest sign near Davenport, Iowa by Arthur Rothstein, 1940 The New Deal expanded the role of the federal government, particularly to help the poor, the unemployed, youth, the elderly and stranded rural communities. The Hoover administration started the system of funding state relief programs, whereby the states hired people on relief. With the CCC in 1933 and the WPA in 1935, the federal government now became involved in directly hiring people on relief in granting direct relief or benefits. Total federal, state and local spending on relief rose from 3.9% of GNP in 1929 to 6.4% in 1932 and 9.7% in 1934—the return of prosperity in 1944 lowered the rate to 4.1%. In 1935–1940, welfare spending accounted for 49% of the federal, state and local government budgets.[228] In his memoirs, Milton Friedman said that the New Deal relief programs were an appropriate response. He and his wife were not on relief, but they were employed by the WPA as statisticians.[229] Friedman said that programs like the CCC and WPA were justified as temporary responses to an emergency. Friedman said that Roosevelt deserved considerable credit for relieving immediate distress and restoring confidence.[230] Recovery Roosevelt's New Deal Recovery programs focused on stabilizing the economy by creating long-term employment opportunities, decreasing agricultural supply to drive prices up, and helping homeowners pay mortgages and stay in their homes, which also kept the banks solvent. In a survey of economic historians conducted by Robert Whaples, Professor of Economics at Wake Forest University, anonymous questionnaires were sent to members of the Economic History Association. Members were asked to disagree, agree, or agree with provisos with the statement that read: "Taken as a whole, government policies of the New Deal served to lengthen and deepen the Great Depression". While only 6% of economic historians who worked in the history department of their universities agreed with the statement, 27% of those that work in the economics department agreed. Almost an identical percent of the two groups (21% and 22%) agreed with the statement "with provisos" (a conditional stipulation) while 74% of those who worked in the history department and 51% in the economic department disagreed with the statement outright.[98] Economic growth and unemployment (1933–1941) WPA employed 2 to 3 million unemployed at unskilled labor From 1933 to 1941, the economy expanded at an average rate of 7.7% per year.[231] Despite high economic growth, unemployment rates fell slowly. Unemployment rate[232] 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 Workers in job creation programs counted as unemployed 24.9% 21.7% 20.1% 16.9% 14.3% 19.0% 17.2% 14.6% 9.9% Workers in job creation programs counted as employed 20.6% 16.0% 14.2% 9.9% 9.1% 12.5% 11.3% 9.5% 8.0% John Maynard Keynes explained that situation as an underemployment equilibrium where skeptic business prospects prevent companies from hiring new employees. It was seen as a form of cyclical unemployment.[233] There are different assumptions as well. According to Richard L. Jensen, cyclical unemployment was a grave matter primarily until 1935. Between 1935 and 1941, structural unemployment became the bigger problem. Especially the unions successes in demanding higher wages pushed management into introducing new efficiency-oriented hiring standards. It ended inefficient labor such as child labor, casual unskilled work for subminimum wages and sweatshop conditions. In the long term, the shift to efficiency wages led to high productivity, high wages and a high standard of living, but it necessitated a well-educated, well-trained, hard-working labor force. It was not before war time brought full employment that the supply of unskilled labor (that caused structural unemployment) downsized.[158] Mainstream economics interpretation U.S. GDP annual pattern and long-term trend (1920–1940) in billions of constant dollars Keynesians: halted the collapse but lacked Keynesian deficit spending At the beginning of the Great Depression, many economists traditionally argued against deficit spending. The fear was that government spending would "crowd out" private investment and would thus not have any effect on the economy, a proposition known as the Treasury view, but Keynesian economics rejected that view. They argued that by spending vastly more money—using fiscal policy—the government could provide the needed stimulus through the multiplier effect. Without that stimulus, business simply would not hire more people, especially the low skilled and supposedly "untrainable" men who had been unemployed for years and lost any job skill they once had. Keynes visited the White House in 1934 to urge President Roosevelt to increase deficit spending. Roosevelt afterwards complained, "he left a whole rigmarole of figures—he must be a mathematician rather than a political economist."[234] The New Deal tried public works, farm subsidies and other devices to reduce unemployment, but Roosevelt never completely gave up trying to balance the budget. Between 1933 and 1941, the average federal budget deficit was 3% per year.[235] Roosevelt did not fully utilize[clarification needed] deficit spending. The effects of federal public works spending were largely offset by Herbert Hoover's large tax increase in 1932, whose full effects for the first time were felt in 1933 and it was undercut by spending cuts, especially the Economy Act. According to Keynesians like Paul Krugman, the New Deal therefore was not as successful in the short run as it was in the long run.[236] Following the Keynesian consensus (that lasted until the 1970s), the traditional view was that federal deficit spending associated with the war brought full-employment output while monetary policy was just aiding the process. In this view, the New Deal did not end the Great Depression, but halted the economic collapse and ameliorated the worst of the crises.[237] Monetarist interpretation Milton Friedman More influential among economists has been the monetarist interpretation by Milton Friedman as put forth in A Monetary History of the United States,[citation needed] which includes a full-scale monetary history of what he calls the "Great Contraction".[238] Friedman concentrated on the failures before 1933 and points out that between 1929 and 1932 the Federal Reserve allowed the money supply to fall by a third which is seen as the major cause that turned a normal recession into a Great Depression. Friedman especially criticized the decisions of Hoover and the Federal Reserve not to save banks going bankrupt. Friedman's arguments got an endorsement from a surprising source when Fed Governor Ben Bernanke made this statement: Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression, you're right. We did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again.[239][240] Monetarists state that the banking and monetary reforms were a necessary and sufficient response to the crises. They reject the approach of Keynesian deficit spending. In an interview in 2000, Friedman said: You have to distinguish between two classes of New Deal policies. One class of New Deal policies was reform: wage and price control, the Blue Eagle, the national industrial recovery movement. I did not support those. The other part of the new deal policy was relief and recovery ... providing relief for the unemployed, providing jobs for the unemployed, and motivating the economy to expand ... an expansive monetary policy. Those parts of the New Deal I did support.[241] Bernanke and Parkinson: cleared the way for a natural recovery Ben Bernanke and Martin Parkinson declared in "Unemployment, Inflation, and Wages in the American Depression" (1989), "the New Deal is better characterized as having cleared the way for a natural recovery (for example, by ending deflation and rehabilitating the financial system) rather than as being the engine of recovery itself."[242][243] New Keynesian economics: crucial source of recovery Challenging the traditional view, monetarists and New Keynesians like J. Bradford DeLong, Lawrence Summers and Christina Romer argued that recovery was essentially complete prior to 1942 and that monetary policy was the crucial source of pre-1942 recovery.[244] The extraordinary growth in money supply beginning in 1933 lowered real interest rates and stimulated investment spending. According to Bernanke, there was also a debt-deflation effect of the depression which was clearly offset by a reflation through the growth in money supply.[242] However, before 1992 scholars did not realize that the New Deal provided for a huge aggregate demand stimulus through a de facto easing of monetary policy. While Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz argued in A Monetary History of the United States (1963) that the Federal Reserve System had made no attempt to increase the quantity in high-powered money and thus failed to foster recovery, they somehow did not investigate the impact of the monetary policy of the New Deal. In 1992, Christina Romer explained in "What Ended the Great Depression?" that the rapid growth in money supply beginning in 1933 can be traced back to a large unsterilized gold inflow to the U.S. which was partly due to political instability in Europe, but to a larger degree to the revaluation of gold through the Gold Reserve Act. The Roosevelt administration had chosen not to sterilize the gold inflow precisely because they hoped that the growth of money supply would stimulate the economy.[242] Replying to DeLong et al. in the Journal of Economic History, J. R. Vernon argues that deficit spending leading up to and during World War II still played a large part in the overall recovery, according to his study "half or more of the recovery occurred during 1941 and 1942".[245] According to Peter Temin, Barry Wigmore, Gauti B. Eggertsson and Christina Romer, the biggest primary impact of the New Deal on the economy and the key to recovery and to end the Great Depression was brought about by a successful management of public expectations. The thesis is based on the observation that after years of deflation and a very severe recession important economic indicators turned positive just in March 1933 when Roosevelt took office. Consumer prices turned from deflation to mild inflation, industrial production bottomed out in March 1933, investment doubled in 1933 with a turnaround in March 1933. There were no monetary forces to explain that turnaround. Money supply was still falling and short-term interest rates remained close to zero. Before March 1933, people expected a further deflation and recession so that even interest rates at zero did not stimulate investment. However, when Roosevelt announced major regime changes people[who?] began to expect inflation and an economic expansion. With those expectations, interest rates at zero began to stimulate investment just as they were expected to do. Roosevelt's fiscal and monetary policy regime change helped to make his policy objectives credible. The expectation of higher future income and higher future inflation stimulated demand and investments. The analysis suggests that the elimination of the policy dogmas of the gold standard, a balanced budget in times of crises and small government led endogenously to a large shift in expectation that accounts for about 70–80 percent of the recovery of output and prices from 1933 to 1937. If the regime change had not happened and the Hoover policy had continued, the economy would have continued its free-fall in 1933 and output would have been 30 percent lower in 1937 than in 1933.[246][247][248] Real business-cycle theory: rather harmful Followers of the real business-cycle theory believe that the New Deal caused the depression to persist longer than it would otherwise have. Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian say Roosevelt's policies prolonged the depression by seven years.[249] According to their study, the "New Deal labor and industrial policies did not lift the economy out of the Depression", but that the "New Deal policies are an important contributing factor to the persistence of the Great Depression". They claim that the New Deal "cartelization policies are a key factor behind the weak recovery". They say that the "abandonment of these policies coincided with the strong economic recovery of the 1940s".[250] The study by Cole and Ohanian is based on a real business-cycle theory model. Laurence Seidman noted that according to the assumptions of Cole and Ohanian, the labor market clears instantaneously, which leads to the incredible conclusion that the surge in unemployment between 1929 and 1932 (before the New Deal) was in their opinion both optimal and solely based on voluntary unemployment.[251] Additionally, Cole and Ohanian's argument does not count workers employed through New Deal programs. Such programs built or renovated 2,500 hospitals, 45,000 schools, 13,000 parks and playgrounds, 7,800 bridges, 700,000 miles (1,100,000 km) of roads, 1,000 airfields and employed 50,000 teachers through programs that rebuilt the country's entire rural school system.[252][253] Reform Francis Perkins looks on as Roosevelt signs the National Labor Relations Act The economic reforms were mainly intended to rescue the capitalist system by providing a more rational framework in which it could operate. The banking system was made less vulnerable. The regulation of the stock market and the prevention of some corporate abuses relating to the sale of securities and corporate reporting addressed the worst excesses. Roosevelt allowed trade unions to take their place in labor relations and created the triangular partnership between employers, employees and government.[126] David M. Kennedy wrote, "the achievements of the New Deal years surely played a role in determining the degree and the duration of the postwar prosperity."[254] Paul Krugman stated that the institutions built by the New Deal remain the bedrock of the United States economic stability. Against the background of the 2007–2012 global financial crisis, he explained that the financial crises would have been much worse if the New Deals Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation had not insured most bank deposits and older Americans would have felt much more insecure without Social Security.[236] Economist Milton Friedman after 1960 attacked Social Security from a free market view stating that it had created welfare dependency.[255] The New Deal banking reform has weakened since the 1980s. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 allowed the shadow banking system to grow rapidly. Since it was neither regulated nor covered by a financial safety net, the shadow banking system was central to the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the subsequent Great Recession.[256] Impact on federal government and states Though it is essentially consensus among historians and academics that the New Deal brought about a large increase in the power of the federal government, there has been some scholarly debate concerning the results of this federal expansion. Historians like Arthur M. Schlesinger and James T. Patterson have argued that the augmentation of the federal government exacerbated tensions between the federal and state governments. However, contemporaries such as Ira Katznelson have suggested that due to certain conditions on the allocation of federal funds, namely that the individual states get to control them, the federal government managed to avoid any tension with states over their rights. This is a prominent debate concerning the historiography of federalism in the United States and—as Schlesinger and Patterson have observed—the New Deal marked an era when the federal-state power balance shifted further in favor of the federal government, which heightened tensions between the two levels of government in the United States. Ira Katznelson has argued that although the federal government expanded its power and began providing welfare benefits on a scale previously unknown in the United States, it often allowed individual states to control the allocation of the funds provided for such welfare. This meant that the states controlled who had access to these funds, which in turn meant many Southern states were able to racially segregate—or in some cases, like a number of counties in Georgia, completely exclude African-Americans—the allocation of federal funds.[257] This enabled these states to continue to relatively exercise their rights and also to preserve the institutionalization of the racist order of their societies. Though Katznelson has conceded that the expansion of the federal government had the potential to lead to federal-state tension, he has argued it was avoided as these states managed to retain some control. As Katznelson has observed, "they [state governments in the South] had to manage the strain that potentially might be placed on local practices by investing authority in federal bureaucracies [...]. To guard against this outcome, the key mechanism deployed was a separation of the source of funding from decisions about how to spend the new monies".[258] However, Schlesinger has disputed Katznelson's claim and has argued that the increase in the power of the federal government was perceived to come at the cost of states' rights, thereby aggravating state governments, which exacerbated federal-state tensions. Schlesinger has utilized quotes from the time to highlight this point and has observed, "the actions of the New Deal, [Ogden L.] Mills said, 'abolish the sovereignty of the States. They make of a government of limited powers one of unlimited authority over the lives of us all.'"[259] Moreover, Schlesinger has argued that this federal-state tension was not a one-way street and that the federal government became just as aggravated with the state governments as they did with it. State governments were often guilty of inhibiting or delaying federal policies. Whether through intentional methods, like sabotage, or unintentional ones, like simple administrative overload—either way, these problems aggravated the federal government and thus heightened federal-state tensions. Schlesinger has also noted, "students of public administration have never taken sufficient account of the capacity of lower levels of government to sabotage or defy even a masterful President."[260] James T. Patterson has reiterated this argument, though he observes that this increased tension can be accounted for not just from a political perspective, but from an economic one too. Patterson has argued that the tension between the federal and state governments at least partly also resulted from the economic strain under which the states had been put by the federal government's various policies and agencies. Some states were either simply unable to cope with the federal government's demand and thus refused to work with them, or admonished the economic restraints and actively decided to sabotage federal policies. This was demonstrated, Patterson has noted, with the handling of federal relief money by Ohio governor, Martin L. Davey. The case in Ohio became so detrimental to the federal government that Harry Hopkins, supervisor of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, had to federalize Ohio relief.[261] Although this argument differs somewhat from Schlesinger's, the source of federal-state tension remained the growth of the federal government. As Patterson has asserted, "though the record of the FERA was remarkably good—almost revolutionary—in these respects it was inevitable, given the financial requirements imposed on deficit-ridden states, that friction would develop between governors and federal officials".[262] In this dispute, it can be inferred that Katznelson and Schlesinger and Patterson have only disagreed on their inference of the historical evidence. While both parties have agreed that the federal government expanded and even that states had a degree of control over the allocation of federal funds, they have disputed the consequences of these claims. Katznelson has asserted that it created mutual acquiescence between the levels of government, while Schlesinger and Patterson have suggested that it provoked contempt for the state governments on the part of the federal government and vice versa, thus exacerbating their relations. In short, irrespective of the interpretation this era marked an important time in the historiography of federalism and also nevertheless provided some narrative on the legacy of federal-state relations. Criticism See also: Criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt Claims of fascism Further information: The New Deal and corporatism Worldwide, the Great Depression had the most profound impact in Germany and the United States. In both countries the pressure to reform and the perception of the economic crisis were strikingly similar. When Hitler came to power he was faced with exactly the same task that faced Roosevelt, overcoming mass unemployment and the global Depression. The political responses to the crises were essentially different: while American democracy remained strong, Germany replaced democracy with fascism, a Nazi dictatorship.[263] The initial perception of the New Deal was mixed. On the one hand, the eyes of the world were upon the United States because many American and European democrats saw in Roosevelt's reform program a positive counterweight to the seductive powers of the two great alternative systems, communism and fascism.[264] As the historian Isaiah Berlin wrote in 1955: "The only light in the darkness was the administration of Mr. Roosevelt and the New Deal in the United States".[265] By contrast, enemies of the New Deal sometimes called it "fascist", but they meant very different things. Communists denounced the New Deal in 1933 and 1934 as fascist in the sense that it was under the control of big business. They dropped that line of thought when Stalin switched to the "Popular Front" plan of cooperation with progressives.[266] In 1934, Roosevelt defended himself against those critics in a "fireside chat": [Some] will try to give you new and strange names for what we are doing. Sometimes they will call it 'Fascism', sometimes 'Communism', sometimes 'Regimentation', sometimes 'Socialism'. But, in so doing, they are trying to make very complex and theoretical something that is really very simple and very practical.... Plausible self-seekers and theoretical die-hards will tell you of the loss of individual liberty. Answer this question out of the facts of your own life. Have you lost any of your rights or liberty or constitutional freedom of action and choice?[267] After 1945, only few observers continued to see similarities and later on some scholars such as Kiran Klaus Patel, Heinrich August Winkler and John Garraty came to the conclusion that comparisons of the alternative systems do not have to end in an apology for Nazism since comparisons rely on the examination of both similarities and differences. Their preliminary studies on the origins of the fascist dictatorships and the American (reformed) democracy came to the conclusion that besides essential differences "the crises led to a limited degree of convergence" on the level of economic and social policy.[disputed – discuss] The most important cause was the growth of state interventionism since in the face of the catastrophic economic situation both societies no longer counted on the power of the market to heal itself.[268] John Garraty wrote that the National Recovery Administration (NRA) was based on economic experiments in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, without establishing a totalitarian dictatorship.[269] Contrary to that, historians such as Hawley have examined the origins of the NRA in detail, showing the main inspiration came from Senators Hugo Black and Robert F. Wagner and from American business leaders such as the Chamber of Commerce. The model for the NRA was Woodrow Wilson's War Industries Board, in which Johnson had been involved too.[270] Historians argue that direct comparisons between Fascism and New Deal are invalid since there is no distinctive form of fascist economic organization.[271] Gerald Feldman wrote that fascism has not contributed anything to economic thought and had no original vision of a new economic order replacing capitalism. His argument correlates with Mason's that economic factors alone are an insufficient approach to understand fascism and that decisions taken by fascists in power cannot be explained within a logical economic framework. In economic terms, both ideas were within the general tendency of the 1930s to intervene in the free market capitalist economy, at the price of its laissez-faire character, "to protect the capitalist structure endangered by endogenous crises tendencies and processes of impaired self-regulation".[271] Stanley Payne, a historian of fascism, examined possible fascist influences in the United States by looking at the KKK and its offshoots and movements led by Father Coughlin and Huey Long. He concluded, "the various populist, nativist, and rightist movements in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s fell distinctly short of fascism."[272] According to Kevin Passmore, lecturer in history at Cardiff University, the failure of fascism in the United States was due to the social policies of the New Deal that channelled anti-establishment populism into the left rather than the extreme right.[273] Claims of conservatism The New Deal was generally held in very high regard in scholarship and textbooks. That changed in the 1960s when New Left historians began a revisionist critique calling the New Deal a band-aid for a patient that needed radical surgery to reform capitalism, put private property in its place and lift up workers, women and minorities.[274] The New Left believed in participatory democracy and therefore rejected the autocratic machine politics typical of the big city Democratic organizations.[221] In a 1968 essay, Barton J. Bernstein compiled a chronicle of missed opportunities and inadequate responses to problems. The New Deal may have saved capitalism from itself, Bernstein charged, but it had failed to help—and in many cases actually harmed—those groups most in need of assistance. In The New Deal (1967), Paul K. Conkin similarly chastised the government of the 1930s for its weak policies toward marginal farmers, for its failure to institute sufficiently progressive tax reform, and its excessive generosity toward select business interests. In 1966, Howard Zinn criticized the New Deal for working actively to actually preserve the worst evils of capitalism. By the 1970s, progressive historians were responding with a defense of the New Deal based on numerous local and microscopic studies. Praise increasingly focused on Eleanor Roosevelt, seen as a more appropriate crusading reformer than her husband.[275] In a series of articles, political sociologist Theda Skocpol has emphasized the issue of "state capacity" as an often-crippling constraint. Ambitious reform ideas often failed, she argued, because of the absence of a government bureaucracy with significant strength and expertise to administer them.[citation needed] Other more recent works have stressed the political constraints that the New Deal encountered. Conservative skepticism about the efficacy of government was strong both in Congress and among many citizens. Thus some scholars have stressed that the New Deal was not just a product of its progressive backers, but also a product of the pressures of its conservative opponents.[citation needed] Claims of communism Some hard-right critics in the 1930s claimed that Roosevelt was state socialist or communist, including Charles Coughlin, Elizabeth Dilling, and Gerald L. K. Smith,[276] The accusations generally targeted the New Deal. These conspiracy theories were grouped as the "red web" or "Roosevelt Red Record", based significantly on propaganda books by Dilling. There was significant overlap between these red-baiting accusations against Roosevelt and the isolationist America First Committee.[276] Roosevelt was concerned enough about the accusations that in a September 29, 1936 speech in Syracuse, Roosevelt officially condemned communism.[276][277] Other accusations of socialism or claimed communism came from Republican representative Robert F. Rich, and senators Simeon D. Fess, and Thomas D. Schall.[278] The accusations of communism were widespread enough to misdirect from the real Soviet espionage that was occurring, leading the Roosevelt administration to miss the infiltration of various spy rings. Most of the Soviet spy rings actually sought to undermine the Roosevelt administration.[276] The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) had been quite hostile to the New Deal until 1935, but acknowledging the danger of fascism worldwide, reversed positions and tried to form a "Popular front" with the New Dealers. The Popular Front saw a small amount of popularity and a relatively restricted level of influence, and declined with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. From 1935, the head of CPUSA Earl Browder sought to avoid directly attacking the New Deal or Roosevelt. With the Soviet invasion of Poland in mid September 1939, Browder was ordered by the Comintern to adjust his position to oppose FDR, which led to disputes within the CPUSA.[279] Communists in government During the New Deal, the communists established a network of a dozen or so members working for the government. They were low level and had a minor influence on policies. Harold Ware led the largest group which worked in the Agriculture Adjustment Administration (AAA) until Secretary of Agriculture Wallace got rid of them all in a famous purge in 1935.[280] Ware died in 1935 and some individuals such as Alger Hiss moved to other government jobs.[281][282] Other communists worked for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the National Youth Administration, the Works Progress Administration, the Federal Theater Project, the Treasury and the Department of State.[283] Political metaphor This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2022) (template removal help) Since 1933, politicians and pundits have often called for a "new deal" regarding an object—that is, they demand a completely new, large-scale approach to a project. An example of this usage is the phrase "Green New Deal", which since the 2000s has been used as a descriptor for far-reaching environmental legislation. As Arthur A. Ekirch Jr. (1971) has shown, the New Deal stimulated utopianism in American political and social thought on a wide range of issues. In Canada, Conservative Prime Minister Richard B. Bennett in 1935 proposed a "new deal" of regulation, taxation and social insurance that was a copy of the American program, but Bennett's proposals were not enacted and he was defeated for reelection in October 1935. In accordance with the rise of the use of U.S. political phraseology in Britain, the Labour government of Tony Blair termed some of its employment programs "new deal", in contrast to the Conservative Party's promise of the "British Dream". Works of art and music Main article: New Deal artwork The federal government commissioned a series of public murals from the artists it employed: William Gropper's Construction of a Dam (1939) is characteristic of much of the art of the 1930s, with workers seen in heroic poses, laboring in unison to complete a great public project The Works Progress Administration subsidized artists, musicians, painters and writers on relief with a group of projects called Federal One. While the WPA program was by far the most widespread, it was preceded by three programs administered by the US Treasury which hired commercial artists at usual commissions to add murals and sculptures to federal buildings. The first of these efforts was the short-lived Public Works of Art Project, organized by Edward Bruce, an American businessman and artist. Bruce also led the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture (later renamed the Section of Fine Arts) and the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP). The Resettlement Administration (RA) and Farm Security Administration (FSA) had major photography programs. The New Deal arts programs emphasized regionalism, social realism, class conflict, proletarian interpretations and audience participation. The unstoppable collective powers of common man, contrasted to the failure of individualism, was a favorite theme.[284][285] "Created Equal": Act I, Scene 3 of Spirit of 1776, Boston (Federal Theatre Project, 1935) Post Office murals and other public art, painted by artists in this time, can still be found at many locations around the U.S.[286] The New Deal particularly helped American novelists. For journalists and the novelists who wrote non-fiction, the agencies and programs that the New Deal provided, allowed these writers to describe what they really saw around the country.[287] Many writers chose to write about the New Deal and whether they were for or against it and if it was helping the country out. Some of these writers were Ruth McKenney, Edmund Wilson and Scott Fitzgerald.[288] Another subject that was very popular for novelists was the condition of labor. They ranged from subjects on social protest to strikes.[289] Under the WPA, the Federal Theatre project flourished. Countless theatre productions around the country were staged. This allowed thousands of actors and directors to be employed, among them were Orson Welles, and John Huston.[286] The FSA photography project is most responsible for creating the image of the Depression in the U.S. Many of the images appeared in popular magazines. The photographers were under instruction from Washington as to what overall impression the New Deal wanted to give out. Director Roy Stryker's agenda focused on his faith in social engineering, the poor conditions among cotton tenant farmers and the very poor conditions among migrant farm workers—above all he was committed to social reform through New Deal intervention in people's lives. Stryker demanded photographs that "related people to the land and vice versa" because these photographs reinforced the RA's position that poverty could be controlled by "changing land practices". Though Stryker did not dictate to his photographers how they should compose the shots, he did send them lists of desirable themes, such as "church", "court day", "barns".[290] Films of the late New Deal era such as Citizen Kane (1941) ridiculed so-called "great men" while the heroism of the common man appeared in numerous movies, such as The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Thus in Frank Capra's famous films, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Meet John Doe (1941) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946), the common people come together to battle and overcome villains who are corrupt politicians controlled by very rich, greedy capitalists.[291] By contrast, there was also a smaller but influential stream of anti–New Deal art. Gutzon Borglum's sculptures on Mount Rushmore emphasized great men in history (his designs had the approval of Calvin Coolidge). Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway disliked the New Deal and celebrated the autonomy of perfected written work as opposed to the New Deal idea of writing as performative labor. The Southern Agrarians celebrated premodern regionalism and opposed the TVA as a modernizing, disruptive force. Cass Gilbert, a conservative who believed architecture should reflect historic traditions and the established social order, designed the new Supreme Court building (1935). Its classical lines and small size contrasted sharply with the gargantuan modernistic federal buildings going up in the Washington Mall that he detested.[292] Hollywood managed to synthesize liberal and conservative streams as in Busby Berkeley's Gold Digger musicals, where the storylines exalt individual autonomy while the spectacular musical numbers show abstract populations of interchangeable dancers securely contained within patterns beyond their control.[293] New Deal programs See also: Alphabet agencies The New Deal had many programs and new agencies, most of which were universally known by their initials. Most were abolished during World War II while others remain in operation or formed into different programs. They included the following: National Youth Administration (NYA), 1935: program that focused on providing work for students ages of 16 to 25. Ended in 1943. Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC): a Hoover agency expanded under Jesse Holman Jones to make large loans to big business. Ended in 1954. The WPA hired unemployed teachers to provide free adult education programs Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA): a Hoover program to create unskilled jobs for relief; expanded by Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins; replaced by WPA in 1935. United States bank holiday, 1933: closed all banks until they became certified by federal reviewers. Abandonment of gold standard, 1933: gold reserves no longer backed currency; still exists. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 1933–1942: employed young men to perform unskilled work in rural areas; under United States Army supervision; separate program for Native Americans. Homeowners Loan Corporation (HOLC): helped people keep their homes, the government bought properties from the bank allowing people to pay the government instead of the banks in installments they could afford, keeping people in their homes and banks afloat. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), 1933: effort to modernize very poor region (most of Tennessee), centered on dams that generated electricity on the Tennessee River; still exists. Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), 1933: raised farm prices by cutting total farm output of major crops and livestock; replaced by a new AAA because the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), 1933: industries set up codes to reduce unfair competition, raise wages and prices; ended 1935. The Supreme Court ruled the NIRA unconstitutional. Public Works Administration (PWA), 1933: built large public works projects; used private contractors (did not directly hire unemployed). Ended 1938. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): insures bank deposits and supervises state banks; still exists. Glass–Steagall Act: regulates investment banking; repealed 1999 (not repealed, only two provisions changed). Securities Act of 1933, created the SEC, 1933: codified standards for sale and purchase of stock, required awareness of investments to be accurately disclosed; still exists. FERA camp for unemployed black women, Atlanta, 1934 Civil Works Administration (CWA), 1933–1934: provided temporary jobs to millions of unemployed. Indian Reorganization Act, 1934: moved away from assimilation; policy dropped. Social Security Act (SSA), 1935: provided financial assistance to: elderly, handicapped, paid for by employee and employer payroll contributions; required 7 years contributions, so first payouts were in 1942; still exists. Works Progress Administration (WPA), 1935: a national labor program for more than 2 million unemployed; created useful construction work for unskilled men; also sewing projects for women and arts projects for unemployed artists, musicians and writers; ended 1943. National Labor Relations Act (NLRA); Wagner Act, 1935: set up the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to supervise labor-management relations. In the 1930s, it strongly favored labor unions. Modified by the Taft–Hartley Act (1947); still exists. Judicial Reorganization Bill, 1937: gave the President power to appoint a new Supreme Court judge for every judge 70 years or older; failed to pass Congress. Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), 1938: insures crops and livestock against loss of production or revenue. Was restructured during the creation of the Risk Management Agency in 1996 but continues to exist. Surplus Commodities Program (1936): gives away food to the poor; still exists as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Fair Labor Standards Act 1938: established a maximum normal work week of 44 hours and a minimum wage of 40 cents/hour and outlawed most forms of child labor, though it still exists. The working hours have been lowered to 40 over the years, and the minimum wage has climbed to $7.25.[294] Surplus Commodities Program, 1936 Rural Electrification Administration (REA): one of the federal executive departments of the United States government charged with providing public utilities (electricity, telephone, water, sewer) to rural areas in the U.S. via public-private partnerships. Still exists. Resettlement Administration (RA): resettled poor tenant farmers; replaced by Farm Security Administration in 1935. Farm Security Administration (FSA): helped poor farmers by a variety of economic and educational programs; some programs still exist as part of the Farmers Home Administration. Statistics Depression statistics "Most indexes worsened until the summer of 1932, which may be called the low point of the depression economically and psychologically".[295] Economic indicators show the American economy reached nadir in summer 1932 to February 1933, then began recovering until the recession of 1937–1938. Thus the Federal Reserve Industrial Production Index hit its low of 52.8 on July 1, 1932, and was practically unchanged at 54.3 on March 1, 1933, but by July 1, 1933, it reached 85.5 (with 1935–39 = 100 and for comparison 2005 = 1,342).[296] In Roosevelt's 12 years in office, the economy had an 8.5% compound annual growth of GDP,[297] the highest growth rate in the history of any industrial country,[298] but recovery was slow and by 1939 the gross domestic product (GDP) per adult was still 27% below trend.[250] Table 1: Statistics[299][300][301] 1929 1931 1933 1937 1938 1940 Real Gross National Product (GNP) (1) 101.4 84.3 68.3 103.9 96.7 113.0 Consumer Price Index (2) 122.5 108.7 92.4 102.7 99.4 100.2 Index of Industrial Production (2) 109 75 69 112 89 126 Money Supply M2 ($ billions) 46.6 42.7 32.2 45.7 49.3 55.2 Exports ($ billions) 5.24 2.42 1.67 3.35 3.18 4.02 Unemployment (% of civilian work force) 3.1 16.1 25.2 13.8 16.5 13.9 (1) in 1929 dollars (2) 1935–1939 = 100 Table 2: Unemployment (% labor force) Year Lebergott Darby 1933 24.9 20.6 1934 21.7 16.0 1935 20.1 14.2 1936 16.9 9.9 1937 14.3 9.1 1938 19.0 12.5 1939 17.2 11.3 1940 14.6 9.5 1941 9.9 8.0 1942 4.7 4.7 1943 1.9 1.9 1944 1.2 1.2 1945 1.9 1.9 Darby counts WPA workers as employed; Lebergott as unemployed Source: Historical Statistics US (1976) series D-86; Smiley 1983[302] Relief statistics Families on relief 1936–1941 Relief cases 1936–1941 (monthly average in 1,000) 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 Workers employed: WPA 1,995 2,227 1,932 2,911 1,971 1,638 CCC and NYA 712 801 643 793 877 919 Other federal work projects 554 663 452 488 468 681 Public assistance cases: Social security programs 602 1,306 1,852 2,132 2,308 2,517 General relief 2,946 1,484 1,614 1,647 1,570 1,206 Total families helped 5,886 5,660 5,474 6,751 5,860 5,167 Unemployed workers (Bur Lab Stat) 9,030 7,700 10,000 9,480 8,120 5,560 Coverage (cases/unemployed) 65% 74% 53% 71% 72% 13% See also Arthurdale, West Virginia, New Deal planned community Progressivism in the United States Liberalism in the United States Living New Deal, a research project about the impact of the New Deal Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, first and second terms Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, third and fourth terms Social programs in the United States Timeline of the Great Depression Timeline of the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency Green New Deal Fordism High modernism New Frontier Technocentrism Technological utopianism Technological progress Techno-progressivism Progress References Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and procured by a government body for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings (municipal buildings, schools, and hospitals), transport infrastructure (roads, railroads, bridges, pipelines, canals, ports, and airports), public spaces (public squares, parks, and beaches), public services (water supply and treatment, sewage treatment, electrical grid, and dams), and other, usually long-term, physical assets and facilities. Though often interchangeable with public infrastructure and public capital, public works does not necessarily carry an economic component, thereby being a broader term. Construction may be undertaken either by directly employed labour or by a private operator. Public works has been encouraged since antiquity. The Roman emperor Nero encouraged the construction of various infrastructure projects during widespread deflation.[1] Overview Public works is a multi-dimensional concept in economics and politics, touching on multiple arenas including: recreation (parks, beaches, trails), aesthetics (trees, green space), economy (goods and people movement, energy), law (police and courts), and neighborhood (community centers, social services buildings). It represents any constructed object that augments a nation's physical infrastructure. Municipal infrastructure, urban infrastructure, and rural development usually represent the same concept but imply either large cities or developing nations' concerns respectively. The terms public infrastructure or critical infrastructure are at times used interchangeably. However, critical infrastructure includes public works (dams, waste water systems, bridges, etc.) as well as facilities like hospitals, banks, and telecommunications systems and views them from a national security viewpoint and the impact on the community that the loss of such facilities would entail. Public works in Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, Italy Furthermore, the term public works has recently been expanded to include digital public infrastructure projects. For example, in the United States, the first nationwide digital public works project is an effort to create an open source software platform for e-voting (created and managed by the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation).[2] Reflecting increased concern with sustainability, urban ecology and quality of life, efforts to move towards sustainable municipal infrastructure are common in developed nations, especially in the European Union and Canada (where the FCM InfraGuide provides an officially mandated best practice exchange to move municipalities in that direction). Public works programmes A public employment programme or public works programme is the provision of employment by the creation of predominantly public goods at a prescribed wage for those unable to find alternative employment. This functions as a form of social safety net. Public works programmes are activities which entail the payment of a wage (in cash or in kind) by the state, or by an Agent (or cash-for work/CFW). One particular form of public works, that of offering a short-term period of employment, has come to dominate practice, particularly in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa. Applied in the short term, this is appropriate as a response to transient shocks and acute labour market crises.[3] Investing in public works projects in order to stimulate the general economy has been a popular policy measure since the economic crisis of the 1930s. Spearheaded by U.S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the first female Cabinet member in the United States, the New Deal resulted in the creation of programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, Public Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration, among others, all of which created public goods through labor and infrastructure investments.[4] More recent examples are the 2008–2009 Chinese economic stimulus program, India's National Infrastructure Pipeline of 2020, the 2008 European Union stimulus plan, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Utility of investment While it is argued that capital investment in public works can be used to reduce unemployment, opponents of internal improvement programs argue that such projects should be undertaken by the private sector, not the public sector, because public works projects are often inefficient and costly to taxpayers. Further, some argue that public works, when used excessively by a government, are characteristic of socialism and other public or collectivist forms of government because of their 'tax and spend' policies to achieve long-term economic improvement. However, in the private sector, entrepreneurs bear their own losses and so private-sector firms are generally unwilling to undertake projects that could result in losses or would not develop a revenue stream. Governments will invest in public works because of the overall benefit to society when there is a lack of private sector benefit (a project that does generate revenue) or the risk is too great for a private company to accept on its own. According to research conducted at the Aalborg University, 86% of public works projects end up with cost overruns. Some findings of the research were the following: Technically-difficult projects were not more likely to exceed the budget than less difficult projects. Projects in which more people were directly and indirectly affected by the project turned out to be more susceptible to cost overruns. Project managers generally did not learn from similar projects attempted in the past.[5][6] Generally, contracts awarded by public tenders include a provision for unexpected expenses (cost overruns), which typically amount to 10% of the value of the contract. This money is spent during the course of the project only if the construction managers judge that it is necessary, and the expenditure must typically be justified in writing. See also Contingencies fund Department of transportation E-procurement Infrastructure Internal improvements Madaket Ditch, one of the first public works projects in America Make-work job Public good, an economic discussion Utility district Individual programs Franklin Delano Roosevelt[a] (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), commonly known by his initials FDR, was an American politician and statesman who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. He was a member of the Democratic Party and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms in office. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II. A member of the prominent Roosevelt family, after attending university, Roosevelt began to practice law in New York City. He was elected a member of the New York State Senate from 1911 to 1913 and was then the assistant secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during World War I. Roosevelt was James M. Cox's running mate on the Democratic Party's ticket in the 1920 U.S. presidential election, but Cox lost to Republican nominee Warren G. Harding. In 1921, Roosevelt contracted a paralytic illness that permanently paralyzed his legs. Partly through the encouragement of his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, he returned to public office as governor of New York from 1929 to 1933, during which he promoted programs to combat the Great Depression besetting the U.S. In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated Republican president Herbert Hoover in a landslide. During his first 100 days as president, Roosevelt spearheaded unprecedented federal legislation and directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing the New Deal in response to the most significant economic crisis in American history. He also built the New Deal coalition, realigning American politics into the Fifth Party System and defining American liberalism throughout the middle third of the 20th century. He created numerous programs to provide relief to the unemployed and farmers while seeking economic recovery with the National Recovery Administration and other programs. He also instituted major regulatory reforms related to finance, communications, and labor, and presided over the end of Prohibition. In 1936, Roosevelt won a landslide reelection with the economy having improved from 1933, but the economy relapsed into a deep recession in 1937 and 1938. He was unable to expand the Supreme Court in 1937, the same year the conservative coalition was formed to block the implementation of further New Deal programs and reforms. Major surviving programs and legislation implemented under Roosevelt include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Social Security. In 1940, he ran successfully for reelection, becoming the only American president to serve for more than two terms. With World War II looming after 1938 in addition to the Japanese invasion of China and the aggression of Nazi Germany, Roosevelt gave strong diplomatic and financial support to China as well as the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union while the U.S. remained officially neutral. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he obtained a declaration of war on Japan the next day and on Germany and Italy a few days later. He worked closely with other national leaders in leading the Allies against the Axis powers. Roosevelt supervised the mobilization of the American economy to support the war effort and implemented a Europe first strategy. He also initiated the development of the world's first atomic bomb and worked with the other Allied leaders to lay the groundwork for the United Nations and other post-war institutions. Roosevelt won reelection in 1944 but died in 1945 after his physical health seriously and steadily declined during the war years. Since then, several of his actions have come under substantial criticism, including his ordering of the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps. Nonetheless, historical rankings consistently place him as one of the greatest American presidents. Early life and marriage Childhood A young, unbreeched Roosevelt in 1884, 2 years old Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in the Hudson Valley town of Hyde Park, New York, to businessman James Roosevelt I and his second wife, Sara Ann Delano. His parents, who were sixth cousins,[2] both came from wealthy, established New York families, the Roosevelts, the Aspinwalls and the Delanos, respectively. Roosevelt's paternal ancestor migrated to New Amsterdam in the 17th century, and the Roosevelts succeeded as merchants and landowners.[3] The Delano family patriarch, Philip Delano, traveled to the New World on the Fortune in 1621, and the Delanos thrived as merchants and shipbuilders in Massachusetts.[4] Franklin had a half-brother, James Roosevelt "Rosy" Roosevelt, from his father's previous marriage.[5] Roosevelt's father, James, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1851 but chose not to practice law after receiving an inheritance from his grandfather.[5] James Roosevelt, a prominent Bourbon Democrat, once took Franklin to meet President Grover Cleveland, who said to him: "My little man, I am making a strange wish for you. It is that you may never be President of the United States."[6] Franklin's mother, the dominant influence in his early years, once declared, "My son Franklin is a Delano, not a Roosevelt at all."[2][7] James, who was 54 when Franklin was born, was considered by some as a remote father, though biographer James MacGregor Burns indicates James interacted with his son more than was typical at the time.[8] Education and early career Roosevelt in 1893, at the age of 11 Roosevelt in 1900, at the age of 18 As a child, Roosevelt learned to ride, shoot, and sail; he also learned to play polo, tennis, and golf.[9][10] Frequent trips to Europe—beginning at age two and from age seven to fifteen—helped Roosevelt become conversant in German and French. Except for attending public school in Germany at age nine,[11] Roosevelt was home-schooled by tutors until age 14. He then attended Groton School, an Episcopal boarding school in Groton, Massachusetts.[12] He was not among the more popular Groton students, who were better athletes and had rebellious streaks.[13] Its headmaster, Endicott Peabody, preached the duty of Christians to help the less fortunate and urged his students to enter public service. Peabody remained a strong influence throughout Roosevelt's life, officiating at his wedding and visiting him as president.[14][15] Like most of his Groton classmates, Roosevelt went to Harvard College.[13] He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity[16] and the Fly Club,[17] and served as a school cheerleader.[18] Roosevelt was relatively undistinguished as a student or athlete, but he became editor-in-chief of The Harvard Crimson daily newspaper, a position that required ambition, energy, and the ability to manage others.[19] He later said, "I took economics courses in college for four years, and everything I was taught was wrong."[20] Roosevelt's father died in 1900, causing great distress for him.[21] The following year, Roosevelt's fifth cousin Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States. Theodore's vigorous leadership style and reforming zeal made him Franklin's role model and hero.[22] He graduated from Harvard in three years in 1903 with an A.B. in history.[23] He remained there for a fourth year, taking graduate courses and becoming an editor of the Harvard Crimson.[24] Roosevelt entered Columbia Law School in 1904 but dropped out in 1907 after passing the New York Bar Examination.[25][b] In 1908, he took a job with the prestigious law firm of Carter Ledyard & Milburn, working in the firm's admiralty law division.[27] Marriage, family, and marital affairs Eleanor and Franklin with their first two children, 1908 During his second year of college, he met and proposed to Boston heiress Alice Sohier, who turned him down.[13] Franklin then began courting his child-acquaintance and fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt, a niece of Theodore Roosevelt.[28] In 1903 Franklin proposed to Eleanor, and after resistance from his mother, they were married on March 17, 1905.[13][29] Eleanor's father, Elliott, was deceased, and her uncle Theodore, then the president, gave away the bride.[30] The young couple moved into Springwood, and Franklin and Sara Roosevelt also provided a townhouse for the couple in New York City, where Sara built a house alongside for herself. Eleanor never felt at home in the houses at Hyde Park or New York, but she loved the family's vacation home on Campobello Island, which Sara also gave the couple.[31] Burns indicates young Roosevelt was self-assured and at ease in the upper class, while Eleanor was then shy and disliked social life, and initially stayed home to raise their children.[32] As his father had, Franklin left the raising of the children to his wife, and Eleanor delegated it to caregivers. She later said she knew "absolutely nothing about handling or feeding a baby."[33] Although Eleanor thought sex was "an ordeal to be endured",[34] she and Franklin had six children. Anna, James, and Elliott were born in 1906, 1907, and 1910, respectively. The couple's second son, Franklin, died in infancy in 1909. Another son, also named Franklin, was born in 1914, and the youngest child, John, was born in 1916.[35] Roosevelt had several extra-marital affairs, including with Eleanor's social secretary Lucy Mercer, soon after she was hired in 1914, and discovered by Eleanor in 1918.[36] Franklin contemplated divorcing Eleanor, but Sara objected, and Mercer would not marry a divorced man with five children.[37] Franklin and Eleanor remained married, and Franklin promised never to see Mercer again. Eleanor never forgave him, and their marriage became more of a political partnership.[38] Eleanor soon established a separate home in Hyde Park at Val-Kill, and devoted herself to social and political causes independent of her husband. The emotional break in their marriage was so severe that when Franklin asked Eleanor in 1942—in light of his failing health—to come back home and live with him again, she refused.[39] He was not always aware of when she visited the White House and for some time she could not easily reach him on the telephone without his secretary's help; Franklin, in turn, did not visit Eleanor's New York City apartment until late 1944.[40] Franklin broke his promise to Eleanor as he and Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd maintained a formal correspondence, and began seeing each other again in 1941 or earlier.[41][42] Roosevelt's son Elliott claimed that his father had a 20-year affair with his private secretary, Marguerite "Missy" LeHand.[43] Another son, James, stated that "there is a real possibility that a romantic relationship existed" between his father and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, who resided in the White House during part of World War II. Aides began to refer to her at the time as "the president's girlfriend",[44] and gossip linking the two romantically appeared in the newspapers.[45] Early political career (1910–1920) New York state senator (1910–1913) Roosevelt in 1912 Roosevelt cared little for the practice of law and told friends he planned to enter politics.[46] Despite his admiration for cousin Theodore, Franklin shared his father's bond with the Democratic Party, and in preparation for the 1910 elections, the party recruited Roosevelt to run for a seat in the New York State Assembly.[47] Roosevelt was a compelling recruit for the party. He had the personality and energy for campaigning, and he had the money to pay for his own campaign.[48] But Roosevelt's campaign for the state assembly ended after the Democratic incumbent, Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, chose to seek re-election. Rather than putting his political hopes on hold, Roosevelt ran for a seat in the state senate.[49] The senate district, located in Dutchess, Columbia, and Putnam, was strongly Republican.[50] Roosevelt feared that opposition from Theodore could end his campaign, but Theodore encouraged his candidacy despite their party differences.[47] Acting as his own campaign manager, Roosevelt traveled throughout the senate district via automobile at a time when few could afford a car.[51] Due to his aggressive campaign,[52] his name recognition in the Hudson Valley, and the Democratic landslide in the 1910 United States elections, Roosevelt won a surprising victory.[53] Despite short legislative sessions, Roosevelt treated his new position as a full-time career.[54] Taking his seat on January 1, 1911, Roosevelt soon became the leader of a group of "Insurgents" in opposition to the Tammany Hall machine that dominated the state Democratic Party. In the 1911 U.S. Senate election, which was determined in a joint session of the New York state legislature,[c] Roosevelt and nineteen other Democrats caused a prolonged deadlock by opposing a series of Tammany-backed candidates. Tammany threw its backing behind James A. O'Gorman, a highly regarded judge whom Roosevelt found acceptable, and O'Gorman won the election in late March.[55] Roosevelt in the process became a popular figure among New York Democrats.[53] News articles and cartoons depicted "the second coming of a Roosevelt", sending "cold shivers down the spine of Tammany".[56] Roosevelt opposed Tammany Hall by supporting New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson's successful bid for the 1912 Democratic nomination.[57] The election became a three-way contest when Theodore Roosevelt left the Republican Party to launch a third party campaign against Wilson and sitting Republican President William Howard Taft. Franklin's decision to back Wilson over his cousin in the general election alienated some of his family, except Theodore.[58] Roosevelt overcame a bout of typhoid fever, and with help from journalist Louis McHenry Howe, he was re-elected in the 1912 elections. After the election, he served as chairman of the Agriculture Committee, and his success with farm and labor bills was a precursor to his New Deal policies years later.[59] He had then become more consistently progressive, in support of labor and social welfare programs.[60] Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913–1919) Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1913 Roosevelt's support of Wilson led to his appointment in March 1913 as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, the second-ranking official in the Navy Department after Secretary Josephus Daniels who paid it little attention.[61] Roosevelt had an affection for the Navy, was well-read on the subject, and was a most ardent supporter of a large, efficient force.[62][63] With Wilson's support, Daniels and Roosevelt instituted a merit-based promotion system and made other reforms to extend civilian control over the autonomous departments of the Navy.[64] Roosevelt oversaw the Navy's civilian employees and earned the respect of union leaders for his fairness in resolving disputes.[65] No strikes occurred during his seven-plus years in the office,[66] as he gained valuable experience in labor issues, wartime management, naval issues, and logistics.[67] In 1914, Roosevelt ran for the seat of retiring Republican Senator Elihu Root of New York. Though he had the backing of Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo and Governor Martin H. Glynn, he faced a formidable opponent in Tammany-Hall's James W. Gerard.[68] He also was without Wilson's support, as the president needed Tammany's forces for his legislation and 1916 re-election.[69] Roosevelt was soundly defeated in the Democratic primary by Gerard, who in turn lost the general election to Republican James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr. He learned that federal patronage alone, without White House support, could not defeat a strong local organization.[70] After the election, he and Tammany Hall boss Charles Francis Murphy sought accommodation and became allies.[71] Roosevelt refocused on the Navy Department, as World War I broke out in Europe in August 1914.[72] Though he remained publicly supportive of Wilson, Roosevelt sympathized with the Preparedness Movement, whose leaders strongly favored the Allied Powers and called for a military build-up.[73] The Wilson administration initiated an expansion of the Navy after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania by a German submarine, and Roosevelt helped establish the United States Navy Reserve and the Council of National Defense.[74] In April 1917, after Germany declared it would engage in unrestricted submarine warfare and attacked several U.S. ships, Congress approved Wilson's call for a declaration of war on Germany.[75] Roosevelt requested that he be allowed to serve as a naval officer, but Wilson insisted that he continue to serve as Assistant Secretary. For the next year, Roosevelt remained in Washington to coordinate the deployment of naval vessels and personnel, as the Navy expanded fourfold.[76][77] In the summer of 1918, Roosevelt traveled to Europe to inspect naval installations and meet with French and British officials. In September, he returned to the United States on board the USS Leviathan. On the 11-day voyage, the pandemic influenza virus struck and killed many on board. Roosevelt became very ill with influenza and complicating pneumonia, but recovered by the time the ship landed in New York.[78][79] After Germany signed an armistice in November 1918, Daniels and Roosevelt supervised the demobilization of the Navy.[80] Against the advice of older officers such as Admiral William Benson—who claimed he could not "conceive of any use the fleet will ever have for aviation"—Roosevelt personally ordered the preservation of the Navy's Aviation Division.[81] With the Wilson administration near an end, Roosevelt planned his next run for office. He approached Herbert Hoover about running for the 1920 Democratic presidential nomination, with Roosevelt as his running mate.[82] Campaign for vice president (1920) Cox and Roosevelt in Ohio, 1920 Roosevelt's plan for Hoover to run for the nomination fell through after Hoover publicly declared himself to be a Republican, but Roosevelt decided to seek the 1920 vice presidential nomination. After Governor James M. Cox of Ohio won the party's presidential nomination at the 1920 Democratic National Convention, he chose Roosevelt as his running mate, and the convention nominated him by acclamation.[83] Although his nomination surprised most people, he balanced the ticket as a moderate, a Wilsonian, and a prohibitionist with a famous name.[84][85] Roosevelt, then 38, resigned as Assistant Secretary after the Democratic convention and campaigned across the nation for the party ticket.[86] During the campaign, Cox and Roosevelt defended the Wilson administration and the League of Nations, both of which were unpopular in 1920.[87] Roosevelt personally supported U.S. membership in the League of Nations, but, unlike Wilson, he favored compromising with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other "Reservationists".[88] The Cox–Roosevelt ticket was defeated by Republicans Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge in the presidential election by a wide margin, and the Republican ticket carried every state outside of the South.[89] Roosevelt accepted the loss without issue and later reflected that the relationships and goodwill that he built in the 1920 campaign proved to be a major asset in his 1932 campaign. The 1920 election also saw the first public participation of Eleanor Roosevelt who, with the support of Louis Howe, established herself as a valuable political player.[90] Paralytic illness and political comeback (1921–1928) Further information: Paralytic illness of Franklin D. Roosevelt Rare photograph of Roosevelt in a wheelchair, with Fala and Ruthie Bie, the daughter of caretakers at his Hyde Park estate, February 1941 After the election, Roosevelt returned to New York City, where he practiced law and served as a vice president of the Fidelity and Deposit Company.[91] He also sought to build support for a political comeback in the 1922 elections, but his career was derailed by illness.[91] While the Roosevelts were vacationing at Campobello Island in August 1921, he fell ill. His main symptoms were fever; symmetric, ascending paralysis; facial paralysis; bowel and bladder dysfunction; numbness and hyperesthesia; and a descending pattern of recovery. Roosevelt was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down and was diagnosed with polio. Historians have noted a 2003 study strongly favoring a diagnosis of Guillain–Barré syndrome,[92] but have continued to describe his paralysis according to the initial diagnosis.[93][94][95][96] Though his mother favored his retirement from public life, Roosevelt, his wife, and Roosevelt's close friend and adviser, Louis Howe, were all determined that he continue his political career.[97] He convinced many people that he was improving, which he believed to be essential prior to running for public office again.[98] He laboriously taught himself to walk short distances while wearing iron braces on his hips and legs, by swiveling his torso while supporting himself with a cane.[99] He was careful never to be seen using his wheelchair in public, and great care was taken to prevent any portrayal in the press that would highlight his disability.[100] However, his disability was well known before and during his presidency and became a major part of his image. He usually appeared in public standing upright, supported on one side by an aide or one of his sons.[101] Beginning in 1925, Roosevelt spent most of his time in the Southern United States, at first on his houseboat, the Larooco.[102] Intrigued by the potential benefits of hydrotherapy, he established a rehabilitation center at Warm Springs, Georgia, in 1926. To create the rehabilitation center, he assembled a staff of physical therapists and used most of his inheritance to purchase the Merriweather Inn. In 1938, he founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, leading to the development of polio vaccines.[103] Roosevelt maintained contacts with the Democratic Party during the 1920s, and he remained active in New York politics while also establishing contacts in the South, particularly in Georgia.[104] He issued an open letter endorsing Al Smith's successful campaign in New York's 1922 gubernatorial election, which both aided Smith and showed Roosevelt's continuing relevance as a political figure.[105] Roosevelt and Smith came from different backgrounds and never fully trusted one another, but Roosevelt supported Smith's progressive policies, while Smith was happy to have the backing of the prominent and well-respected Roosevelt.[106] Roosevelt gave presidential nominating speeches for Smith at the 1924 and 1928 Democratic National Conventions; the speech at the 1924 convention marked a return to public life following his illness and convalescence.[107] That year, the Democrats were badly divided between an urban wing, led by Smith, and a conservative, rural wing, led by William Gibbs McAdoo. On the 101st ballot, the nomination went to John W. Davis, a compromise candidate who suffered a landslide defeat in the 1924 presidential election. Like many others throughout the United States, Roosevelt did not abstain from alcohol during the Prohibition era, but publicly he sought to find a compromise on Prohibition acceptable to both wings of the party.[108] In 1925, Smith appointed Roosevelt to the Taconic State Park Commission, and his fellow commissioners chose him as chairman.[109] In this role, he came into conflict with Robert Moses, a Smith protégé,[109] who was the primary force behind the Long Island State Park Commission and the New York State Council of Parks.[109] Roosevelt accused Moses of using the name recognition of prominent individuals including Roosevelt to win political support for state parks, but then diverting funds to the ones Moses favored on Long Island, while Moses worked to block the appointment of Howe to a salaried position as the Taconic commission's secretary.[109] Roosevelt served on the commission until the end of 1928,[110] and his contentious relationship with Moses continued as their careers progressed.[111] Peace was the catchword of the 1920s, and in 1923 Edward Bok established the $100,000 American Peace Award for the best plan to bring peace to the world. Roosevelt had leisure time and interest, and he drafted a plan for the contest. He never submitted it because his wife Eleanor Roosevelt was selected as a judge for the prize. His plan called for a new world organization that would replace the League of Nations.[112] Although Roosevelt had been the vice-presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket of 1920 that supported the League of Nations, by 1924 he was ready to scrap it. His draft of a "Society of Nations" accepted the reservations proposed by Henry Cabot Lodge in the 1919 Senate debate. The new Society would not become involved in the Western Hemisphere, where the Monroe doctrine held sway. It would not have any control over military forces. Although Roosevelt's plan was never made public, he thought about the problem a great deal and incorporated some of his 1924 ideas into the design for the United Nations in 1944–1945.[113] Governor of New York (1929–1932) Main article: Governorship of Franklin D. Roosevelt Gov. Roosevelt with his predecessor Al Smith, 1930 Smith, the Democratic presidential nominee in the 1928 election, asked Roosevelt to run for governor of New York in the 1928 state election.[114] Roosevelt initially resisted, as he was reluctant to leave Warm Springs and feared a Republican landslide in 1928.[115] Party leaders eventually convinced him only he could defeat the Republican gubernatorial nominee, New York Attorney General Albert Ottinger.[116] He won the party's gubernatorial nomination by acclamation and again turned to Howe to lead his campaign. Roosevelt was also joined on the campaign trail by associates Samuel Rosenman, Frances Perkins, and James Farley.[117] While Smith lost the presidency in a landslide, and was defeated in his home state, Roosevelt was elected governor by a one-percent margin,[118] and became a contender in the next presidential election.[119] Roosevelt proposed the construction of hydroelectric power plants and addressed the ongoing farm crisis of the 1920s.[120] Relations between Roosevelt and Smith suffered after he chose not to retain key Smith appointees like Moses.[121] He and his wife Eleanor established an understanding for the rest of his career; she would dutifully serve as the governor's wife but would also be free to pursue her own agenda and interests.[122] He also began holding "fireside chats", in which he directly addressed his constituents via radio, often pressuring the New York State Legislature to advance his agenda.[123] In October 1929, the Wall Street Crash occurred, and with it came the Great Depression in the United States.[124] Roosevelt saw the seriousness of the situation and established a state employment commission. He also became the first governor to publicly endorse the idea of unemployment insurance.[125] When Roosevelt began his run for a second term in May 1930, he reiterated his doctrine from the campaign two years before: "that progressive government by its very terms must be a living and growing thing, that the battle for it is never-ending and that if we let up for one single moment or one single year, not merely do we stand still but we fall back in the march of civilization."[126] He ran on a platform that called for aid to farmers, full employment, unemployment insurance, and old-age pensions.[127] He was elected to a second term by a 14% margin.[128] Roosevelt proposed an economic relief package and the establishment of the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration to distribute those funds. Led first by Jesse I. Straus and then by Harry Hopkins, the agency assisted well over one-third of New York's population between 1932 and 1938.[129] Roosevelt also began an investigation into corruption in New York City among the judiciary, the police force, and organized crime, prompting the creation of the Seabury Commission. The Seabury investigations exposed an extortion ring, led many public officials to be removed from office, and made the decline of Tammany Hall inevitable.[130] Roosevelt supported reforestation with the Hewitt Amendment in 1931, which gave birth to New York's State Forest system.