The Great Depression that beset the United States and other countries in the 1930s was unique in its magnitude and its consequences. At the depth of the depression, in 1933, one

American worker in every four was out of a job. In other countries unemployment ranged between 15 percent and 25 percent of the labor force. This great industrial slump continued

throughout the 1930s, shaking the foundations of Western capitalism and the society based upon it (Roark).

President Calvin Coolidge had said during the long prosperity of the 1920s that "The business of America is business." Despite the seeming business prosperity of the 1920s, however, there were serious economic weak spots, a chief one being a depression in the agricultural area. Also depressed were such industries as coal mining, railroads, and textiles. Throughout the 1920s, U. S. banks had failed--an average of 600 per year--as had thousands of other business firms. By 1928, the construction boom was over (Garraty 12).

The spectacular rise in prices on the stock market from 1924 to 1929 bore little relation to

actual economic conditions. In fact, the boom in the stock market and in real estate, along with the expansion in

At first, Roosevelt tried to stimulate the economy through the National Recovery Administration, charged with establishing minimum wages and codes of fair competition in every industry. It was based on the idea of spreading work and reducing unfair competitive practices by means of cooperation in industry, to stabilize production and prevent the price slashing that had begun after 1929. This approach was abandoned after the Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional (Garraty 13).

credit (created, in part, by low-paid workers buying on credit) and high profits for a few industries, concealed basic problems. Because of this, the U. S. stock market crash that occurred in October 1929, with huge losses, was not the fundamental cause of the Great Depression, although the crash sparked, and certainly marked the beginning of, the most traumatic economic period of modern times (Garraty 73).

In other countries, the depression had effects that are even more profound. As world trade fell off, countries turned to nationalist economic policies that only exacerbated their difficulties. In politics, the depression strengthened the extremes of right and left, helping Adolf Hitler to power in Germany and swelling left-wing movements in other European countries. The depression was thus a time of massive insecurity among peoples and governments, contributing to the tensions that produced World War II. Ironically, however, the massive military expenditures for that war provided the economic stimulus that finally ended the depression in the United States and everywhere else (Roark).

basically unsound. The high tariffs

Some topics in this essay:
Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Supreme Court, Led Depression, Smoot-Hawley Act, Recovery Administration, Philip Murray, Upton Sinclair, USSR Watkins, Franklin Roosevelt, stock market, countries depression, garraty 13, prosperity 1920s, world war, 1929 1932, european countries, franklin roosevelt,