The Great Depression Overview

The Great Depression was one of the most devastating economic downturns in history, lasting from the late 1920s into the early 1940s. This era saw significant declines in industrial output and massive unemployment rates, affecting millions of individuals and families across the globe.

• The Great Depression was a catastrophic global event causing widespread poverty.
• Causes included European economic instability (particularly Germany's war debt and hyperinflation), the 1929 US Stock Market Crash, and excessive US credit leading to debt in the 1920s.
• The booming US economy of the 1920s relied on consumerism and industries like auto manufacturing.
• US agriculture suffered from overproduction and declining demand.
• The 1929 stock market crash had global repercussions, worsening existing economic hardship.

The Impact of the Great Depression

• US unemployment reached 20-30% of the workforce.
• People relied on breadlines and Hoovervilles (shantytowns named after President Hoover).
• Germany's crisis led to the rise of the Nazi Party and Hitler's chancellorship.
• Thousands of US banks collapsed, worsening the economic crisis.

The New Deal

• Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal aimed at economic relief, reform, and recovery.
• New Deal programs included:
  • Public Works Administration (creating jobs through infrastructure).
  • Agricultural Adjustment Act (helping farmers).
  • National Industrial Recovery Act (declared unconstitutional).
  • Wagner Act (improving worker rights, including unionization).
  • Social Security Act (providing unemployment insurance, and aid to the poor, elderly, and disabled).
• Historians debate the New Deal's effectiveness.

The End Of The Great Depression

• World War II significantly stimulated the US economy, helping end the Depression.
• Keynesian economics, advocating for government intervention to boost the economy, played a role.
• Some Roosevelt-era policies, like the Glass-Steagall Act, are credited with preventing future crises while its repeal in 1999 is linked by some to the 2008 financial crisis.
• The Great Depression highlights global economic vulnerability and the need for strong economic policies.