Great Depression and New Deal

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 Depression