[131] 1932 presidential election Main article: 1932 United States presidential election Roosevelt in the early 1930s As the 1932 presidential election approached, Roosevelt turned his attention to national politics, established a campaign team led by Howe and Farley, and a "brain trust" of policy advisers, primarily composed of Columbia University and Harvard University professors.[132] There were some who were not so sanguine about his chances, such as Walter Lippmann, the dean of political commentators, who observed of Roosevelt: "He is a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be president."[133] However, Roosevelt's efforts as governor to address the effects of the depression in his own state established him as the front-runner for the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination.[133] Roosevelt rallied the progressive supporters of the Wilson administration while also appealing to many conservatives, establishing himself as the leading candidate in the South and West. The chief opposition to Roosevelt's candidacy came from Northeastern conservatives, Speaker of the House John Nance Garner of Texas and Al Smith, the 1928 Democratic presidential nominee.[133] Roosevelt entered the convention with a delegate lead due to his success in the 1932 Democratic primaries, but most delegates entered the convention unbound to any particular candidate. On the first presidential ballot of the convention, Roosevelt received the votes of more than half but less than two-thirds of the delegates, with Smith finishing in a distant second place. Roosevelt then promised the vice-presidential nomination to Garner, who controlled the votes of Texas and California; Garner threw his support behind Roosevelt after the third ballot, and Roosevelt clinched the nomination on the fourth ballot.[133] Roosevelt flew in from New York to Chicago after learning that he had won the nomination, becoming the first major-party presidential nominee to accept the nomination in person.[134] His appearance was essential, to show himself as vigorous, despite the ravaging disease that disabled him physically.[133] In his acceptance speech, Roosevelt declared, "I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people... This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms."[135] Roosevelt promised securities regulation, tariff reduction, farm relief, government-funded public works, and other government actions to address the Great Depression.[136] Reflecting changing public opinion, the Democratic platform included a call for the repeal of Prohibition; Roosevelt himself had not taken a public stand on the issue prior to the convention but promised to uphold the party platform.[137] Otherwise, Roosevelt's primary campaign strategy was one of caution, intent upon avoiding mistakes that would distract from Hoover's failings on the economy. His statements attacked the incumbent and included no other specific policies or programs.[133] After the convention, Roosevelt won endorsements from several progressive Republicans, including George W. Norris, Hiram Johnson, and Robert La Follette Jr.[138] He also reconciled with the party's conservative wing, and even Al Smith was persuaded to support the Democratic ticket.[139] Hoover's handling of the Bonus Army further damaged the incumbent's popularity, as newspapers across the country criticized the use of force to disperse assembled veterans.[140] 1932 electoral vote results Roosevelt won 57% of the popular vote and carried all but six states. Historians and political scientists consider the 1932–36 elections to be a political realignment. Roosevelt's victory was enabled by the creation of the New Deal coalition, small farmers, the Southern whites, Catholics, big city political machines, labor unions, northern African Americans (southern ones were still disfranchised), Jews, intellectuals, and political liberals.[141] The creation of the New Deal coalition transformed American politics and started what political scientists call the "New Deal Party System" or the Fifth Party System.[142] Between the Civil War and 1929, Democrats had rarely controlled both houses of Congress and had won just four of seventeen presidential elections; from 1932 to 1979, Democrats won eight of twelve presidential elections and generally controlled both houses of Congress.[143] Transition and assassination attempt Main article: Presidential transition of Franklin D. Roosevelt Roosevelt was elected in November 1932 but like his predecessors did not take office until the following March.[d] After the election, President Hoover sought to convince Roosevelt to renounce much of his campaign platform and to endorse the Hoover administration's policies.[144] Roosevelt refused Hoover's request to develop a joint program to stop the economic decline, claiming that it would tie his hands and that Hoover had the power to act.[145] During the transition, Roosevelt chose Howe as his chief of staff, and Farley as Postmaster General. Frances Perkins, as Secretary of Labor, became the first woman appointed to a cabinet position.[133] William H. Woodin, a Republican industrialist close to Roosevelt, was the choice for Secretary of the Treasury, while Roosevelt chose Senator Cordell Hull of Tennessee as Secretary of State. Harold L. Ickes and Henry A. Wallace, two progressive Republicans, were selected for the roles of Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture, respectively.[146] In February 1933, Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt by Giuseppe Zangara, who expressed a "hate for all rulers." As he was attempting to shoot Roosevelt, Zangara was struck by a woman with her purse; he instead mortally wounded Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who was sitting alongside Roosevelt.[147][148] Presidency (1933–1945) As president, Roosevelt appointed powerful men to top positions but made all the major decisions, regardless of delays, inefficiency, or resentment. Analyzing the president's administrative style, Burns concludes: The president stayed in charge of his administration...by drawing fully on his formal and informal powers as Chief Executive; by raising goals, creating momentum, inspiring a personal loyalty, getting the best out of people...by deliberately fostering among his aides a sense of competition and a clash of wills that led to disarray, heartbreak, and anger but also set off pulses of executive energy and sparks of creativity...by handing out one job to several men and several jobs to one man, thus strengthening his own position as a court of appeals, as a depository of information, and as a tool of co-ordination; by ignoring or bypassing collective decision-making agencies, such as the Cabinet...and always by persuading, flattering, juggling, improvising, reshuffling, harmonizing, conciliating, manipulating.[149] First and second terms (1933–1941) Main article: Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, first and second terms Nothing to Fear Duration: 46 seconds.0:46 Sample of the Inaugural speech from FDR Problems playing this file? See media help. When Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, the U.S. was at the nadir of the worst depression in its history. A quarter of the workforce was unemployed, and farmers were in deep trouble as prices had fallen by 60%. Industrial production had fallen by more than half since 1929. Two million people were homeless. By the evening of March 4, 32 of the 48 states—as well as the District of Columbia—had closed their banks.[150] Historians categorized Roosevelt's program as "relief, recovery, and reform." Relief was urgently needed by tens of millions of unemployed. Recovery meant boosting the economy back to normal, and reform was required of the financial and banking systems. Through Roosevelt's series of 30 "fireside chats", he presented his proposals directly to the American public as a series of radio addresses.[151] Energized by his own victory over paralytic illness, he used persistent optimism and activism to renew the national spirit.[152] First New Deal (1933–1934) Main article: New Deal On his second day in office, Roosevelt declared a four-day national "bank holiday", to end the run by depositors seeking to withdraw funds.[153] He called for a special session of Congress on March 9, when Congress passed, almost sight unseen, the Emergency Banking Act.[153] The act, first developed by the Hoover administration and Wall Street bankers, gave the president the power to determine the opening and closing of banks and authorized the Federal Reserve Banks to issue banknotes.[154] The "first 100 Days" of the 73rd United States Congress saw an unprecedented amount of legislation and set a benchmark against which future presidents have been compared.[155][156] When the banks reopened on Monday, March 15, stock prices rose by 15 percent and in the following weeks over $1 billion was returned to bank vaults, ending the bank panic.[153] On March 22, Roosevelt signed the Cullen–Harrison Act, which brought Prohibition to a close.[157] Duration: 48 seconds.0:48 Collection of video clips of Roosevelt Roosevelt saw the establishment of a number of agencies and measures designed to provide relief for the unemployed and others. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), under the leadership of Harry Hopkins, distributed relief to state governments.[158] The Public Works Administration (PWA), under Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, oversaw the construction of large-scale public works such as dams, bridges, and schools.[158] The most popular of all New Deal agencies—and Roosevelt's favorite—was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which hired 250,000 unemployed men to work in rural projects. Roosevelt also expanded Hoover's Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which financed railroads and industry. Congress gave the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) broad regulatory powers and provided mortgage relief to millions of farmers and homeowners. Roosevelt also set up the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) to increase commodity prices, by paying farmers to leave land uncultivated and cut herds.[159] In many instances, crops were plowed under and livestock killed, while many Americans died of hunger and were ill-clothed; critics labeled such policies "utterly idiotic."[153] On the positive side, nothing did more to rescue the farm family from isolation than the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), which brought electricity for the first time to millions of rural homes and with it such conveniences as radios and washing machines."[153] Reform of the economy was the goal of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933. It sought to end cutthroat competition by forcing industries to establish rules such as minimum prices, agreements not to compete, and production restrictions. Industry leaders negotiated the rules with NIRA officials, who suspended antitrust laws in return for better wages. The Supreme Court in May 1935 declared NIRA unconstitutional by a unanimous decision, to Roosevelt's chagrin.[160] He reformed financial regulations with the Glass–Steagall Act, creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to underwrite savings deposits. The act also limited affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms.[161] In 1934, the Securities and Exchange Commission was created to regulate the trading of securities, while the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was established to regulate telecommunications.[162] Recovery was sought through federal spending, as the NIRA included $3.3 billion (equivalent to $74.6 billion in 2022) of spending through the Public Works Administration.[163] Roosevelt worked with Senator Norris to create the largest government-owned industrial enterprise in American history—the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)—which built dams and power stations, controlled floods, and modernized agriculture and home conditions in the poverty-stricken Tennessee Valley. However, natives criticized the TVA for displacing thousands of people for these projects.[153] The Soil Conservation Service trained farmers in the proper methods of cultivation, and with the TVA, Roosevelt became the father of soil conservation.[153] Executive Order 6102 declared that all privately held gold of American citizens was to be sold to the U.S. Treasury and the price raised from $20 to $35 per ounce. The goal was to counter the deflation which was paralyzing the economy.[164] Roosevelt tried to keep his campaign promise by cutting the federal budget. This included a reduction in military spending from $752 million in 1932 to $531 million in 1934 and a 40% cut in spending on veterans benefits. 500,000 veterans and widows were removed from the pension rolls, and benefits were reduced for the remainder. Federal salaries were cut and spending on research and education was reduced. The veterans were well organized and strongly protested, so most benefits were restored or increased by 1934.[165] Veterans groups such as the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars won their campaign to transform their benefits from payments due in 1945 to immediate cash when Congress overrode the President's veto and passed the Bonus Act in January 1936.[166] It pumped sums equal to 2% of the GDP into the consumer economy and had a major stimulus effect.[167] Second New Deal (1935–1936) Main article: Second New Deal Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act into law, August 14, 1935. Roosevelt expected that his party would lose seats in the 1934 Congressional elections, as the president's party had done in most previous midterm elections. Unexpectedly the Democrats picked up seats in both houses of Congress. Empowered by the public's vote of confidence, the first item on Roosevelt's agenda in the 74th Congress was the creation of a social insurance program.[168] The Social Security Act established Social Security and promised economic security for the elderly, the poor, and the sick. Roosevelt insisted that it should be funded by payroll taxes rather than from the general fund, saying, "We put those payroll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program."[169] Compared with the social security systems in western European countries, the Social Security Act of 1935 was rather conservative. But for the first time, the federal government took responsibility for the economic security of the aged, the temporarily unemployed, dependent children, and disabled people.[170] Against Roosevelt's original intention for universal coverage, the act excluded farmers, domestic workers, and other groups, which made up about forty percent of the labor force.[171] Roosevelt consolidated the various relief organizations, though some, like the PWA, continued to exist. After winning Congressional authorization for further funding of relief efforts, he established the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Under the leadership of Harry Hopkins, the WPA employed over three million people in its first year of operations. It undertook numerous massive construction projects in cooperation with local governments. It also set up the National Youth Administration and arts organizations.[172] 1936 re-election handbill for Roosevelt promoting his economic policy The National Labor Relations Act guaranteed workers the right to collective bargaining through unions of their own choice. The act also established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to facilitate wage agreements and suppress repeated labor disturbances. The act did not compel employers to reach an agreement with their employees, but it opened possibilities for American labor.[173] The result was a tremendous growth of membership in the labor unions, especially in the mass-production sector.[174] When the Flint sit-down strike threatened the production of General Motors, Roosevelt broke with the precedent set by many former presidents and refused to intervene; the strike ultimately led to the unionization of both General Motors and its rivals in the American automobile industry.[175] While the First New Deal of 1933 had broad support from most sectors, the Second New Deal challenged the business community. Conservative Democrats, led by Al Smith, fought back with the American Liberty League, savagely attacking Roosevelt and equating him with socialism.[176] But Smith overplayed his hand, and his boisterous rhetoric let Roosevelt isolate his opponents and identify them with the wealthy vested interests that opposed the New Deal, strengthening Roosevelt for the 1936 landslide.[176] By contrast, labor unions, energized by labor legislation, signed up millions of new members and became a major backer of Roosevelt's re-elections in 1936, 1940, and 1944.[177] Burns suggests that Roosevelt's policy decisions were guided more by pragmatism than ideology and that he "was like the general of a guerrilla army whose columns, fighting blindly in the mountains through dense ravines and thickets, suddenly converge, half by plan and half by coincidence, and debouch into the plain below."[178] Roosevelt argued that such apparently haphazard methodology was necessary. "The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation," he wrote. "It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."[179] Election of 1936 Main article: 1936 United States presidential election 1936 electoral vote results Eight million workers remained unemployed in 1936, and though economic conditions had improved since 1932, they remained sluggish. By 1936, Roosevelt had lost the backing he once held in the business community because of his support for the NLRB and the Social Security Act.[133] The Republicans had few alternative candidates and nominated Kansas Governor Alf Landon, a little-known bland candidate whose chances were damaged by the public re-emergence of the still-unpopular Herbert Hoover.[180] While Roosevelt campaigned on his New Deal programs and continued to attack Hoover, Landon sought to win voters who approved of the goals of the New Deal but disagreed with its implementation.[181] An attempt by Louisiana Senator Huey Long to organize a left-wing third party collapsed after Long's assassination in 1935. The remnants, helped by Father Charles Coughlin, supported William Lemke of the newly formed Union Party.[182] Roosevelt won re-nomination with little opposition at the 1936 Democratic National Convention, while his allies overcame Southern resistance to permanently abolish the long-established rule that had required Democratic presidential candidates to win the votes of two-thirds of the delegates rather than a simple majority.[e] In the election against Landon and a third-party candidate, Roosevelt won 60.8% of the vote and carried every state except Maine and Vermont.[184] The Democratic ticket won the highest proportion of the popular vote.[f] Democrats also expanded their majorities in Congress, winning control of over three-quarters of the seats in each house. The election also saw the consolidation of the New Deal coalition; while the Democrats lost some of their traditional allies in big business, they were replaced by groups such as organized labor and African Americans, the latter of whom voted Democratic for the first time since the Civil War.[185] Roosevelt lost high-income voters, especially businessmen and professionals, but made major gains among the poor and minorities. He won 86 percent of the Jewish vote, 81 percent of Catholics, 80 percent of union members, 76 percent of Southerners, 76 percent of blacks in northern cities, and 75 percent of people on relief. Roosevelt carried 102 of the country's 106 cities with a population of 100,000 or more.