The Great Depression was a time of high unemployment rates and an unsustained economy that was triggered in part by the stock market crash in 1929, but mostly occurred due to the problems in the industry and agriculture during this time. In the housing industry, there were issues surrounding the shortage of houses that were being built during this time. This lead to an immediate decline in need for glass, wood, and other construction materials subsequently causing these industries to fail as well. The coal industry plummeted about 50% after the recent discoveries of power from hydroelectric sources, natural gas, and oil. This was similar to the decline of the railroad industry due to the rise of trucks, busses, and cars as the primary sources of transportation. Agricultural demand significantly decreased following the end of World War I leaving many farmers (who had taken out loans from the bank to pay for increased production) broke and with an excess amount of produce that they could not sell for a substantial price. President Herbert Hoover was elected in 1928, during which the economy and the country were thriving. However, the Great Depression struck in 1929 which plummeted the country into a state of high unemployment in which many citizens of the country lived in a state of hunger and poverty. Over 90,000 businesses were forced to close and millions lost their savings due to bank failures. During this time, Hoover had several philosophies, all of which
Herbert Hoover was elected president of the United States on November 19, 1928; unfortunately, less than eight months later, the stock market crashed. Hoover mistakenly considered this crash as only a passing point for America. But it was only three years later when economic slowdown and over speculation brought America into an upcoming Great Depression. This was a devastating blow for Hoover, his administration, and the American people. President Hoover attempted many ways to fix the economy. He founded new government agencies and encouraged cooperation between government and business to try to stabilize prices as well as attempt to balance the budget. These relief attempts might have shown positive outcome in the early years of the depression, but as the economy worsened, calls for more government involvement increased.
The Great Depression first started as early as 1928, but did not affect the United States until 1929. The Great Stock Market crash started the event of the Depression here in America, but was not the main cause to why it happened. During the early stages of the depression, President Hoover failed to help the economy and continued with his belief system of giving people the least help they needed, so they can earn themselves a rightful spot with pride, not with government’s help. The Great Depression was a very intense experience for us, even until today, the
The Great Depression was an economic downturn in America that lasted from 1929 until about 1939, making it the longest lasting depression ever experienced by the industrialized world. The stock market crash caused a chain reaction that involved problems such as unemployment, deflation, an increase in debt, and general poverty for lower class citizens. Attempts at escaping the depression weren’t altogether successful. In fact, most of the efforts resulted in high consumer debt as well as over optimistic loans given to the public by banks and business investors. The Depression caused severe political changes in the US as well as its obvious economic failures. After three years of the depression, Herbert Hoover lost the presidential election
President Herbert Hoover was the president in office during the Great Depression. Herbert Hoover did not recognize the stock market crash as severe as it was. During the tragedy President Herbert Hoover made many unsuccessful attempts to fix the economy. President Hoover’s response to the Great Depression was insufficient in the ways that he took little to no government action. President Hoover loaned money to corporations and state businesses, at the same he advised corporations to not cut wages or lower the production rate, considering that it was highly necessary. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a plan set that would throw Hoover out of office and to fix the economy, which Hoover had limited
The thousands of people trying to get their money back at the same time caused the banks to malfunction resulting in the closing of many banks. The result of closing banks causing a chain of reactions from people losing their money to factories overproducing. In addition, it also cause an huge increase in unemployment percentage shown in the bar graph in document 1, a primary source, Historical Statistics of the United States. As the years progressed after 1929, the percent of unemployment increased from 3 to high as 24 percent. The problems got worse as more problems began to built such as the election of the Herbert Hoover. Herbert Hoover did very little to help Americans because he thought they would get better just like his childhood. Another problem during the Great Depression is personally explained in document 3, a secondary source, an excerpt about Vera’s life during the Great Depression. Vera faced the problems of the typical American during the Great Depression, which were getting kicked out of her apartment to the inability to afford food. This excerpt describes the life of the average American during the Great Depression. Many
In the year of 1929 the stock market crashed and hurt many of the people in America as it continued through the rest of the 1930s and into the early 1940s. This left America in a whirlpool of poverty and despair. When the stock market crashed it led to The Great Depression. It led to being where one out of every four workers became unemployed no matter if they were skilled or not. People became homeless and were struggling to survive. They had to make new homes out of cardboard or whatever they could find, these were called “hoovervilles.” Most people didn’t have enough money to buy food to feed themselves or even their families. President Herbert Hoover did not seem to be going out of his way to help the country in any way. He was against most forms of government relief and he believed that the depression would come to an end on its own. Americans were very tired and frustrated with Hoover’s ways and so they elected a new president. They elected Franklin D. Roosevelt who
Towards the end of the 1920’s the economy in America took a drastic turn. This was when Calvin Coolidge’s presidency had ended and changes in the government began to take place. “Just seven months after Herbert Hoover entered the White House, economic trouble mocked his campaign statement about being near ‘the final triumph over poverty.’ On October 24, 1929 panic swept the New York Stock Exchange as nearly 13 million shares changed hands” (Hamilton). The start to Hoover’s presidency was also the start of the Great Depression. His term consisted heavily on working on taking steps to bring America out of the drastic economic fall that they had just entered. He began taking action by launching public works programs, tax reductions, and the formation
The Great Depression was a period of economic turmoil in the United States that lasted from 1929 until the end of World War II. The Great Depression reflected the economic crisis of the Stock Market’s sudden crash despite America’s economic steadiness for nearly a decade during the Roaring Twenties. Two long term causes of the Great Depression were the poor management and infrastructure of the banks and the overall production of agriculture. Farms prior to the Great Depression over produced during World War I in order to feed European nations, armies, and that overall process costed money. Corn and wheat were popular at the time for mass production which led to an increase of farmers taking out loans in order to expand the land. As more crops
The Great Depression was a difficult time for all the American people. It was a time of unemployment, falling wages, and hope for recovery (“Chapter 27”). Some of the causes of the Great Depression were government policies, economic factors, and the gold standard (“Chapter 27”). Other reasons included the fall of the stock market, overseas investments, and the investments in Florida real estate (Farless). The president at the time of this difficult time was President Herbert Hoover. When the Great Depression started, Herbert Hoover took matters into his own hands. President Herbert Hoover came up with multiple recovery attempts.
The Great Depression was a devastating time for many Americans. From 1929 to 1932, the US experienced an economic downturn that was calamitous to the lives of many people. Millions upon millions of Americans lost everything when the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929. After exiting an era that left people living a life of luxury, the stock market crash came as a surprise. As a result of the stock market crash, many became unemployed and many families were being forced to close their businesses. Although there were many factors that contributed to the cause of the Great Depression, the three main causes were The Stock Market Crash of 1929, high unemployment, a decrease in consumer purchases due to being “stuffed with stuff” during the roaring twenties.
The Great Depression was the deepest economic downturn that started soon after the stock market crash in 1929. This was a time period where thousands of homeless people would wander in the streets and workers lived in fear and pressure of running out of money. There are several long term causes, including the overproduction of farm goods and sketchy exchanges in the stock market. The overproduction of farm goods caused a major drop in prices of the goods, creating more pressure on the already in debt farmers. Buying on margins would cause the speculators to go in debt and banks to lose money when the stock goes down. While the stock market and economy crashed in 1929, Hoover believed in rugged individualism, which means one is responsible for their own success, and
The great depression was an event that impacted the U.S in a very drastic way. It caused many to lose their jobs, therefore losing wealth. It was a long lasting economic crisis during 1929. Lasting until 1940s. It started the beginning of involvement from the government to the country’s economy and also the society altogether. The government wanted to find ways to end this. After almost a decade of prosperity and high optimism , the U.S is now faced to a period of despair. Many had to recover from this downfall and it was hard for them. No one was ready for this event known as Black Tuesday. The Great Depression impacted the americans and cause 20 - 25 million of americans to become unemployed and banks came to fail. The great
The Great Depression was a major effect on the economy, and it affected the supply and demand of the United States. Before the Great Depression hit, people were building a large amount of things,and once the Great Depression hit people had all of the supplies with nobody to buy them. Businesses went out of business, and people lost their jobs because their employer could no longer afford to pay them. Some homeless people, known as ‘hobos’, would gather together and make homes of whatever scraps they could find. Soon, so many people lost their houses and were resorted to living in “Hoovervilles”, Hoovervilles were a interpretation of regular towns, that were just made of scraps that they were able to find. The prices for farm grown food were low, so the farmers thought if they planted more food that they would make their money back. Doing that only made the prices drop even more due to farmers having such a large supply, and not enough
After a series of stock market crashes, the United States’ economy descended into a period of contraction. For more than ten years, the United States suffered through this state of economic despair also referred to as the Great Depression. President Herbert Hoover was in office at the time and found himself amongst the greatest era of economic declination. His response was to devise countermeasures to the depression that he felt would be most beneficial to the country. He began by requesting of large corporation heads to resist cutting employees’ wages and positions and instead reduce the margins of profit they accrued. He also pumped money into public works projects such as the construction of highways and government institutions. In addition
Money markets slammed on October 1929 and this is what caused the Great Depression to happen. For a length of time the country was at the point where signs of troublesome were shown such as joblessness; which turned out to be a gigantic issue for the Americans as well as for different nations. “By 1933, unemployment was at twenty-five percent” (FDR). Never had the highs been higher and lows been lower for the economy. With cash going away individuals started to live in hardships with no real way to earn money. Hoover being president at the time, had great hopes for the economy of America, once this catastrophe hit he was not necessarily blamed for the troubles happening. The nation reacted to The Great Depression in many ways. People were let down by President Hoover which effected the economy, children began to impact society, and families fell apart. Some people turned to music, while others turned to violence.