How Did The Great Depression Affect The Economy Of The 1930's

The 1920’s began with enormous spending and optimism for the future, but by the end of the 30’s, America was just beginning to break out of the worst economic disaster in American history. Throughout these two decades, America underwent one of the most turbulent eras in the history of the country. Thanks to those incredibly hard and challenging times, we have America as it is known today. Only a few times in its beautiful and storied history has America survived disasters like the Great Depression. The 1920’s and 30’s were one of the most influential times in American history because of the enormous impact on society, which led America to become the powerful nation it is today. After coming out of WWI, America had a confusing and uncertain

Many industries had also begun overproducing their goods and selling them at a loss. This led to the stock market crashing in 1929. The market will drop almost 90% over the next six months. Everyone rushed to withdraw their money from the banks in fear of losing it. Unfortunately, the banks didn’t have the money, and this caused even more panic. Almost a third of all banks failed in the 1930’s, anyone that had savings in those banks lost all of their income. This led to an economic disaster that would cause panic in not just industry, but agriculture and the American people. While the Stock Market Crash was destroying American industry, poor climate and techniques were destroying American agriculture. The Homestead Act brought millions of settlers to the great plains in search of prosperity. This area was covered by huge prairies and grasslands that farmers plowed through to make fields and plant. The removal of the grasses holding the soil together, along with the drought that occurred during the 20’s, destroyed all soil integrity. With nothing holding it together, the soil was picked up in wind storms and created one of the largest ecological disasters in American history, called the Dust

Hoover poorly managed the various disasters that were ongoing, causing them to get worse and the public to resent him. Low income settlements full of poor Americans were known as Hoovervilles. With much of the public resenting him, most wanted anyone else to lead the country. This opportunity would present itself in the election of 1932, when FDR would win in a sweeping landslide victory over Herbert Hoover, then again in 1936 against Alf Landon. He would be so popular that he would be re-elected 3 times. He would quickly start implementing many new programs, known as New Deal programs. The New Deal programs were implemented to bring America out of the Great Depression. There were nearly 15 million unemployed citizens that needed jobs. Many of these programs were focused on creating jobs for unemployed citizens. One of the earliest programs was the Emergency Banking Act of 1933. This program closed banks for four days across the country in order to let Congress decide on a solution to the banking crisis. Another early act was the National Recovery Administration in 1933. The goal of this administration was to negotiate fair trade practices and equal competition