In the Great Depression of the 1930s, Americans endured the greatest economic crisis in the nation's history--at its worst, more than a quarter of the work force was unemployed. Like the American Revolution and the Civil War, the Great Depression was one of the defining experiences of the nation. In a way that the Progressive movement was never able to achieve, Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs to put Americans back to work began to reshape the public's attitudes toward government. It expanded the regulatory power of the federal government and the government's role in the economy. And it focused new attention on the plight of workers, women, racial minorities, children, and other groups.