What is the name of Franklin D. Roosevelt's series of programs aimed at relief, recovery, and reform during the Great Depression?

• A. Fair Deal
• B. New Deal
• C. New Deal Coalition
• D. Square Deal

Answer: (B)

This question is testing what Franklin D. Roosevelt called his broad set of programs during the Great Depression. The name of that initiative is the New Deal. It wasn’t a single law but a large package of federal policies and programs designed to provide relief to the unemployed and poor, spur economic recovery, and reform the economy to prevent another crash. Think of it as three aims in one: relief for immediate hardship, recovery to get the economy moving again, and reforms to change how the economy and society were structured for the future. Examples include public works programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration, social safety nets like the Social Security Act, and financial reforms such as the FDIC and the Securities and Exchange Commission. These efforts together marked a major shift toward greater federal involvement in the economy and in social welfare.

The other options don’t fit as well. The Fair Deal refers to Harry S. Truman’s postwar domestic agenda, not the Depression-era response. The New Deal Coalition describes the political support base that formed around New Deal policies, rather than the set of programs itself. The Square Deal was Theodore Roosevelt’s earlier reform effort, part of the Progressive Era, not the New Deal era.