preview

Essay on The Great Depression

Decent Essays

The Great Depression

Many times throughout history, the United States has undergone economic depression.

The most recognized period of economic depression is called the Great Depression. The Great

Depression is well known because of the seriousness of the stock market crash. The results of the

crash were more serious than any other crash throughout American History. The Great

Depression caused a change in the nature of the American family, an increase in poverty, and

President Herbert Hoover's proposal for immediate action by the government, balanced his belief

in "rugged individualism" with the economic necessities. While most Americans are familiar

with the Great Depression as a time of economic disaster, …show more content…

According to an old study, 26,000 American businesses collapsed; in 1931, 28,000

more met the same fate. In addition, by the beginning of 1932, nearly 3,500 banks, holding

billions of dollars in uninsured deposits, had gone under. Twelve million people were

unemployed (nearly 25 percent of the workforce), and the real earnings for those still lucky

enough to have jobs fell by a third. This statistical evidence effectively illustrates the increase in

poverty caused by the Great Depression.

An additional result of the Great Depression was that President Hoover balanced his

belief of "rugged individualism" with the economic necessities of the time by proposing direct

action by the government. Hoover had only been in office for eight months when the stock

market crashed. At first, he treated this financial disaster and decline in employment and

business that followed the Great Depression as a panic. According to The American Pageant "He

was accused of saying, yet did not use these precise words, that prosperity was just around the

corner". As the depression got worse, Hoover became increasingly concerned about the troubles

of Americans. Hoover refused to agree with the request of the Democrats in Congress, who

wanted the government to distribute money to the unemployed. …[Hoover] as a "rugged

individualist" deeply rooted in an earlier era of free enterprise, shrank from the heresy of

government

Get Access