From Black Thursday to The New Deals

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On October 24, 1929, everything changed. On the day that came to be known as "Black Thursday" the prices on the stock market crashed. Investors were made nervous by the rising interest rates, and suddenly sold their shares causing prices to drop dramatically. On the following Tuesday, October 29, prices sank even further. 16 million shares were dumped on the market as investors grew panicked. This was known as the stock market crash of 1929, which was one of the many causes of the start of the Great Depression. The New Deal, enacted by President Roosevelt, was an idea that was thought that could be used to help many Americans face their hardships during this time.
Our society, our people, they needed help. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected in 1933 and gave a promising speech in his inaugural address. In his speech he stated, “A host of unemployed citizens face the grim problems of existence and an equally great number of toils with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment”(Henretta, Edwards, and Self, America 694). What FDR was saying, in a simpler way, is that there is no good way to look at the situation the nation was in. FDR went before Congress and introduced the New Deal in an attempt to end the depression.
Recovery from this “panic” had to be fast, however it expanded about 20 years from the 1920’s to the 1940’s. To take the first step in recovering Congress passed several of administrations and acts. In the 1930’s the government set up the first and second New Deal. The New Deal was passed by congress in 1933, and is a set of government programs intended to end the depression and prevent another one. It can be categorized as the three R’s. The Three R’s stand for recovery, re...

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...nning, but now it serves to help the disabled as well (history, “this-day-in-history”).
One relief program was the Works Progress Administration. This gave many people jobs through art and theater. It funded theaters to lift the people’s depression. One famous act was The Cradle Will Rock. This allowed many spirits to be lifted during this hard time.
In the end, the New Deal did not fix the economy. It was World War 2 that finally got the economy moving again. At the beginning of the Great Depression unemployment was at 25 percent and by the 1940’s, the unemployment was at 15 percent. The first and second New Deals did not end the Great Depression. It did, however, change the role of the government to play a bigger role of the social and economic lives of the citizens it is governing. The Federal government was now supposed to work in the interest of the people.

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