Americans React to the Great Depression | Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945 | U.S. History Primary Source Timeline | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress (2024)

FAQs

How did America react to the Great Depression? ›

In response to the Great Depression, Congress approved President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, which provided $41.7 billion in funding for domestic programs like work relief for unemployed workers. As federal money was pouring into the recovery and relief efforts of the 1930s, GAO's workload increased.

How did Americans react as the Depression continued? Some people started hunger marches, shouting "Feed the hungry, tax the rich!". Farmers began destroying their crops in an effort to raise prices by reducing the supply.

Massive unemployment beginning in the middle of the 1920s led to a drop in stock prices. The collapse of the banking industry led many banks to foreclose on home loans, eventually leading to the stock market crash.

As stocks continued to fall during the early 1930s, businesses failed, and unemployment rose dramatically. By 1932, one of every four workers was unemployed. Banks failed and life savings were lost, leaving many Americans destitute. With no job and no savings, thousands of Americans lost their homes.

What was the government's response to the great depression? The response to the great depression was FDR's establishment of the New Deal. It was the start of the present Social Security system. The system was established to give payment to retired citizens and to help other in need.

Though no two people had the same understanding of the Depression, everyone felt challenged and changed by the experience. By 1932, three years after the initial crash, near thirty million Americans had lost their source of income, from unemployment or loss of a family breadwinner.

During the Depression, America saw high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement.

As the financial markets collapsed, hurting the banks that had gambled with their holdings, people began to fear that the money they had in the bank would be lost. This began bank runs across the country, a period of still more panic, where people pulled their money out of banks to keep it hidden at home.

Reduced prices and reduced output resulted in lower incomes in wages, rents, dividends, and profits throughout the economy. Factories were shut down, farms and homes were lost to foreclosure, mills and mines were abandoned, and people went hungry.

The year 1929 brought with it the end of the Roaring Twenties, and saw the Wall Street Crash which started a worldwide Great Depression. Globally, the Influenza Epidemic reached a large number of people, killing a total of 200,000 in 1929.

Who was blamed for the stock market crash of 1929? ›

Many people blamed the crash on commercial banks that were too eager to put deposits at risk on the stock market. In 1930, 1,352 banks held more than $853 million in deposits; in 1931, one year later, 2,294 banks failed with nearly $1.7 billion in deposits.

The Great Depression was a contributing factor to dire economic conditions in Weimar Germany which led in part to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Within the United States, the repercussions of the crash reinforced and even strengthened the existing restrictive American immigration policy.

The problems of the Great Depression affected virtually every group of Americans. No group was harder hit than African Americans, however. By 1932, approximately half of African Americans were out of work.

Not everyone, however, lost money during the worst economic downturn in American history. Business titans such as William Boeing and Walter Chrysler actually grew their fortunes during the Great Depression.

A primary source is a first-hand or contemporary account of an event or topic. Primary sources are the most direct evidence of a time or event because they were created by people or things that were there at the time or event. These sources offer original thought and have not been modified by interpretation.

The stock market crash of 1929 happened because the share prices had been rising at an unsustainable pace in the years prior to the crash. This was due to the overconfidence of the investors in sustained economic growth as well as the practice of buying shares on the margin.

October 1929 - The steep fall in the prices of stocks due to widespread financial panic. It was caused by stock brokers who called in the loans they had made to stock investors. This caused stock prices to fall, and many people lost their entire life savings as many financial institutions went bankrupt.

Among the suggested causes of the Great Depression are: the stock market crash of 1929; the collapse of world trade due to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff; government policies; bank failures and panics; and the collapse of the money supply.