Whether the New Deal was a success or failure is not easy to judge. America's "Great Depression" began with the dramatic crash of the stock market on "Black Thursday", October 24, 1929 when 16 million shares of stock were quickly sold by panicking investors who had lost faith in the American economy. At the height of the Depression in 1933, 24.9% of the Nation's total work force, 12,830,000 people, were unemployed. Wage income for workers who were lucky enough to have kept their jobs fell 42.5% between 1929 and 1933. It was the worst economic disaster in American history. Farm prices fell so drastically that many farmers lost their homes and land. Many went hungry. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in March 1933. He had promised the American people a New Deal and immediately set to work to create jobs for the unemployed. On the other hand it can be argued that there were many serious problems. By 1935 FDR had failed to end unemployment (which was only down to 10.6 million), and – although unemployment fell to 7.7 million in 1937 – when Roosevelt tried to cut back government expenditure in 1938, it rose again to 10.4 million. It is not really fair to criticise Roosevelt for this - no one at that time knew how to end the Depression - but the Depression did not end until the Second World War got production going again. Immigrants and Black people did not feel the ‘healing’ of the New Deal as the agencies were not intended for these people. A lot of people opposed the New Deal: The Republican Party hated and opposed the expenditure of the New Deal. In conclusion, it seems that while the New Deal failed in its ultimate goal of 'curing' the depression, it succeeded in helping millions of people and keeping America on a course that allowed Democracy to survive the difficult years ahead. Although the New Deals managed to help millions of people, other millions of people were dieing all the same, the blacks, the immigrants etc. I believe the...