The Great Depression(1929-1939), was a devastating economic depression that affected many countries around the world, including the United States. This depression caused many people to lose their jobs, and many businesses to close down, this in turn brought a new surge of poverty that the United States had never seen. In this week’s history essay I will be discussing this economic depression in the perspective of the United States.
The Depression and its Effects
Before the depression the United States was going through a time known as the roaring twenties. During this time before the Depression times were good economically, people were able to buy more things because they had enough money too, and the stock market continued to rise. But this all changed on October 29th, 1929. This day was known as Black Tuesday, because the US stock market experienced a severe crash, which was one of the causes of this depression, but another cause was the way that US citizens reacted to this crash.
This depression occurred shortly after Hubert Hoover became the US president. The depression tainted his name, which is why he is remembered as being a poor president(personally I think he was not a terrible US president). The longer the depression lasted more American’s had to conserve their resources, especially food and money. America for the first time was experiencing starvation, and extreme poverty like never before in its history.
Another negative thing that was on the rise during the depression was organized crime and crime in general. Throughout history whenever a country or nation goes through some kind of economic downturn the crime rate rises, thanks to more desperate and struggling people. Things did seem to get better in 1933, after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected(though both events were rather unrelated).
Roosevelt got the US government involved in trying to end the depression, by making it into the largest employer in the country, he also offered a “relief” to people who were in need. Very unlike Hoover who believed that the Federal government should not get involved. Even with all of this the depression lasted for more than five years after Roosevelt got elected.
Conclusion
After the Great Depression America took quite a few years to recover from it. This depression is probably the worst economic downturn that America has ever faced, because of how long it lasted. After the depression a new and devastating conflict arose that affected most of the world. This conflict is known as World War 2..
The Dreamer 