Depression, New Deal, and World War II

With the onset of the Great Depression, North Carolinians confronted the most serious economic crisis in their history. During the 1930s, the collapse of banking, industry, and agriculture affected virtually every aspect of life. In response to the Great Depression, Franklin DRoosevelt, who had been elected president in 1932, advanced sweeping legislation and policy that he announced to the American people as a "New Deal". For the destitute, the New Deal offered a massive program of relief that employed thousands of North Carolinians and kept the wolf fromthe door. The restructuring of federal-state relations was especially important in the South, America's poorest region and the scene of pronounced efforts to address basic problems in industry, agriculture, and social welfare. The New Deal also brought massive intervention in North Carolina industry. The National Industrial Recovery Act created a National Recovery Administration (NRA), whose main purpose was to foster economic recovery by manufacturers.