Each New Deal program had its own success. Some programs regulated wages and prices, which helped most families buy things they needed, like food and clothing. Others employed people as conservation workers, artists, writers, and laborers. Social Security helped the elderly who could no longer work and whose savings were gone.
Most historians agree that though the New Deal programs helped alleviate some of the problems during the Great Depression, they did not end the economic downturn; World War II was really responsible for the change in the economy.
Dreams by WPA artist Aaron Bohrod
Painting Courtesy of the SIUC Museum
In the late 1930s, the Great Depression was weakening, but many Americans were still poverty stricken. Americans watched as German forces became more powerful and took over neighboring countries. With the invasion of Poland, World War II erupted in Europe.
The suffering American economy was given a boost when the fighting countries needed supplies and looked to America to make them. After Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, America entered the war. The U.S. enlisted more than 10 million men and women into the military. Since so many were fighting in the war, it was left for those left at home to work in the factories to make supplies for the war effort.
The desperate need for soldiers, pilots, and workers to make ammunition, weaponry, and air/sea craft all contributed to the end of the Great Depression. The economy of America skyrocketed and was on the road to restoration.