The New Deal: A Mistake We’re Still Living With

Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the United States government in the 1930s initiated a host of new programs designed to combat the Great Depression and improve the material welfare of the American people. Contrary to the positive popular and academic assessment that has predominated in the decades since, these programs generally did not accomplish their aims, generated an array of negative consequences, and fundamentally reoriented American attitudes toward government. As policymakers continue to look to the New Deal as a model of government action, revisiting this history provides timely lessons.