[186] Supreme Court fight and second term legislation See also: Franklin D. Roosevelt Supreme Court candidates, Hughes Court, and Wiley Rutledge Supreme Court nomination The Supreme Court became Roosevelt's primary domestic focus during his second term after the court overturned many of his programs, including NIRA. The more conservative members of the court upheld the principles of the Lochner era, which saw numerous economic regulations struck down on the basis of freedom of contract.[187] Roosevelt proposed the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, which would have allowed him to appoint an additional Justice for each incumbent Justice over the age of 70; in 1937, there were six Supreme Court Justices over the age of 70. The size of the Court had been set at nine since the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1869, and Congress had altered the number of Justices six other times throughout U.S. history.[188] Roosevelt's "court packing" plan ran into intense political opposition from his own party, led by Vice President Garner since it upset the separation of powers.[189] A bipartisan coalition of liberals and conservatives of both parties opposed the bill, and Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes broke with precedent by publicly advocating the defeat of the bill. Any chance of passing the bill ended with the death of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Taylor Robinson in July 1937.[190] Starting with the 1937 case of West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, the court began to take a more favorable view of economic regulations. Historians have described this as, "the switch in time that saved nine."[153] That same year, Roosevelt appointed a Supreme Court Justice for the first time, and by 1941, seven of the nine Justices had been appointed by Roosevelt.[g][191] After Parrish, the Court shifted its focus from judicial review of economic regulations to the protection of civil liberties.[192] Four of Roosevelt's Supreme Court appointees, Felix Frankfurter, Robert H. Jackson, Hugo Black, and William O. Douglas, were particularly influential in reshaping the jurisprudence of the Court.[193][194] With Roosevelt's influence on the wane following the failure of the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, conservative Democrats joined with Republicans to block the implementation of further New Deal programs.[195] Roosevelt did manage to pass some legislation, including the Housing Act of 1937, a second Agricultural Adjustment Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, which was the last major piece of New Deal legislation. The FLSA outlawed child labor, established a federal minimum wage, and required overtime pay for certain employees who work in excess of forty-hours per week.[196] He also won passage of the Reorganization Act of 1939 and subsequently created the Executive Office of the President, making it "the nerve center of the federal administrative system."[197] When the economy began to deteriorate again in mid-1937, during the onset of the recession of 1937–1938, Roosevelt launched a rhetorical campaign against big business and monopoly power in the United States, alleging that the recession was the result of a capital strike and even ordering the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look for a criminal conspiracy (of which they found none). He then asked Congress for $5 billion (equivalent to $101.78 billion in 2022) in relief and public works funding. This managed to eventually create as many as 3.3 million WPA jobs by 1938. Projects accomplished under the WPA ranged from new federal courthouses and post offices to facilities and infrastructure for national parks, bridges, and other infrastructure across the country, and architectural surveys and archaeological excavations—investments to construct facilities and preserve important resources. Beyond this, however, Roosevelt recommended to a special congressional session only a permanent national farm act, administrative reorganization, and regional planning measures, all of which were leftovers from a regular session. According to Burns, this attempt illustrated Roosevelt's inability to settle on a basic economic program.[198] Determined to overcome the opposition of conservative Democrats in Congress, Roosevelt became involved in the 1938 Democratic primaries, actively campaigning for challengers who were more supportive of New Deal reform. Roosevelt failed badly, managing to defeat only one of the ten targeted, a conservative Democrat from New York City.[153] In the November 1938 elections, Democrats lost six Senate seats and 71 House seats, with losses concentrated among pro-New Deal Democrats. When Congress reconvened in 1939, Republicans under Senator Robert Taft formed a Conservative coalition with Southern Democrats, virtually ending Roosevelt's ability to enact his domestic proposals.[199] Despite their opposition to Roosevelt's domestic policies, many of these conservative Congressmen would provide crucial support for Roosevelt's foreign policy before and during World War II.[200] Conservation and the environment Roosevelt had a lifelong interest in the environment and conservation starting with his youthful interest in forestry on his family estate. Although he was never an outdoorsman or sportsman on Theodore Roosevelt's scale, his growth of the national systems was comparable.[4] When Franklin was Governor of New York, the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration was essentially a state-level predecessor of the federal Civilian Conservation Corps, with 10,000 or more men building fire trails, combating soil erosion and planting tree seedlings in marginal farmland in the state of New York.[201] As President, Roosevelt was active in expanding, funding, and promoting the National Park and National Forest systems.[202] Their popularity soared, from three million visitors a year at the start of the decade to 15.5 million in 1939.[203] The Civilian Conservation Corps enrolled 3.4 million young men and built 13,000 miles (21,000 kilometres) of trails, planted two billion trees, and upgraded 125,000 miles (201,000 kilometres) of dirt roads. Every state had its own state parks, and Roosevelt made sure that WPA and CCC projects were set up to upgrade them as well as the national systems.[204][205] GNP and unemployment rates See also: Great Depression in the United States § Roosevelt's New Deal Unemployment rates[h] Year Lebergott Darby 1929 3.2 3.2 1932 23.6 22.9 1933 24.9 20.6 1934 21.7 16.0 1935 20.1 14.2 1936 16.9 9.9 1937 14.3 9.1 1938 19.0 12.5 1939 17.2 11.3 1940 14.6 9.5 Government spending increased from 8.0% of the gross national product (GNP) under Hoover in 1932 to 10.2% in 1936. The national debt as a percentage of the GNP had more than doubled under Hoover from 16% to 40% of the GNP in early 1933. It held steady at close to 40% as late as fall 1941, then grew rapidly during the war.[207] The GNP was 34% higher in 1936 than in 1932 and 58% higher in 1940 on the eve of war. That is, the economy grew 58% from 1932 to 1940 in eight years of peacetime, and then grew 56% from 1940 to 1945 in five years of wartime.[207] Unemployment fell dramatically during Roosevelt's first term. It increased in 1938 ("a depression within a depression") but continually declined after 1938.[206] Total employment during Roosevelt's term expanded by 18.31 million jobs, with an average annual increase in jobs during his administration of 5.3%.[208][209] Foreign policy (1933–1941) Main article: Foreign policy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration Roosevelt with Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas and other dignitaries in Brazil, 1936 The main foreign policy initiative of Roosevelt's first term was the Good Neighbor Policy, which was a re-evaluation of U.S. policy toward Latin America. The United States frequently intervened in Latin America following the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, and the United States occupied several Latin American nations in the Banana Wars that occurred following the Spanish–American War of 1898. After Roosevelt took office, he withdrew U.S. forces from Haiti and reached new treaties with Cuba and Panama, ending their status as U.S. protectorates. In December 1933, Roosevelt signed the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, renouncing the right to intervene unilaterally in the affairs of Latin American countries.[210] Roosevelt also normalized relations with the Soviet Union, which the United States had refused to recognize since the 1920s.[211] He hoped to renegotiate the Russian debt from World War I and open trade relations, but no progress was made on either issue and "both nations were soon disillusioned by the accord."[212] The rejection of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920 marked the dominance of isolationism in American foreign policy. Despite Roosevelt's Wilsonian background, he and Secretary of State Cordell Hull acted with great care not to provoke isolationist sentiment. The isolationist movement was bolstered in the early to mid-1930s by Senator Gerald Nye and others who succeeded in their effort to stop the "merchants of death" in the U.S. from selling arms abroad.[213] This effort took the form of the Neutrality Acts; the president was refused a provision he requested giving him the discretion to allow the sale of arms to victims of aggression.[214] He largely acquiesced to Congress's non-interventionist policies in the early-to-mid 1930s.[215] In the interim, Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini proceeded to overcome Ethiopia, and the Italians joined Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler in supporting General Francisco Franco and the Nationalist cause in the Spanish Civil War.[216] As that conflict drew to a close in early 1939, Roosevelt expressed regret in not aiding the Spanish Republicans.[217] When Japan invaded China in 1937, isolationism limited Roosevelt's ability to aid China,[218] despite atrocities like the Nanking Massacre and the USS Panay incident.[219] The Roosevelts with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, sailing from Washington, D.C., to Mount Vernon, Virginia, on the USS Potomac during the first U.S. visit of a reigning British monarch (June 9, 1939) Foreign trips of Roosevelt during his presidency[220] Germany annexed Austria in 1938, and soon turned its attention to its eastern neighbors.[221] Roosevelt made it clear that, in the event of German aggression against Czechoslovakia, the U.S. would remain neutral.[222] After completion of the Munich Agreement and the execution of Kristallnacht, American public opinion turned against Germany, and Roosevelt began preparing for a possible war with Germany.[223] Relying on an interventionist political coalition of Southern Democrats and business-oriented Republicans, Roosevelt oversaw the expansion of U.S. airpower and war production capacity.[224] When World War II began in September 1939 with Germany's invasion of Poland and Britain and France's subsequent declaration of war upon Germany, Roosevelt sought ways to assist Britain and France militarily.[225] Isolationist leaders like Charles Lindbergh and Senator William Borah successfully mobilized opposition to Roosevelt's proposed repeal of the Neutrality Act, but Roosevelt won Congressional approval of the sale of arms on a cash-and-carry basis.[226] He also began a regular secret correspondence with Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, in September 1939—the first of 1,700 letters and telegrams between them.[227] Roosevelt forged a close personal relationship with Churchill, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in May 1940.[228] The Fall of France in June 1940 shocked the American public, and isolationist sentiment declined.[229] In July 1940, Roosevelt appointed two interventionist Republican leaders, Henry L. Stimson and Frank Knox, as Secretaries of War and the Navy, respectively. Both parties gave support to his plans for a rapid build-up of the American military, but the isolationists warned that Roosevelt would get the nation into an unnecessary war with Germany.[230] In July 1940, a group of Congressmen introduced a bill that would authorize the nation's first peacetime draft, and with the support of the Roosevelt administration, the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 passed in September. The size of the army increased from 189,000 men at the end of 1939 to 1.4 million men in mid-1941.[231] In September 1940, Roosevelt openly defied the Neutrality Acts by reaching the Destroyers for Bases Agreement, which, in exchange for military base rights in the British Caribbean Islands, gave 50 WWI American destroyers to Britain.[232] Good Neighbor Policy While working under President Wilson, Roosevelt had perpetuated ideas of American racial superiority by believing that the people of Latin American were uncapable of self-government.[233] However, by 1928 he had switched his point of view, becoming an advocate for cooperation.[233] In an effort to denounce past U.S. interventionism and subdue any subsequent fears of Latin Americans, Roosevelt announced on March 4, 1933, during his inaugural address, "In the field of World policy, I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor, the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others, the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a World of neighbors."[234] In order to create a friendly relationship between the United States and Central as well as South American countries, Roosevelt sought to abstain from asserting military force in the region.[235] This position was affirmed by Cordell Hull, Roosevelt's Secretary of State at a conference of American states in Montevideo in December 1933. Hull said: "No country has the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of another."[236] Roosevelt then confirmed the policy in December of the same year: "The definite policy of the United States from now on is one opposed to armed intervention."[237] The fact that the policy was even put into place meant that the U.S. now recognised the maturity of Latin American countries and as a result were now more open to working together, especially when it comes to maintaining the peace.[238] The policy, in the end, was yet another way for the U.S. to assert its own superiority.[239] Election of 1940 Main article: 1940 United States presidential election In the months prior to the July 1940 Democratic National Convention, there was much speculation as to whether Roosevelt would run for an unprecedented third term. The president was silent, and even his closest advisors were in the dark.[240] The two-term tradition, although not yet enshrined in the Constitution,[i] had been established by George Washington when he refused to run for a third term in the 1796 presidential election. Roosevelt refused to give a definitive statement as to his willingness to be a candidate again, and he even indicated to some ambitious Democrats, such as James Farley, that he would not run for a third term and that they could seek the Democratic nomination. Farley and Vice President John Garner were not pleased with Roosevelt when he ultimately made the decision to break from Washington's precedent.[133] As Germany swept through Western Europe and menaced Britain in mid-1940, Roosevelt decided that only he had the necessary experience and skills to see the nation safely through the Nazi threat. He was aided by the party's political bosses, who feared that no Democrat except Roosevelt could defeat Wendell Willkie, the popular Republican nominee.[241] 1940 electoral vote results At the July 1940 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Roosevelt easily swept aside challenges from Farley and Vice President Garner, who had turned against Roosevelt in his second term because of his liberal economic and social policies.[242] To replace Garner on the ticket, Roosevelt turned to Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace of Iowa, a former Republican who strongly supported the New Deal and was popular in farm states.[243] The choice was strenuously opposed by many of the party's conservatives, who felt Wallace was too radical and "eccentric" in his private life to be an effective running mate. But Roosevelt insisted that without Wallace on the ticket he would decline re-nomination, and Wallace won the vice-presidential nomination, defeating Speaker of the House William B. Bankhead and other candidates.[242] A late August poll taken by Gallup found the race to be essentially tied, but Roosevelt's popularity surged in September following the announcement of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement.[244] Willkie supported much of the New Deal as well as rearmament and aid to Britain but warned that Roosevelt would drag the country into another European war.[245] Responding to Willkie's attacks, Roosevelt promised to keep the country out of the war.[246] Over its last month, the campaign degenerated into a series of outrageous accusations and mud-slinging, if not by the two candidates themselves then by their respective parties.[133] Roosevelt won the 1940 election with 55% of the popular vote, 38 of the 48 states, and almost 85% of the electoral vote.[247] Third and fourth terms (1941–1945) Main article: Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, third and fourth terms Further information: Foreign policy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration World War II dominated Roosevelt's attention, with far more time devoted to world affairs than ever before. Domestic politics and relations with Congress were largely shaped by his efforts to achieve total mobilization of the nation's economic, financial, and institutional resources for the war effort. Even relationships with Latin America and Canada were structured by wartime demands. Roosevelt maintained close personal control of all major diplomatic and military decisions, working closely with his generals and admirals, the war and Navy departments, the British, and even the Soviet Union. His key advisors on diplomacy were Harry Hopkins (who was based in the White House), Sumner Welles (based in the State Department), and Henry Morgenthau Jr. at Treasury. In military affairs, Roosevelt worked most closely with Secretary Henry L. Stimson at the War Department, Army Chief of Staff George Marshall, and Admiral William D. Leahy.[248][249][250] Lead-up to the war State of the Union (Four Freedoms) (January 6, 1941) Duration: 36 minutes and 15 seconds.36:15 Franklin Delano Roosevelt's January 6, 1941 State of the Union Address introducing the theme of the Four Freedoms (starting at 32:02) Problems playing this file? See media help. By late 1940, re-armament was in high gear, partly to expand and re-equip the Army and Navy and partly to become the "Arsenal of Democracy" for Britain and other countries.[251] With his Four Freedoms speech in January 1941, Roosevelt laid out the case for an Allied battle for basic rights throughout the world. Assisted by Willkie, Roosevelt won Congressional approval of the Lend-Lease program, which directed massive military and economic aid to Britain, and China.[252] In sharp contrast to the loans of World War I, there would be no repayment after the war.[253] As Roosevelt took a firmer stance against Japan, Germany, and Italy, American isolationists such as Charles Lindbergh and the America First Committee vehemently attacked Roosevelt as an irresponsible warmonger.