Week 10-The Great Depression and the New Deal

Men by the thousands are lined up desperately waiting for work so they could make money to provide for their families. People are begging for food to eat in order to survive through tough times. This was the United States of America during this particular time of struggle. Jobs were relatively easy to come by when the country wasn’t difficult, but the country was experiencing an economic failure known as the Great Depression. Before the Great Depression, our country went through what some considered a “Golden Age”. Also known as the Roaring Twenties, the American economy and stock market were at its peak. The Roaring Twenties was an era of peace and prosperity and the United States was also wealthier than it had ever been. When people were spending all of their money on luxuries and investing just for fun, the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929. The crash sent the country into the Great Depression. Banks, stores, and factories closed and left millions of Americans unemployed and homeless. Many Americans became dependent on the government to provide them with food and job opportunities. During the Great Depression, the unemployment rate increased at rapid speeds. This left millions of Americans unemployed with no jobs. Even the Americans who were fortunate enough to have jobs received drastic pay cuts as well. Families neglected medical and dental care just to save money. The Great Depression is one of the largest struggles in American history that no one ever wants to see happen again. Both President Hoover and President Roosevelt made their best attempts to help the people and dig the nation out of its recession. During the Great Depression, President Hoover called business leaders and talked them into keeping wages high, instead of cutting them. “Hoover contacted churches, charities, and local governments to help out the poor as the economic conditions insisted. As the nation continued on a downward spiral, Americans were unsatisfied because Hoover wasn’t doing a good job as president and they believed a change had to be made. However during the election of 1932, presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt promised that he would use the federal government to create jobs and in an effort to regulate the high levels of unemployment and to prevent another recession from happening. He promised a “new deal” for Americans. After hearing his pledge, the decision was easy for voters after seeing what a poor job Hoover did as President and FDR became president soon after. The New Deal did not necessarily end the Great Depression but it only provided relief instead of recovery for the state of the economy. The New Deal did bring jobs back to help the unemployment rate drop, however it didn’t give enough jobs back to end the Depression. World War II created new jobs for Americans because the country needed help making supplies for the war. These jobs ultimately helped end the Great Depression. Most people had jobs again and were bringing sufficient incomes back into their households. They began saving their money wisely as a result. FDR's New Deal did a better job in helping America recuperate from the mess that the Great Depression made opposed to the plan Herbert Hoover had in place. The deal succeeded in preventing a future widespread economic collapse.

Image information: Picture called "What America looked like during the Great Depression" by Dorothea Lange. Source: https://www.thetelegraph.com/lifestyle/article/What-America-looked-like-during-the-Great-15068691.php#photo-19057786

Bell, Walter. “The New Deal: A Success?: The New Deal Did Not End the Great Depression.”                     American History.ABC-CLIO, 2013. Web. 4 Jan. 2013.