The Great Depression of the 1930s decisively changed the role of government in American economic and social life. The two presidents during this era— Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964), who served from 1929 to 1933, and Franklin D. Roosevelt(1882-1945), who was president from 1933 to 1945—agreed on the desirability of maintaining a capitalist economy. They agreed that the federal government must play an active role in helping capitalism. They agreed that government's role was to achieve the best results for American business and for the American people. Yet they disagreed, and disagreed sharply, on specifically what government's role should be.
