The Great Depression

In America, the year of 1929 could not have looked more promising. The year opened with the national income climbing to $104 billion dollars.^[1]   An even better indication of the great economy was that the population was increasing as well. In a pre-war economy, the violent economic cycles were apparently put behind many Americans and the marketplace seemed to be balanced. But even a fortune teller could not predict what would happen next. That pleasing prospect and faith in the market took a turn for the worse in the summer of 1929. The economic downturn accelerated and over time the nation’s output of gross national product, (GNP), fell from $104 billion in 1929 to $55 billion in 1933.This 30 percent decline in GNP was followed by a 51 percent decline in industrial production.^[2]

The Great Depression was not only an economic disaster, it was a crisis of the American faith in their country’s future and government.  In 1933, with Franklin D. Roosevelt as the new president and his New Deal policies, a renewed sense of optimism began. But, while public opinion and life were improving, America did not get out of the Depression overnight. It took until eleven years later, in 1940, that the country began to see major changes and again reach the per capita incomes of 1929.^[3]  With the country’s involvement in World War II and the massive defense spending launched by the government, only then was America able to fully come out of the hardship of the Great Depression.

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    ^{1. Otis L. Graham, Jr. Towards A Planned Society: From Roosevelt to Nixon.(New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), 1.}

    ^{2. Donald Holley, and Paul B. Trescott. "Great Depression." Salem Press Encyclopedia (January 2014): Research Starters, EBSCOhost (accessed March 6, 2016).}

    ^{3. Otis L. Graham, Jr, Towards A Planned Society, 2.}.