The New Deal

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Ethan Leichter Junior Thesis The stock market crash of October 1929 brought the economic prosperity of the 1920s to an abrupt halt. For the next ten years, the United States was thrown into a deep economic depression. By 1933, the unemployment rate had soared to 25%, up from 3% in 1929. Industrial production declined by approximately 50%, and international trade plunged 30%. This period in history is known as The Great Depression. The Great Depression plunged the American people into an economic crisis unlike anyone had ever experienced in history. Millions of hardworking individuals fell into poverty. Many lost their homes and lived on the street. Many more suffered from mass starvation. Overall, people lost their sense of pride and national spirit for America. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933, when the economy was in a time of complete failure. Right away, Roosevelt took to not only helping the economy but also reviving the American morale after this tough era. Roosevelt implemented a series of executive actions, creating programs and new Federal agencies to help revive the economy. Together this was called The New Deal. One of the agencies that was created was called The Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was created in order to put millions of unemployed Americans to work through governmental projects. Over a period of 8 years, the WPA spent over 3.3 billion dollars on public projects, some of which are still used today. Simultaneously as the United States struggled valiantly to climb out of the Great Depression, the threat of another crisis, a World War, loomed over the US. In June of 1939, the United States army only had 185,000 men enlisted. The need for a stronger, m... ... middle of paper ... ...the twentieth century, adding 650,000 miles of roads and 78,000 bridges to the country’s transportation network. It advanced the age of civil aviation with 800 new, improved, or enlarged airports. The WPA brought back arts and culture into a society that lacked any substantial culture in the past decade. Its work on military bases and the workers it trained helped the armed services meet the demands of World War II. The WPA not only helped the United States to return to its height as a world economic and military power, but also it allowed a country to bounce back and regain its identity as a great nation. The effects of the WPA can be felt in modern days with many decisions being made that coincide with effects that the legacy of the WPA left. The WPA changed the nation forever, creating a stronger society that was ready for a future of being a world power.

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