FOCUS QUESTIONS
• What were the major policy initiatives of the New Deal in the Hundred
Days?
• Who were the main proponents of economic justice in the 1930s, and what
measures did they advocate?
• What were the major initiatives of the Second New Deal, and how did they
differ from the First New Deal?
• How did the New Deal recast the meaning of American freedom?
• How did New Deal benefits apply to women and minorities?
• How did the Popular Front influence American culture in the 1930s?THE NEW DEAL
★ CHAPTER 21 ★
1932–1940
E
arly in 1941, the unemployed Woody Guthrie, soon to become one of
the country’s most popular songwriters and folk singers, brought his
family to Portland, Oregon. He hoped to star in a film about the great
public-works projects under way on the Columbia River. Given a temporary
job by the Bonneville Power Authority, the public agency that controlled
the Columbia dams, Guthrie produced a song every day for the next month.
One, “Roll on, Columbia,” became a popular statement of the benefits that
resulted when government took the lead in improving the lot of ordinary
citizens:818 ★