Introduction


"Migrant Mother," 1936 - Dorothea Lange

Unemployed men standing in line outside a Chicago, Illinois, soup kitchen opened by Al Capone.
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
 

Recommended Resources

  1. Crisis of the Great Depression: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
  2. Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  3. Great Depression Timeline: Great Depression and New Deal: Classroom
  4. The Crash and the Great Depression - 1930's Business and the Economy

All Resources

Display as: Categories, List
  1. "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
  2. "The Two Extremes" - 1930's Education
  3. Banking and Housing: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  4. Canada Passes Tariffs to Ease the Great Depression: Salem on History
  5. Caroline A. Henderson: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
  6. Causes of the Great Depression: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  7. Crisis of the Great Depression: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
  8. Dorothea Lange Biography
  9. Dorothea Lange: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
  10. Education: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  11. Eleanor Roosevelt Biography
  12. Electrifying Rural America: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  13. Employment, Industry, and Labor: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  14. End of the Great Depression: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  15. Everyday Living: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  16. Farm Relief: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  17. Farmers and the Great Depression - 1930's Lifestyles and Social Trends
  18. Frances Perkins Biography
  19. Frances Perkins: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
  20. Franklin D. Roosevelt Biography
  21. Franklin D. Roosevelt: First Fireside Chat: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
  22. Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  23. Great Depression Timeline: Great Depression and New Deal: Classroom
  24. Harry Hopkins Biography
  25. Henry Wallace Biography
  26. Herbert Hoover Biography
  27. Herbert Hoover: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
  28. Horace Bond Biography
  29. J. D. Salinger The Great Depression and the Prewar Years
  30. J. Edgar Hoover Biography
  31. John Steinbeck: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
  32. Lorena Hickok Biography
  33. Mary McLeod Bethune: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
  34. Minority Groups and the Great Depression: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  35. News Media and Entertainment: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  36. On the Farm: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  37. Photography of the Great Depression - 1930's Media
  38. Prohibition and Crime: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  39. Riding the Rails: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  40. Sampling of Key New Deal Legislation: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
  41. Social Security: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac
  42. The Crash and the Great Depression - 1930's Business and the Economy
  43. Will Rogers Biography
  44. Women's Voices: Great Depression and New Deal Primary Sources
  45. Works Progress Administration: Great Depression and New Deal Almanac