Author Archives: Stephen Spencer

Great Depression

The Great Depression was from 1929 to 1939 and was the deepest and longest economic collapse in the history of the United States, but it did not just have an effect on the US but worldwide. In the United States the Great Depression began soon after the stock market crash of October 1929, which we know as black Tuesday.  This sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors.  People rushed to the banks and take out their money but could not do it because there money was gone. The years following, consumer spending and investment dropped causing declines in industrial output and the unemployment began to rise, because companies began to lay off workers.  By 1933 the Great Depression reached its peak causing around 15 million people to be unemployed and half the banks in the United States have failed, by 1933 140 billion dollars disappeared.  Reforms that were put into place by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after he won the election of 1933 helped the economy, but did not start to really turn around until 1939.

Economy entered a recession during the summer of 1929, as consumer spending dropped. At the same time stock prices continued to rise and by the fall of that year had reached levels that could not overcome. In October 1929, the stock market crashed, as investors tried to get rid of all their shares.  A record 12.9 million shares were traded that day, known as black Thursday. Five days later, on black Tuesday 16 million shares were traded after another bad day on Wall Street. Millions of shares ended up worthless, and those investors who had bought stocks with borrowed money were gone.

The New Deal was a series of domestic programs by the United States between 1933 and 1938. It had stated that laws passed by Congress as well as president during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. By creating this New Deal it helped him win again in a very large margin.  The New Deal programs created an alliance of labor unions, blacks and other minorities, and some farmers. The hardship brought on by the depression affected americans by losing jobs, money in banks were lost, and companies having to layoff employees.  During this time many women did not work, so families did not get much money.  Men were hit harder than the women were because they were supposed to be the providers of the families and they could not do that.

In the 1929 Herbert Hoover took over in office, and three years after he took office the depression got worse.  What I believed this stemmed from was that he thought that the government should not interfere with the economy, which means that the people should buy goods and services to get money into the economy to get it going.  1930 comes around and 4 million people were unemployed and one year later it rose to 6 million people.  The country’s industrial production had dropped by half, and the homeless people started to make the streets.  The minority population was hit harder than the whites particularly the blacks.  It is said that the jobs that the blacks did have were taken from them and given to the whites.  In 1930, 50 percent of blacks were unemployed, but Eleanor Roosevelt set out for black rights and the New Deal does not allow discrimination. Don’t get me wrong there was still discrimination but it was going on in the south.

Since  so many people were out of money and out of jobs they had no places to live.  Great depression and lasted about a decade, shantytowns appeared across the U.S. as unemployed people lost their homes. As the depression got worse in 1930s times got harder for millions of people they started to turn to the government for help. When the government failed to provide the help, President Hoover was blamed for the terrible conditions. The shantytowns that came up across the nation and were mainly outside of cities came to be known as  Hoovervilles.  One of the largest one in the country was in Missouri and was going on for the longest time.  It is also said that this Hooverville was so big that it had its own mayor to ran it and reported to the larger community outside the Hooverville.

In my opinion this was the worst time for the US economy and also the world.  Because of this even in history I personally think that it changed the way people do business.  What I mean by that is I think it turned the economy worldwide.  Businesses started to go overseas and exports and imports started to increase.  Even though the economy went through a rough time I think it made the economy stronger when it came back.

Questions

Where was the biggest and longest hooverville located?

Chicago, New York, Missouri, Washington DC

What year did the Great Depression start?

1928,1932,1931,1929

What president set apposed the New Deal?

Obama, Hoover, Franklin D Roosevelt, Theodor Roosevelt,

Workcited

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/243118/Great-Depression

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/rails-timeline/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/dustbowl-great-depression/

http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/money_08.html

http://www.history.com/topics/hoovervilles