Launched in 1933 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the New Deal comprised dozens of programs, agencies, and laws aimed at relief, recovery, and reform after the 1929 crash.
Lasting institutions created during the New Deal include Social Security (1935), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board.
Unemployment fell from roughly 25% in 1933 to about 14% by 1937, rose again in the 1937–38 recession, and didn't return to pre-Depression levels until wartime mobilization began in 1941.
Supporters argue the New Deal stabilized banks, gave millions of Americans work and dignity, and built institutions that prevented future depressions. Critics argue it prolonged recovery, centralized power in Washington, and that World War II — not New Deal spending — actually ended the Depression.
Economists still disagree. A 2010 survey of economic historians found a majority view that the New Deal helped recovery, but a substantial minority disagreed, and many of its specific programs are judged on their own merits separately.