[254] When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Roosevelt agreed to extend Lend-Lease to the Soviets. Thus, Roosevelt had committed the U.S. to the Allied side with a policy of "all aid short of war."[255] By July 1941, Roosevelt authorized the creation of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) to counter perceived propaganda efforts in Latin America by Germany and Italy.[256][257] In August 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill conducted a highly secret bilateral meeting in which they drafted the Atlantic Charter, conceptually outlining global wartime and postwar goals. This would be the first of several wartime conferences;[258] Churchill and Roosevelt would meet ten more times in person.[259] Though Churchill pressed for an American declaration of war against Germany, Roosevelt believed that Congress would reject any attempt to bring the United States into the war.[260] In September, a German submarine fired on the U.S. destroyer Greer, and Roosevelt declared that the U.S. Navy would assume an escort role for Allied convoys in the Atlantic as far east as Great Britain and would fire upon German ships or submarines (U-boats) of the Kriegsmarine if they entered the U.S. Navy zone. According to historian George Donelson Moss, Roosevelt "misled" Americans by reporting the Greer incident as if it would have been an unprovoked German attack on a peaceful American ship.[261] This "shoot on sight" policy effectively declared naval war on Germany and was favored by Americans by a margin of 2-to-1.[262] Pearl Harbor and declarations of war See also: Events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor Roosevelt and Winston Churchill aboard HMS Prince of Wales for 1941 Atlantic Charter meeting After the German invasion of Poland, the primary concern of both Roosevelt and his top military staff was on the war in Europe, but Japan also presented foreign policy challenges. Relations with Japan had continually deteriorated since its invasion of Manchuria in 1931, and they had further worsened with Roosevelt's support of China.[263] With the war in Europe occupying the attention of the major colonial powers, Japanese leaders eyed vulnerable colonies such as the Dutch East Indies, French Indochina, and British Malaya.[264] After Roosevelt announced a $100 million loan (equivalent to $2.1 billion in 2022) to China in reaction to Japan's occupation of northern French Indochina, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy. The pact bound each country to defend the others against attack, and Germany, Japan, and Italy became known as the Axis powers.[265] Overcoming those who favored invading the Soviet Union, the Japanese Army high command successfully advocated for the conquest of Southeast Asia to ensure continued access to raw materials.[266] In July 1941, after Japan occupied the remainder of French Indochina, Roosevelt cut off the sale of oil to Japan, depriving Japan of more than 95 percent of its oil supply.[267] He also placed the Philippine military under American command and reinstated General Douglas MacArthur into active duty to command U.S. forces in the Philippines.[268] Roosevelt signing declaration of war against Japan (left) on December 8 and against Germany (right) on December 11, 1941 The Japanese were incensed by the embargo and Japanese leaders became determined to attack the United States unless it lifted the embargo. The Roosevelt administration was unwilling to reverse the policy, and Secretary of State Hull blocked a potential summit between Roosevelt and Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe.[j] After diplomatic efforts to end the embargo failed, the Privy Council of Japan authorized a strike against the United States.[270] The Japanese believed that the destruction of the United States Asiatic Fleet (stationed in the Philippines) and the United States Pacific Fleet (stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii) was vital to the conquest of Southeast Asia.[271] On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese struck the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor with a surprise attack, knocking out the main American battleship fleet and killing 2,403 American servicemen and civilians. At the same time, separate Japanese task forces attacked Thailand, British Hong Kong, the Philippines, and other targets. Roosevelt called for war in his "Infamy Speech" to Congress, in which he said: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." In a nearly unanimous vote, Congress declared war on Japan.[272] After the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, antiwar sentiment in the United States largely evaporated overnight. On December 11, 1941, Hitler and Mussolini declared war on the United States, which responded in kind.[k][273] FDR Pearl Harbor speech Duration: 8 minutes and 42 seconds.8:42 Speech given before Joint Session of Congress in entirety. (3.1 MB, ogg/Vorbis format). "A date which will live in infamy" Duration: 30 seconds.0:30 Section of Pearl Harbor speech including "infamy" line. (168 KB, ogg/Vorbis format). Problems playing these files? See media help. A majority of scholars have rejected the conspiracy theories that Roosevelt, or any other high government officials, knew in advance about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.[274] The Japanese had kept their secrets closely guarded. Senior American officials were aware that war was imminent, but they did not expect an attack on Pearl Harbor.[275] Roosevelt had expected that the Japanese would attack either the Dutch East Indies or Thailand.[276] War plans Territory controlled by the Allies (blue and red) and the Axis Powers (black) in June 1942 In late December 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met at the Arcadia Conference, which established a joint strategy between the U.S. and Britain. Both agreed on a Europe first strategy that prioritized the defeat of Germany before Japan. The U.S. and Britain established the Combined Chiefs of Staff to coordinate military policy and the Combined Munitions Assignments Board to coordinate the allocation of supplies.[277] An agreement was also reached to establish a centralized command in the Pacific theater called ABDA, named for the American, British, Dutch, and Australian forces in the theater.[278] On January 1, 1942, the United States, Britain, China, the Soviet Union, and twenty-two other countries (the Allied Powers) issued the Declaration by United Nations, in which each nation pledged to defeat the Axis powers.[279] In 1942, Roosevelt formed a new body, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which made the final decisions on American military strategy. Admiral Ernest J. King as Chief of Naval Operations commanded the Navy and Marines, while General George C. Marshall led the Army and was in nominal control of the Air Force, which in practice was commanded by General Hap Arnold.[280] The Joint Chiefs were chaired by Admiral William D. Leahy, the most senior officer in the military.[281] Roosevelt avoided micromanaging the war and let his top military officers make most decisions.[282] Roosevelt's civilian appointees handled the draft and procurement of men and equipment, but no civilians—not even the secretaries of War or Navy—had a voice in strategy. Roosevelt avoided the State Department and conducted high-level diplomacy through his aides, especially Harry Hopkins, whose influence was bolstered by his control of the Lend Lease funds.[283] Nuclear program See also: History of nuclear weapons and Nuclear weapons of the United States In August 1939, Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein sent the Einstein–Szilárd letter to Roosevelt, warning of the possibility of a German project to develop nuclear weapons. Szilard realized that the recently discovered process of nuclear fission could be used to create a nuclear chain reaction that could be used as a weapon of mass destruction.[284] Roosevelt feared the consequences of allowing Germany to have sole possession of the technology and authorized preliminary research into nuclear weapons.[l] After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Roosevelt administration secured the funds needed to continue research and selected General Leslie Groves to oversee the Manhattan Project, which was charged with developing the first nuclear weapons. Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to jointly pursue the project, and Roosevelt helped ensure that American scientists cooperated with their British counterparts.[286] Wartime conferences See also: Diplomatic history of World War II Chiang Kai-shek, Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill at the Cairo Conference Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at the Yalta Conference, February 1945, two months before Roosevelt's death Roosevelt coined the term "Four Policemen" to refer to the "Big Four" Allied powers of World War II, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China. The "Big Three" of Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, together with Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, cooperated informally on a plan in which American and British troops concentrated in the West; Soviet troops fought on the Eastern front; and Chinese, British and American troops fought in Asia and the Pacific. The United States also continued to send aid via the Lend-Lease program to the Soviet Union and other countries. The Allies formulated strategy in a series of high-profile conferences as well as by contact through diplomatic and military channels.[287] Beginning in May 1942, the Soviets urged an Anglo-American invasion of German-occupied France in order to divert troops from the Eastern front.[288] Concerned that their forces were not yet ready for an invasion of France, Churchill and Roosevelt decided to delay such an invasion until at least 1943 and instead focus on a landing in North Africa, known as Operation Torch.[289] In November 1943, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met to discuss strategy and post-war plans at the Tehran Conference, where Roosevelt met Stalin for the first time.[290] At the conference, Britain and the United States committed to opening a second front against Germany in 1944, while Stalin committed to entering the war against Japan at an unspecified date. Subsequent conferences at Bretton Woods and Dumbarton Oaks established the framework for the post-war international monetary system and the United Nations, an intergovernmental organization similar to the failed League of Nations.[291] Taking up the Wilsonian mantle, Roosevelt pushed as his highest postwar priority the establishment of the United Nations. Roosevelt expected it would be controlled by Washington, Moscow, London and Beijing, and would resolve all major world problems.[292] 208-PU-173-F-22(29314272156) Roosevelt meets King Farouk of Egypt in conference on board USS Quincy (CA-71) in Great Bitter Lake, after the Yalta Conference, February 1945 Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met for a second time at the February 1945 Yalta Conference in Crimea. With the end of the war in Europe approaching, Roosevelt's primary focus was on convincing Stalin to enter the war against Japan; the Joint Chiefs had estimated that an American invasion of Japan would cause as many as one million American casualties. In return for the Soviet Union's entrance into the war against Japan, the Soviet Union was promised control of Asian territories such as Sakhalin Island. The three leaders agreed to hold a conference in 1945 to establish the United Nations, and they also agreed on the structure of the United Nations Security Council, which would be charged with ensuring international peace and security. Roosevelt did not push for the immediate evacuation of Soviet soldiers from Poland, but he won the issuance of the Declaration on Liberated Europe, which promised free elections in countries that had been occupied by Germany. Germany itself would not be dismembered but would be jointly occupied by the United States, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union.[293] Against Soviet pressure, Roosevelt and Churchill refused to consent to impose huge reparations and deindustrialization on Germany after the war.[294] Roosevelt's role in the Yalta Conference has been controversial; critics charge that he naively trusted the Soviet Union to allow free elections in Eastern Europe, while supporters argue that there was little more that Roosevelt could have done for the Eastern European countries given the Soviet occupation and the need for cooperation with the Soviet Union during and after the war.[295][296] Course of the war See also: Military history of the United States during World War II The Allies invaded French North Africa in November 1942, securing the surrender of Vichy French forces within days of landing.[297] At the January 1943 Casablanca Conference, the Allies agreed to defeat Axis forces in North Africa and then launch an invasion of Sicily, with an attack on France to take place in 1944. At the conference, Roosevelt also announced that he would only accept the unconditional surrender of Germany, Japan, and Italy.[298] In February 1943, the Soviet Union won a major victory at the Battle of Stalingrad, and in May 1943, the Allies secured the surrender of over 250,000 German and Italian soldiers in North Africa, ending the North African Campaign.[299] The Allies launched an invasion of Sicily in July 1943, capturing the island by the end of the following month.[300] In September 1943, the Allies secured an armistice from Italian Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio, but Germany quickly restored Mussolini to power.[300] The Allied invasion of mainland Italy commenced in September 1943, but the Italian Campaign continued until 1945 as German and Italian troops resisted the Allied advance.[301] The Allies (blue and red) and the Axis Powers (black) in December 1944 To command the invasion of France, Roosevelt chose General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had successfully commanded a multinational coalition in North Africa and Sicily.[302] Eisenhower chose to launch Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944. Supported by 12,000 aircraft and the largest naval force ever assembled, the Allies successfully established a beachhead in Normandy and then advanced further into France.[282] Though reluctant to back an unelected government, Roosevelt recognized Charles de Gaulle's Provisional Government of the French Republic as the de facto government of France in July 1944. After most of France had been liberated from German occupation, Roosevelt granted formal recognition to de Gaulle's government in October 1944.[303] Over the following months, the Allies liberated more territory from Nazi occupation and began the invasion of Germany. By April 1945, Nazi resistance was crumbling in the face of advances by both the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.[304] In the opening weeks of the war, Japan conquered the Philippines and the British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia. The Japanese advance reached its maximum extent by June 1942, when the U.S. Navy scored a decisive victory at the Battle of Midway. American and Australian forces then began a slow and costly strategy called island hopping or leapfrogging through the Pacific Islands, with the objective of gaining bases from which strategic airpower could be brought to bear on Japan and from which Japan could ultimately be invaded. In contrast to Hitler, Roosevelt took no direct part in the tactical naval operations, though he approved strategic decisions.[305] Roosevelt gave way in part to insistent demands from the public and Congress that more effort be devoted against Japan, but he always insisted on Germany first. The strength of the Japanese navy was decimated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and by April 1945 the Allies had re-captured much of their lost territory in the Pacific.[306] Home front Main article: United States home front during World War II The home front was subject to dynamic social changes throughout the war, though domestic issues were no longer Roosevelt's most urgent policy concern. The military buildup spurred economic growth. Unemployment fell in half from 7.7 million in spring 1940 to 3.4 million in fall 1941 and fell in half again to 1.5 million in fall 1942, out of a labor force of 54 million.[m] There was a growing labor shortage, accelerating the second wave of the Great Migration of African Americans, farmers and rural populations to manufacturing centers. African Americans from the South went to California and other West Coast states for new jobs in the defense industry. To pay for increased government spending, in 1941 Roosevelt proposed that Congress enact an income tax rate of 99.5% on all income over $100,000; when the proposal failed, he issued an executive order imposing an income tax of 100% on income over $25,000, which Congress rescinded.[308] The Revenue Act of 1942 instituted top tax rates as high as 94% (after accounting for the excess profits tax), greatly increased the tax base, and instituted the first federal withholding tax.[309] In 1944, Roosevelt requested that Congress enact legislation which would tax all "unreasonable" profits, both corporate and individual, and thereby support his declared need for over $10 billion in revenue for the war and other government measures. Congress overrode Roosevelt's veto to pass a smaller revenue bill raising $2 billion.[310] In 1942, with the United States now in the conflict, war production increased dramatically but fell short of the goals established by the president, due in part to manpower shortages.[311] The effort was also hindered by numerous strikes, especially among union workers in the coal mining and railroad industries, which lasted well into 1944.[312][313] Nonetheless, between 1941 and 1945, the United States produced 2.4 million trucks, 300,000 military aircraft, 88,400 tanks, and 40 billion rounds of ammunition. The production capacity of the United States dwarfed that of other countries; for example, in 1944, the United States produced more military aircraft than the combined production of Germany, Japan, Britain, and the Soviet Union.[314] The White House became the ultimate site for labor mediation, conciliation or arbitration. One particular battle royale occurred between Vice President Wallace, who headed the Board of Economic Warfare, and Jesse H. Jones, in charge of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; both agencies assumed responsibility for the acquisition of rubber supplies and came to loggerheads over funding. Roosevelt resolved the dispute by dissolving both agencies.[315] In 1943, Roosevelt established the Office of War Mobilization to oversee the home front; the agency was led by James F. Byrnes, who came to be known as the "assistant president" due to his influence.[300] Duration: 1 minute and 35 seconds.1:35Subtitles available.CC Roosevelt announced the plan for a bill of social and economic rights in the State of the Union address broadcast on January 11, 1944 (excerpt). Roosevelt's 1944 State of the Union Address advocated that Americans should think of basic economic rights as a Second Bill of Rights.[316] He stated that all Americans should have the right to "adequate medical care", "a good education", "a decent home", and a "useful and remunerative job".