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FDR: A Politician in a Wheelchair
In 1932, voters still had not seen any economic improvement, and they wanted a new president.
President Herbert Hoover was nominated again without much vigor and true enthusiasm, and he campaigned saying that his policies prevented the Great Depression from being worse than it was. -
The London Conference
The 1933 London Conference composed 66 nations that came together to hopefully develop a worldwide solution to the Great Depression.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt at first agreed to send Secretary of State Cordell Hull, but then withdrew from that agreement and scolded the other nations for trying to stabilize currencies. -
Housing Reform and Social Security
To speed recovery and better homes, FDR set up the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in 1934 to stimulate the building industry through small loans to householders.
This was the first time in American history that slum areas stopped growing.
The Social Security Act of 1935 was the greatest victory for New Dealers, since it created pension and insurance for the old-aged, the blind, the physically handicapped, delinquent children, and other dependents by taxing employees and employers. -
Nine Old Men on the Bench
The 20th Amendment had cut the lame-duck period down to six weeks, so FDR began his second term on January 20, 1937, instead of on March 4. He controlled Congress, but the Supreme Court kept blocking his programs, so he proposed a shocking plan that would add a member to the Supreme Court for every existing member over the age of 70, for a maximum possible total of 15 total members. -
Hitler’s Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the Atlantic Charter
On June 22, 1941, Hitler attacked Russia, because ever since the signing of the nonaggression pact, neither Stalin nor Hitler had trusted each other, and both had been plotting to double-cross each other.
Hitler assumed his invincible troops would crush the inferior Soviet soldiers, but the valor of the Red army, U.S. aid to the U.S.S.R. (through lend-lease), and an early and bitter winter stranded the German force at Moscow and shifted the tide against Germany.
