Topvl on the New Deal

Citation:
Brinkley, Alan. "The New Deal, Then and Now." The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. N.p., Spring 2009. Web. 12 Feb. 2013. .
Summary:
This article talks about the Great Depression and the solution that was used to remedy it. The New Deal was a series of programs created by FDR that were supposed to combat the depression and get the economy rolling in the right direction. Some of them put money into the economy and really helped its growth, such as the Emergency Banking Act and the Civil Works Administration. Some of them, however, only served to drag the economy back down, like the National Recovery Administration and the Federal Reserve Board. In any case, Roosevelt’s swift action left the world in awe at his efforts.
Quote:
“No president had ever before intervened in the economy as extensively or aggressively as Franklin Roosevelt did in the 1930s, and the sheer magnitude of his activism and his legislative achievements awed not only many Americans, but much of the world”
TOPVL:
This is an informative article written by Alan Brinkley for anyone interested in learning about history. Its purpose is to educate about the Great Depression, specifically its solution found in the New Deal. The author also gives his opinion about the New Deal, which isn’t very optimistic. He describes it as an adequate solution, but not nearly what it was thought to be by those that lived through it. It is valuable for this opinion, which differs from that of most people that know about the New Deal. This point of view is unique and shows a realistic, if somewhat cynical, opinion which is based on evidence from the time period. It shows that the New Deal wasn’t quite the magical resolution that people thought it was. It is limited, however, focuses only on the effectiveness on the New Deal in solving the Great Depression, while ignoring other factors that could have impacted the effectiveness of the programs.
Importance to timeframe and later generations: This article helps me to see more realistically the effectiveness of the New Deal on solving the Great Depression. In theory, all of these programs seem like fantastic ideas. The people of the time that lived through this event seem almost to worship Roosevelt as a genius that solved all of their problems and did the impossible to save his people. However, it seems almost too good to be true, and this helps me to see the negative side too all of this as well. There are two sides to every coin, and the pessimistic side of this particular situation isn’t often examined. Brinkley doesn’t simply accept that the depression ended and give credit to the New Deal; he makes it clearer that there may have been other factors that helped this solution as well, and though the New Deal was great and helpful, it wasn’t quite as great as everyone thought it was at the time.