[317] In the most ambitious domestic proposal of his third term, Roosevelt proposed the G.I. Bill, which would create a massive benefits program for returning soldiers. Benefits included post-secondary education, medical care, unemployment insurance, job counseling, and low-cost loans for homes and businesses. The G.I. Bill passed unanimously in both houses of Congress and was signed into law in June 1944. Of the fifteen million Americans who served in World War II, more than half benefitted from the educational opportunities provided for in the G.I. Bill.[318] Declining health Roosevelt, a chain-smoker throughout his entire adult life,[319][320] had been in declining physical health since at least 1940. In March 1944, shortly after his 62nd birthday, he underwent testing at Bethesda Hospital and was found to have high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease causing angina pectoris, and congestive heart failure.[321][322][323] Hospital physicians and two outside specialists ordered Roosevelt to rest. His personal physician, Admiral Ross McIntire, created a daily schedule that banned business guests for lunch and incorporated two hours of rest each day. During the 1944 re-election campaign, McIntire denied several times that Roosevelt's health was poor; on October 12, for example, he announced that "The President's health is perfectly OK. There are absolutely no organic difficulties at all."[324] Roosevelt realized that his declining health could eventually make it impossible for him to continue as president, and in 1945 he told a confidant that he might resign from the presidency following the end of the war.[325] Election of 1944 Main articles: 1944 United States presidential election and 1944 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection 1944 electoral vote results While some Democrats had opposed Roosevelt's nomination in 1940, the president faced little difficulty in securing his re-nomination at the 1944 Democratic National Convention. Roosevelt made it clear before the convention that he was seeking another term, and on the lone presidential ballot of the convention, Roosevelt won the vast majority of delegates, although a minority of Southern Democrats voted for Harry F. Byrd. Party leaders prevailed upon Roosevelt to drop Vice President Wallace from the ticket, believing him to be an electoral liability and a poor potential successor in case of Roosevelt's death. Roosevelt preferred Byrnes as Wallace's replacement but was convinced to support Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri, who had earned renown for his investigation of war production inefficiency and was acceptable to the various factions of the party. On the second vice presidential ballot of the convention, Truman defeated Wallace to win the nomination.[326] The Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey, the governor of New York, who had a reputation as a liberal in his party. They accused the Roosevelt administration of domestic corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency, but Dewey's most effective gambit was to raise discreetly the age issue. He assailed the President as a "tired old man" with "tired old men" in his cabinet, pointedly suggesting that the President's lack of vigor had produced a less than vigorous economic recovery.[133] Roosevelt, as most observers could see from his weight loss and haggard appearance, was a tired man in 1944. But upon entering the campaign in earnest in late September 1944, Roosevelt displayed enough passion and fight to allay most concerns and to deflect Republican attacks. With the war still raging, he urged voters not to "change horses in mid-stream."[133] Labor unions, which had grown rapidly in the war, fully supported Roosevelt. Roosevelt and Truman won the 1944 election by a comfortable margin, defeating Dewey and his running mate John W. Bricker with 53.4% of the popular vote and 432 out of the 531 electoral votes.[327] The president campaigned in favor of a strong United Nations, so his victory symbolized support for the nation's future participation in the international community.[328] Final months and death Last photograph of Roosevelt, taken April 11, 1945, the day before his death Roosevelt's funeral procession in Washington, D.C., watched by 300,000 spectators, April 14, 1945 When Roosevelt returned to the United States from the Yalta Conference, many were shocked to see how old, thin and frail he looked. He spoke while seated in the well of the House, an unprecedented concession to his physical incapacity.[329] During March 1945, he sent strongly worded messages to Stalin accusing him of breaking his Yalta commitments over Poland, Germany, prisoners of war and other issues. When Stalin accused the western Allies of plotting behind his back a separate peace with Hitler, Roosevelt replied: "I cannot avoid a feeling of bitter resentment towards your informers, whoever they are, for such vile misrepresentations of my actions or those of my trusted subordinates."[330] On March 29, 1945, Roosevelt went to the Little White House at Warm Springs, Georgia, to rest before his anticipated appearance at the founding conference of the United Nations.[citation needed] In the afternoon of April 12, 1945, in Warm Springs, Georgia, while sitting for a portrait by Elizabeth Shoumatoff, Roosevelt said: "I have a terrific headache."[331][332] He then slumped forward in his chair, unconscious, and was carried into his bedroom. The president's attending cardiologist, Howard Bruenn, diagnosed the medical emergency as a massive intracerebral hemorrhage.[333] At 3:35 p.m. that day, Roosevelt died at the age of 63.[334] The following morning, Roosevelt's body was placed in a flag-draped coffin and loaded onto the presidential train for the trip back to Washington.[335] Along the route, thousands flocked to the tracks to pay their respects. After a White House funeral on April 14, Roosevelt was transported by train from Washington, D.C., to his place of birth at Hyde Park. On April 15 he was buried, per his wish, in the rose garden of his Springwood estate.[336] Roosevelt's declining physical health had been kept secret from the public. His death was met with shock and grief across the world.[337] Germany surrendered during the 30-day mourning period, but Harry Truman (who had succeeded Roosevelt as president) ordered flags to remain at half-staff; he also dedicated Victory in Europe Day and its celebrations to Roosevelt's memory.[338] World War II finally ended with the signed surrender of Japan in September.[339] Coincidentally, on April 12, 1945, a devastating tornado outbreak occurred in the United States, which killed 128 people and injured over a thousand others. The tornado outbreak included the fourth deadliest tornado in Oklahoma history, which leveled a third of the town of Antlers. Roosevelt's death overshadowed what would have "commanded national media attention" for a while.[340][341] Tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis said that, "even nearby newspapers had more information on the death of the President than on the tornado".[340] Civil rights, repatriation, internment, and the Jews Further information: Franklin D. Roosevelt and civil rights Official portrait of President Roosevelt by Frank O. Salisbury, c. 1947 Roosevelt was viewed as a hero by many African Americans, Catholics, and Jews, and he was highly successful in attracting large majorities of these voters into his New Deal coalition.[342] From his first term until 1939, the Mexican Repatriation started by President Herbert Hoover continued under Roosevelt, which scholars today contend was a form of ethnic cleansing towards Mexican Americans. Roosevelt ended federal involvement in the deportations. After 1934, the number of deportations fell by approximately 50 percent.[343] However, Roosevelt did not attempt to suppress the deportations on a local or state level.[344][345] Mexican Americans were the only group explicitly excluded from New Deal benefits. The deprival of due process for Mexican Americans is cited as a precedent for Roosevelt's internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II.[346] Roosevelt won strong support from Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans, but not Japanese Americans, as he presided over their internment during the war.[347] African Americans and Native Americans fared well in two New Deal relief programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Indian Reorganization Act, respectively. Sitkoff reports that the WPA "provided an economic floor for the whole black community in the 1930s, rivaling both agriculture and domestic service as the chief source" of income.[348] Lynching Roosevelt stopped short of joining NAACP leaders in pushing for federal anti-lynching legislation, as he believed that such legislation was unlikely to pass and that his support for it would alienate Southern congressmen. He did, however, appoint a "Black Cabinet" of African American advisers to advise on race relations and African American issues, and he publicly denounced lynching as "murder".[349] First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt vocally supported efforts designed to aid the African American community, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, which helped boost wages for nonwhite workers in the South.[350] In 1941, Roosevelt established the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to implement Executive Order 8802, which prohibited racial and religious discrimination in employment among defense contractors. The FEPC was the first national program directed against employment discrimination, and it played a major role in opening up new employment opportunities to non-white workers. During World War II, the proportion of African American men employed in manufacturing positions rose significantly.[351] In response to Roosevelt's policies, African Americans increasingly defected from the Republican Party during the 1930s and 1940s, becoming an important Democratic voting bloc in several Northern states.[349] Japanese-Americans The attack on Pearl Harbor raised concerns in the public regarding the possibility of sabotage by Japanese Americans. This suspicion was fed by long-standing racism against Japanese immigrants, as well as the findings of the Roberts Commission, which concluded that the attack on Pearl Harbor had been assisted by Japanese spies. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which relocated 110,000 Japanese-American citizens and immigrants, most of whom lived on the Pacific Coast.[153] They were forced to liquidate their properties and businesses and interned in hastily built camps in interior, harsh locations. Distracted by other issues, Roosevelt had delegated the decision for internment to Secretary of War Stimson, who in turn relied on the judgment of Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the executive order in the 1944 case of Korematsu v. United States.[352] Many German and Italian citizens were also arrested or placed into internment camps.[353] Jews There is controversy among historians about Roosevelt's attitude to Jews and the Holocaust. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. says Roosevelt "did what he could do" to help Jews; David Wyman says Roosevelt's record on Jewish refugees and their rescue is "very poor" and one of the worst failures of his presidency.[354] In 1923, as a member of the Harvard board of directors, Roosevelt decided there were too many Jewish students at Harvard University and helped institute a quota to limit the number of Jews admitted to Harvard.[355] After Kristallnacht in 1938, Roosevelt had his ambassador to Germany recalled back to Washington. He did not loosen immigration quotas but did allow German Jews already in the U.S. on visas to stay indefinitely.[356] According to Rafael Medoff, the U.S. president could have saved 190,000 Jewish lives by telling his State Department to fill immigration quotas to the legal limit, but his administration discouraged and disqualified Jewish refugees based on its prohibitive requirements that left less than 25% of the quotas filled.[355] Hitler chose to implement the "Final Solution"—the extermination of the European Jewish population—by January 1942, and American officials learned of the scale of the Nazi extermination campaign in the following months. Against the objections of the State Department, Roosevelt convinced the other Allied leaders to jointly issue the Joint Declaration by Members of the United Nations, which condemned the ongoing Holocaust and warned to try its perpetrators as war criminals. In 1943, Roosevelt told U.S. government officials that there should be limits on Jews in various professions to "eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore towards the Jews in Germany."[355] The same year, Roosevelt was personally briefed by Polish Home Army intelligence agent Jan Karski who was an eyewitness of the Holocaust; pleading for action, Karski told him that 1.8 million Jews had already been exterminated.[357][358] Karski recalled that in response, Roosevelt "did not ask one question about the Jews."[359] In January 1944, Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board to aid Jews and other victims of Axis atrocities. Aside from these actions, Roosevelt believed that the best way to help the persecuted populations of Europe was to end the war as quickly as possible. Top military leaders and War Department leaders rejected any campaign to bomb the extermination camps or the rail lines leading to the camps, fearing it would be a diversion from the war effort. According to biographer Jean Edward Smith, there is no evidence that anyone ever proposed such a campaign to Roosevelt.[360] Legacy Historical reputation Roosevelt is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the history of the United States,[361] as well as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century.[362] Historians and political scientists consistently rank Roosevelt, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln as the three greatest presidents, although the order varies.[363][364][365][366] Reflecting on Roosevelt's presidency, "which brought the United States through the Great Depression and World War II to a prosperous future", biographer Jean Edward Smith said in 2007, "He lifted himself from a wheelchair to lift the nation from its knees."[367] His commitment to the working class and unemployed in need of relief in the nation's longest recession made him a favorite of the blue collar workers, labor unions, and ethnic minorities.[368] The rapid expansion of government programs that occurred during Roosevelt's term redefined the role of the government in the United States, and Roosevelt's advocacy of government social programs was instrumental in redefining liberalism for coming generations.[369] Roosevelt firmly established the United States' leadership role on the world stage, with his role in shaping and financing World War II. His isolationist critics faded away, and even the Republicans joined in his overall policies.[370] He also created a new understanding of the presidency, permanently increasing the power of the president at the expense of Congress.[371] His Second Bill of Rights became, according to historian Joshua Zeitz, "the basis of the Democratic Party's aspirations for the better part of four decades."[317] After his death, his widow, Eleanor, continued to be a forceful presence in U.S. and world politics, serving as delegate to the conference which established the United Nations and championing civil rights and liberalism generally. Some junior New Dealers played leading roles in the presidencies of Truman, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy came from a Roosevelt-hating family. Historian William Leuchtenburg says that before 1960, "Kennedy showed a conspicuous lack of inclination to identify himself as a New Deal liberal." He adds, as president, "Kennedy never wholly embraced the Roosevelt tradition and at times he deliberately severed himself from it."[372] By contrast, young Lyndon Johnson had been an enthusiastic New Dealer and a favorite of Roosevelt. Johnson modelled his presidency on Roosevelt's and relied heavily on New Deal lawyer Abe Fortas, as well as James H. Rowe, Anna M. Rosenberg, Thomas Gardiner Corcoran, and Benjamin V. Cohen.[373][374] During his presidency, and continuing to a lesser extent afterwards, there has been much criticism of Roosevelt, some of it intense. Critics have questioned not only his policies, positions, and the consolidation of power that occurred due to his responses to the crises of the Depression and World War II but also his breaking with tradition by running for a third term as president.[375] Long after his death, new lines of attack criticized Roosevelt's policies regarding helping the Jews of Europe,[376] incarcerating the Japanese on the West Coast,[377] and opposing anti-lynching legislation.[378] Roosevelt was criticized by conservatives for his economic policies, especially the shift in tone from individualism to collectivism with the expansion of the welfare state and regulation of the economy. Those criticisms continued decades after his death. One factor in the revisiting of these issues in later decades was the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, who opposed the New Deal.[379][380] Memorials Main article: List of memorials to Franklin D. Roosevelt Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park is now a National Historic Site and home to his Presidential library. Washington, D.C., hosts two memorials to the former president. The largest, the 7+1⁄2-acre (3-hectare) Roosevelt Memorial, is located next to the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin.[381] A more modest memorial, a block of marble in front of the National Archives building suggested by Roosevelt himself, was erected in 1965.[382] Roosevelt's leadership in the March of Dimes is one reason he is commemorated on the American dime.[383] Roosevelt has also appeared on several U.S. Postage stamps.[384] On April 29, 1945, seventeen days after Roosevelt's death, the carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt was launched and served from 1945 to 1977.[385] London's Westminster Abbey also has a stone tablet memorial to President Roosevelt that was unveiled by Attlee and Churchill in 1948.[386] Welfare Island was renamed after Roosevelt in September 1973.[387] 1948 statue of Roosevelt in Grosvenor Square, London 1948 statue of Roosevelt in Grosvenor Square, London Engraving of the Four Freedoms at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, dedicated in 1997 in Washington, D.C. Engraving of the Four Freedoms at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, dedicated in 1997 in Washington, D.C. The obverse of the Roosevelt dime, which has been official U.S. currency since 1946 The obverse of the Roosevelt dime, which has been official U.S. currency since 1946 See also Cultural depictions of Franklin D. Roosevelt August Adolph Gennerich – his bodyguard List of Allied World War II conferences List of federal political sex scandals in the United States Sunshine Special (automobile) – Roosevelt's limousine Air Mail scandal
- Condition: fair condition
- Antique: Yes
- Autographed: No
- Publication Name: Mad Magazine
- Signed: No
- Color: Multicolor
- Material: b&w
- Age Level: 8+
- Franchise: Mad Magazine
- Vintage: Yes
- Publication Year: 1935
- Series: MAD Magazine
- Number in Pack: 1
- Model: MAD Magazine Alfred E. Neuman
- Theme: Comics
- Main Character: Alfred E Neuman
- Time Period Manufactured: C1935
- Topic: Comic Books
- Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
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PicClick Insights - Mad Magazine Alfred E. Neuman Pre-MAD Magazine card SCARCE ROOSEVELT NEW DEAL PicClick Exclusive
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