Great+Depression

toc =The Great Depression=

The Great Depression was a country wide crisis. It lasted for over 10 years. There was an unemployment rate of 25% during these hard times for people. Hoover was the president when this all happened. The lower class was had to live in Hoovervilles. They were run down homes. Times were very bad back then for everyone because after good economic times in the 1920's, bad times are to follow them.

Black Tuesday
The Great Wall Street Crash occurred on Tuesday, October 29,1929. It was the greatest plunge ever in stock market history. The reason this happened because everyone sold their stocks at rapid rates. There was a low demand and many items that no one would buy. Another reason is that there was great economic prosperity in the early to mid 1920's and people were spending the money foolishly. All of these reasons are what started the economic rundown on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929.



Causes of the Great Depression
There were many reasons why expert historians think what might of caused The Great Depression. There were many bank failures across the country and people tried to pull their money out immediately after the banks failed. Unfortunately, for most people, it was already too late. Another reason why it might of happened is because of the stock market crash. In the 1920's, the time before the depression, it was a time of economic success. Many people had a lot of money and they were spending it foolishly which eventually lead to the stock market crash. Economists believe when there are times of economic prosperity, bad times are to follow. Historians believe those are the main causes of The Great Depression.

What Life Was Like For People
For people during this modern lifetime, life is hard to imagine during The Great Depression. For many families, it was a struggle to put food on the table because they had no employment. Between 1929 and 1941, 4,000,000 people did not have food or housing. For the families that did have food and housing, life still was not very enjoyable, you were lucky if you had the basic necessities. Since many families had no where to go, they set up these huts in parks and in large open areas in cities. These huts were known as Hoovervilles. They were called this because Hoover's approval rating as president was not a good one and neither were the huts that they were living in. Life was tough for most people during The Great Depression.

The New Deal
Times were very bad during this economic down turn and people needed a new direction to look to instead of Hoover. The citizens of the United States chose to elect a president by the of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). Before he was elected president, he was the governor of New York. He is our 32nd president. The people need a new look on things. This man brought this. He had proposed many government spending projects also known as the New Deal. The New Deal had many plans. It's purpose was the three R's. The three R's were relief, reform, and recovery. The relief part was to provide temporary relief and to stop the bleeding. The reform was to try to make us get out of the Depression and get back to times of prosperity. The recovery was to make sure we never got back into these bad economic times. When he had just started these programs, all the banks were frozen, no one could make a loan or deposit, and one fourth of our nation was unemployed. He started up programs such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Tennessee Valley Authority, (TVA), and the Social Security System. Those are the ones that we still use today. Some believe that The New Deal did not help us out but it was World War 2 that had stimulated our economy. The war gave many jobs for making weapons, and people could join the army. The war was the main reason why we got out of the Depression. Although some people do not argue that some of these systems were a success. Many of these ideas are what is now known as American Liberalism. The democrats look back at him as one of the most successful presidents in history.



The Ending of the Depression
Eventually, the will that the American people had got us out of our depression around 1945 when World War 2 was over. The war was how we got out of the Depression. We were able to create jobs by making weapons and supplies and men above the age of 16 were able to enlist in the army or they were drafted but many boys tried to lie about their age to join because they figured it could not be worse than what was happening in America. Even though it got us out of the Depression, it was still tough because people had to ration their supplies because it had to be sent over seas to help out the soldiers. The Depression ended but no one that lived through it will ever forget how bad it was.