Introduction
On 24 and 29 October 1929 prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed. The losses among 880 issues were estimated at between $8 billion and $9 billion. The "Great Crash" of 1929 ended a period of tremendous prosperity and inaugurated the Great Depression, but the crash and the Depression were not unprecedented. Since the Civil War, the American economy had suffered periods of depression every eight to twelve years. The last major depression, from 1893 to 1897, had been a period of enormous suffering and wide-spread political unrest; the economy had been through a smaller depression as recently as 1920-1921. Such depressions had been devastating, but often their impact varied by region, with the worst effects being localized. In the 1930s, however, the United States was financially unified as never before. Harvests in California affected markets in New York. Newspapers, magazines, radio, and cinema linked the nation from coast to coast. The dust bowl in Oklahoma was reported in Florida; hurricanes in Florida were reported in Oklahoma. A national media reinforced the perception that the Great Depression was unprecedented in its intensity and depth. Furthermore, after the prosperity and boosterism of the 1920s, the Depression seemed to many an unexpected and incredible calamity. Capitalism itself appeared to fail. -- Overview of the Great DepressionRecommended Resources
All Resources by Category
- Articles
- Biography
- Dorothea Lange Biography
- Eleanor Roosevelt Biography
- Frances Perkins Biography
- Franklin D. Roosevelt Biography
- Harry Hopkins Biography
- Henry Wallace Biography
- Herbert Hoover Biography
- Horace Bond Biography
- J. Edgar Hoover Biography
- Lorena Hickok Biography
- Will Rogers Biography
- History
- Electrifying Rural America: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- End of the Great Depression: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Farmers and the Great Depression - 1930's Lifestyles and Social Trends
- Sampling of Key New Deal Legislation: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
- Works Progress Administration: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Life and Culture
- Banking and Housing: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Education: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Employment, Industry, and Labor: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Everyday Living: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Farm Relief: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Minority Groups and the Great Depression: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- News Media and Entertainment: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- On the Farm: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Prohibition and Crime: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Riding the Rails: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Social Security: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Other
- Overview
- Causes of the Great Depression: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Crisis of the Great Depression: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
- Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
- Great Depression Timeline: Great Depression and New Deal: Classroom
- The Crash and the Great Depression - 1930's Business and the Economy
- Primary Sources
- "The Importance of the Preservation of Self-help and of the Responsibility of Individual Generosity as Opposed to Deteriorating Effects of Governmental Appropriations" - 1930's Government and Politics
- "The Two Extremes" - 1930's Education
- Caroline A. Henderson: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
- Dorothea Lange: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
- Frances Perkins: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
- Franklin D. Roosevelt: First Fireside Chat: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
- Herbert Hoover: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
- J. D. Salinger The Great Depression and the Prewar Years
- John Steinbeck: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
- Mary McLeod Bethune: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
- Women's Voices: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources


