World War I was a major source of much of what happened in the world for most of the remainder of the century (MCELVAINE). The war radically altered international finance. The United States, for the first time, went from a net debtor nation into the world’s largest creditor (MCELVAINE). In 1918, after World War I, many European countries had sweltering debt (“Great”). Their debt became even worse because they owed the United States money. For several years, the United State attempted to recover their unpaid debts by imposing tariffs on European imports (“Great”). The inability to reclaim loans was the very first silent warning for the decline of the US economy. Herbert Hoover, elected in 1929, portrayed the image of a thriving American economy; that was but an illusion. The U.S. trade was flowing steadily. Manufactured goods and raw materials were being exported at an impressive rate. Technology in America was also becoming increasingly advanced. The main causes of the Great Depression had less to do with the stock market crash, and more to do with selfishness and purchasing stocks on margin. The weak system had put on quite an impressive and deceiving mask—that mask suddenly dissolved. Swiftly smothering the economy was a depression, a depression that slaughtered the American Dream.
The weakness of Europe was an advantage of American businesses, leading them to make massive investments in Europe (“Great”). The investments eventually led to the international financial structure being almost entirely dependent on U.S. businesses and banks (Mcelvaine).The prosperous 20s soon halted to end due to the uneven distribution of income across the nation. Wages increased only slowly, leading to an increase in the use of credit (“Great”)...
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...sues (suicide & domestic violence), unemployment, homelessness, and the collapse of the European economy. The Depression resulted in harsh living conditions for many Americans and foreign citizens.
Works Cited
BATCHELOR, BOB. "Psychological Impact of the Great Depression." Encyclopedia of the Great Depression. Ed. Robert S. McElvaine. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 777-779. Student Resources in Context. Web. 7 May 2014.
"Great Depression." UXL Encyclopedia of U.S. History. Sonia Benson, Daniel E. Brannen, Jr., and Rebecca Valentine. Vol. 3. Detroit: UXL, 2009. 651-656. Student Resources in Context. Web. 7 May 2014.
MCELVAINE, ROBERT S. "Causes of the Great Depression." Encyclopedia of the Great Depression. Ed. Robert S. McElvaine. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 151-156. Student Resources in Context. Web. 7 May 2014.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers."The Great Depression." Teaching Eleanor Roosevelt, ed. by Allida Black, June Hopkins, et. al. (Hyde Park, New York: Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, 2003). http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/great-depression.htm [Accessed March 10, 2010].
The Great Depression tested America’s political organizations like no other event in United States’ history except the Civil War. The most famous explanations of the period are friendly to Roosevelt and the New Deal and very critical of the Republican presidents of the 1920’s, bankers, and businessmen, whom they blame for the collapse. However, Amity Shlaes in her book, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, contests the received wisdom that the Great Depression occurred because capitalism failed, and that it ended because of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Shlaes, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a syndicated financial columnist, argues that government action between 1929 and 1940 unnecessarily deepened and extended the Great Depression.
With World War I freshly over, there was joy and celebration to welcome American 'boys' coming back home. Huge technological improvements and scientific breakthroughs paved the way for larger, more stable and profitable financial markets. Fast and easy money was too be made by playing the booming stock market - many lay men took advantage of these opportunities without having a complete understanding of what exactly they were doing. This inevitably led to the crash that sent America and the world into the Great Depression.
"America's Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal."DPLA. Digital Public Library of America. Web. 20 Nov 2013. .
During the 1920’s, America was a prosperous nation going through the “Big Boom” and loving every second of it. However, this fortune didn’t last long, because with the 1930’s came a period of serious economic recession, a period called the Great Depression. By 1933, a quarter of the nation’s workers (about 40 million) were without jobs. The weekly income rate dropped from $24.76 per week in 1929 to $16.65 per week in 1933 (McElvaine, 8). After President Hoover failed to rectify the recession situation, Franklin D. Roosevelt began his term with the hopeful New Deal. In two installments, Roosevelt hoped to relieve short term suffering with the first, and redistribution of money amongst the poor with the second. Throughout these years of the depression, many Americans spoke their minds through pen and paper. Many criticized Hoover’s policies of the early Depression and praised the Roosevelts’ efforts. Each opinion about the causes and solutions of the Great Depression are based upon economic, racial and social standing in America.
The Great Depression America 1929-1941 by Robert S. McElvaine covers many topics of American history during the "Great Depression" through 1941. The topic that I have selected to compare to the text of American, Past and Present, written by Robert A. Divine, T.H. Breen, George M. Frederickson and R. Hal Williams, is Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first president of the United States and America's president during the horrible "Great Depression".
zShmoop Editorial Team. "Politics in The Great Depression." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
Ware, Susan. "Women and the Great Depression." The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
The years berween 1929 and 1933 were trying years for people throughout the world. Inflation was often so high money became nearly worthless. America had lost the prosperity it had known during the 1920's. America was caught in a trap of a complete meltdown of economy, workers had no jobs simply because it cost too much to ship the abundance of goods being produced. This cycle was unbreakable, and produced what is nearly universally recognized as the greatest economic collapse of all times. These would be trying years for all, but not every American faced the same challenges and hardships. (Sliding 3)
Post the era of World War I, of all the countries it was only USA which was in win win situation. Both during and post war times, US economy has seen a boom in their income with massive trade between Europe and Germany. As a result, the 1920’s turned out to be a prosperous decade for Americans and this led to birth of mass investments in stock markets. With increased income after the war, a lot of investors purchased stocks on margins and with US Stock Exchange going manifold from 1921 to 1929, investors earned hefty returns during this time epriod which created a stock market bubble in USA. However, in order to stop increasing prices of Stock, the Federal Reserve raised the interest rate sof loanabel funds which depressed the interest sensitive spending in many industries and as a result a record fall in stocks of these companies were seen and ultimately the stock bubble was finally burst. The fall was so dramatic that stock prices were even below the margins which investors had deposited with their brokers. As a reuslt, not only investor but even the brokerage firms went insolvent. Withing 2 days of 15-16 th October, Dow Jones fell by 33% and the event was referred to Great Crash of 1929. Thus with investors going insolvent, a major shock was seen in American aggregate demand. Consumer Purchase of durable goods and business investment fell sharply after the stock market crash. As a result, businesses experienced stock piling of their inventories and real output fell rapidly in 1929 and throughout 1930 in United States.
Ware,Susan. “Women and The Great Depression.” The Gilder Lerhman Institute of American History. 19 Nov. 2013. Web. 19 Nov. 2013
As with many disasters, the effect on individuals was varied, although with unemployment at 28% (not including eleven million struggling farm workers (Clements, page 74)), it is doubtful that anyone totally escaped the effects of the Depression. Amongst the worst affected were men who became known as Hoboes- migrants who travelled the USA frantically searching for work. According to a testimony by Louis Banks (Cements, page 74), many men were so in need they regularly risked their lives hitching on trains to try and find employment- if they didn’t fall, there was always the chance of being shot by the train police. This sense of mortal desperation is apparent in much of the evidence- “A man over forty might as well go out and shoot himself”
The Great Depression often seems very distant to people of the 21st century. This article is a good reminder of potential problems that may reoccur. The article showed in a very literal way the idea that a depression can bring a growing country to its knees. The overall ramifications of the event were never discussed in detail, but the historical significance is that people's lives were put on hold while they tried to struggle through an extremely difficult time.
... the economy saw noteworthy improvements for many years to come. Through the production of goods, loans, the stock market boom, and exports, the United States ' economy peaked during and after World War One. The growth was short lived as it was built upon the same conditions that brought about the Great Depression.
"Great Depression in the United States." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001. CD-ROM. 2001 ed. Microsoft Corporation. 2001