History and Influence of The Great Depression

The Great Depression, the single greatest economic cataclysm in American history, began in 1929 and lasted until 1939. A disastrous tragedy which threw many people out of work and into poverty, it originated in America, spread to the world and was the beginning of the modern conception of government involvement in the economy and in society. 

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On the October 29th, 1929, the United States was thrown into despair on what came to be known as Black Tuesday, when the stock market crashed and marked the beginning of the Great Depression. A lot of banks were forced to close since they had invested a great amount of money coming from their client’s savings in the stock market. Afraid of losing all their savings, more and more people started withdrawing their money from banks. This massive withdrawal caused more banks to collapse. Aside from banks, business and industry were also influenced. Some corporations could not survive at all without the monetary support from banks. Moreover, more and more workers began to lose jobs. In the picture on the left, the sheer number of people waiting in line for the soup kitchen shows the poverty in America during the Great Depression. 

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     By this time, America was stuck in a vicious cycle. The more businesses closed, the more workers lost their jobs, the more banks collapsed as people rushed for their savings and defaulted on their loans. From the picture above, we can see two children leaning on the mother’s shoulder and suffering from starvation. However, the mom cannot do anything but pray a bit of hope comes through.

“I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people,” said Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of America, in his 1933 inaugural address. Considered America’s economic savior in the pits of financial collapse, he assembled a group of elite economists and thinkers and constructed a new economic program called New Deal. The new program provided money and supplies to needy families and created jobs for the unemployed. As a result, President Roosevelt effectively rekindled hope for millions of despondent Americans and successfully helped the country get out of the perfect storm of the Great Depression.

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As I stated before, the Great Depression was a worldwide situation which triggered important events in the political realm of different countries. In the United States, because of his successful implementation of the New Deal, President Roosevelt won reelection in 1936 in a landslide and strengthened the status of democrats. In Europe, the Great Depression strengthened extremist forces and lowered the prestige of liberal democracy. For instance, in Germany, economic distress directly contributed to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933. 

From my point of view, although the Great Depression made American people suffer from hunger and despair, its long-term effects were positive. In learning from our past, we can avoid the same mistakes in our future lest we tread down the same tragic road.