1937 was a tough year for FDR. He was shocked at his failures to pass more New Deal legislation and to alter the Supreme Court. These failures slowed him down, but they did not shake FDR's confidence. He was as optimistic and confident as ever that he was the man for the job of ending the Depression and guiding the nation through dangerous times at home and in foreign policy. He was determined to make the rest of his second term in office a success. Read each tab to find out how he did from 1938 to 1940.
Foreign Policy
The New Deal
Big Business
Public Opinion
FDR did not press isolationists to get more involved in Europe and Asia, but he also refused to stop mentioning growing trouble abroad whenever he addressed the American people. In his State of the Union addresses for 1938 and 1939, he talked about the need for the U.S. to "face facts as they force themselves upon us"—including the fact that war might come to the U.S.
![I, Infrogmation [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cms.accelerate-ed.com/image/df8ef90b-a36c-41d3-a34b-36c8b037fa16.jpg)
FDR continued to craft New Deal policies with his advisers, but they were mostly voted down by Congress. FDR did not try anything as radical as the court-packing scheme to change this, but he did continue to accuse conservative members of Congress of blocking the programs through greed and selfishness.
FDR toned down his campaign against big business, no longer accusing them of sabotaging the New Deal or investigating them through the FBI. As business recovered from the Recession of 1937-1938, relations between the president and business improved.
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| FDR got closer to big business again after 1938. |
FDR regained Americans' trust and his usual popularity after the court-packing scheme. It helped that the Recession was short and that the economy began to improve toward the end of 1938. The FLSA, with its minimum wage and overtime pay, was very popular and helped people think well of the President again.
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| When FDR talked, people still listened. |
FDR's second term should have been his last; no president had ever served more than two terms. But by the time the election year of 1940 came along, the world was at war, and Americans did not want to vote in a new leader. They wanted to stay with the man who had warned them that war might come and had helped them to prepare for it. FDR would serve two more terms before his time in office was over—the only president ever to do so.
Check your understanding of the second half of FDR's second term by completing this activity. Drag the term on the right to the correct category on the left.
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FDR said the U.S. had to "face facts" about foreign policy.
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a win for FDR
a loss for FDR
neutral for FDR
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New Deal legislation basically ended.
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a win for FDR
a loss for FDR
neutral for FDR
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Big business improved.
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a win for FDR
a loss for FDR
neutral for FDR
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Public opinion of FDR changed.
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a win for FDR
a loss for FDR
neutral for FDR
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The Recession ended.
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a win for FDR
a loss for FDR
neutral for FDR
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Complete
