The Great Depression touched people at every race and income level. It seemed no one was exempt from the emotional and economic toll of the downturn. Lives were turned upside down, and many did not know how to cope. With the financial collapse, kids lost their college funds, and families lost their homes. Families had to resort to making shelter any way they could. Communities were erected in almost every state that consisted of shelters made of crates and metal sheets; these communities were known as “Hoovervilles” (Leuchtenburg, pg. 251). Others would seek refuge in caves, subways, and under bridges (Leuchtenburg, pg. 252). The life savings of many were lost before anyone could comprehend what was happening.
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 occurred from 1929 and lasted to the early 1940’s. It was a deep and tragic period of time where everyone was affected in some capacity. This period marks the longest most widespread depression in American History. It has devastating effects to both the rich and poor. Cities all around the world were hit hard by this crisis.
Hardships in the Great Depression
The economic crisis of the 1930s is one of the most recalled periods of American history. Scholars have studied the economic crisis from all angles and have gathered facts about the depression, analyzing reasons of the great depression, showing the effects. The great depression began in 1929, following the stock market crash, arguably and lasted for almost 10 years. The depression began on October 29, 1929 when the stock market crashed causing banks to lose money and people to lose their investments. The loses in the stock market made people feel poor, resulting in a decrease in demand for goods.
The Great Depression was one of the most important historical events that has happened within the last century that impacted every Americans life one way or another. There were many factors that could be an explanation of why The Great Depression happened, but there is no one definitive list of the reasons of what caused The Great Depression. It was a mixture of events in the United States and outside of it that probably led to this period of time to happen. The main reason that everyone could agree on was the event of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Because of The Crash, it made people go on a bank run which made thousands of banks to close because they simply did not have all the money for all the people wanting to withdraw their savings. Because everyone was trying to take their savings out, most people were turned down by the bank and essentially lost of their savings in the bank. The banks were failing and because they had no more money left, this stopped the banks from having available credit for people to use which made matters even worse for the people. This leads people to poverty and were left with nothing. Because people were poor and were scared of spending their money now, it made people stop buying extra things that weren't essential to live. This was the cause of the unemployment rates during this time period because if no one was buying anything, then there was no reason to keep extra workers for things people are not buying.
During the Great Depression, people all across the United States faced many hardships and life changing adversity. In fact, some men went the entire Depression without finding a job and found it very difficult to accept financial and material help from the government. The Great Depression affected all groups, ages, and races of people. African Americans and business owners were two groups particularly affected by the Great Depression. They share similar and different Great Depression experiences. Many men walked out on their families because they felt like they had failed their families and could not look at them the same anymore. The same concept happened with teenage boys, they would leave their families to lessen the burden on them. These kids were called “Wild Boys”, most of them would move out west to find work.
There were many events that led to the Great Depression. Every event affected the people worse and worse over time. The Great Depression started in the early 1930’s during Hoover’s presidency. However, before the Great Depression life was great, there were many new technologies that made life more advanced. Nobody expected such a horrible event to occur during the time of the “Roaring 20’S.”
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.
Diary Of Man During Great Depression
Dear Diary,
I am 29 years old and I come from a lower - middle class family. My
ancestors came from England but I was born in Australia. I haven't got
married cause I am having a hard time supporting myself let alone have
a family. I lost my job when the Great Depression began and I got one
about three years later.
Review of The Great Depression America 1929-1941 by Robert S. McElvaine
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".
Divine et al. , state that Hoover was a "sober, intelligent, and immensely hardworking" man. McElvaine concurs and explains that "at the age of 29, Hoover was a financier-promoter-geologist-engineer-metallurgist".