The Great Depression and the New Deal

Abstract

This essay was written for the Cambridge History of Law in America. Part I describes the economic conditions of the Great Depression and details the executive and legislative responses produced under the Hoover and Roosevelt Administrations. Part II examines contemporary controversies over the growth of federal executive authority and the elaboration of the administrative state. Part III documents the relaxation of constraints on economic regulation imposed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments and the Contract Clause. Part IV analyzes various manifestations of the revolution in constitutional federalism. Part V explores the growth of protections for civil rights, civil liberties, and democratic processes.

Keywords: Great Depression, New Deal, legal history, constitutional history