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 1939. The New Deal was based on the assumption that the power of the federal government was needed to get the country out of the depression, and it included a broad range of federal government programs that sought to offer economic relief to the suffering, regulate private industry, and grow the economy. The New Deal is often summed up by the “Three Rs”: relief (for the unemployed), recovery (of the economy through federal spending and job creation), and reform (of capitalism, by means of regulatory legislation and the creation of new social welfare programs) .

Some of the major federal programs and agencies included 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) . The New Deal created a broad range of federal agencies, local governments, and private contractors to upgrade and expand the nation’s infrastructure. It built hundreds of thousands of new roads, bridges, and tunnels; city halls, libraries and post offices; hospitals, schools and auditoriums; dams, water works and sewage systems; and airports, parks and military installations.

The New Deal was intended to guard against an economic disaster like the Great Depression ever recurring. The New Deal lasted until American entry into the Second World War at the end of 1942.