Economic Depression in America
Essay by Greek • July 13, 2011 • Essay • 738 Words (3 Pages) • 1,977 Views
"Give us your poor; you're tired, your huddled masses longing to be free" This statement is written at the Statue of Liberty, in Liberty Park New York, NY.
During the Industrial revolution, America accepted to its shores thousands of immigrants looking for a place to work and call home. They brought with them ideas of hopes and dreams, unknowingly they would participate in a world economical collapse. It would not have matter where they were in the world It would have affected them anyway.
When war came to the US it was in the form of sending troops to the much needed areas of the globe, leaving the US to get along without help from its Nation's men. For the ones who did stay behind, they worked and kept America on her feet.
Booming economy, jobs, and steadily increasing Stock Market for nearly ten years, everything seemed to be running smoothly. It wasn't until the war was over when American's started feeling the tug of the Nation's economical problems. America gave loans to war devastated Nations in Europe to rebuild their infrastructures and to recharge their economy. Then October 29th, 1929 the Stock Market crashed, the forever known to all as "Black Tuesday".
The collapse devastated the Nation as a whole, and then quickly spread to the other Industrialized Nations throughout the world, in its wake proven stricken nations of people. To combat the downturn, thousands were laid off work. "Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), America's 31st president, took office in 1929, the year the U.S. economy plummeted into the Great Depression. Although his predecessors' policies undoubtedly contributed to the crisis, which lasted over a decade, Hoover bore much of the blame in the minds of the American people". (Alan Brinkley, Staff writer, History.com) President Hoover was clutching at anything to solve the downturn of events facing his administration. Self governing "Tent City's" also nicked named "Hoovervilles" Where homeless families found refuge in shelters put together from salvaged wood, cardboard, and tin, homeless because they lost their homes, due to the lack of work. People came and gathered here out of self preservation.
It wasn't until the Nation's 32nd president was in office did the nation seem to have hope of an upwards turn. In 1932 the incoming president took office by promising "a new deal for the American people," a phrase that label him for his administration and its achievements. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945). "During his 12 years in office, Roosevelt led the nation out of the Great Depression and remained at the helm through most of World War II. Ranging from new government agencies and economic initiatives to the Lend-Lease program and the United Nations, Roosevelt's legacy would shape life in the U.S. and America's place in the world for decades to come". (Alan
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