4 March 1933, the Capitol steps, a cold grey noon. Banks in most states have shut their doors; a quarter of American workers have no job. The new president, who cannot stand without steel braces, tells the crowd the only thing to fear is fear itself. Two days later he closes every bank in the country.
Why then
Three years of Hoover's caution have not stopped the slide: farm prices have halved and one bank in five has failed. Roosevelt won in November promising 'a new deal', and the four months before he takes office are the worst of the Depression.
What they wanted
Roosevelt wants to save capitalism from itself, and will try almost anything once. His advisers argue over planning, spending and breaking up big business. Huey Long and Father Coughlin offer the angry more.
What changed
In a hundred days Congress passes bank reform, relief, farm price supports and public works; Social Security and the right to join a union follow in 1935. Unemployment stays high until the war. Farm and domestic workers, most Black workers among them, are left out of Social Security.
Still argued
Eric Rauchway credits the New Deal and its break with gold for a real recovery from 1933 to 1937; conservatives answer that its rules slowed it, and the left that it saved the system more than it changed it.