Project by Neal Hart

Thesis

nhart288 — 2024-05-14 14:08:55 UTC

The greatest lasting impacts of the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II were that while people were suffering from unemployment and starvation, the New Deal and World War II brought people's hope back in democracy.

The 1920s and start of the Great Depression

nhart288 — 2024-05-16 13:27:28 UTC

The 1920s were a time of prosperity and new opportunities. The economy was booming and the middle class was enjoying a higher standard of living. But that all changed when the stock market crashed in 1929, resulting in the Great Depression.

During the Great Depression

nhart288 — 2024-05-16 13:34:33 UTC

Factories were shut down, farms and homes were lost to foreclosure, mills and mines were abandoned, and people went hungry. The result of the lower incomes meant the further inability of the people to spend or to save their way out of the crisis, thus continuing the economic slowdown in a seemingly never-ending cycle.

The New Deal

nhart288 — 2024-05-16 13:46:25 UTC

The Great Depression led to the New Deal created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This brought hope among Americans as it put people back to work. It created the framework for a regulatory state that could protect the interests of all Americans, rich and poor, and thereby help the business system work in more productive ways.

The Rise of Dictatorship

nhart288 — 2024-05-16 14:13:48 UTC

The Great Depression also led to Economic instability which led to political instability in many parts of the world. Political chaos, in turn, gave rise to dictatorial regimes such as Adolf Hitler's in Germany and the military's in Japan. (Totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union and Italy predated the depression.) These regimes pushed the world ever-closer to war in the 1930s.

Pearl Harbor

nhart288 — 2024-05-16 14:20:12 UTC

When World War II finally broke out in both Europe and Asia, the United States tried to avoid being drawn into the conflict. When Japan attacked the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the United States found itself in the war it had sought to avoid for more than two years.

U.S. Involvement

nhart288 — 2024-05-16 14:23:20 UTC

Mobilizing the economy for world war finally cured the depression. Millions of men and women joined the armed forces, and even larger numbers went to work in well-paying defense jobs. World War II affected the world and the United States profoundly; it continues to influence us even today.

Sources

nhart288 — 2024-05-20 13:55:53 UTC

American Fads and Crazes: 1920s | Headlines & Heroes

Great Depression Facts - FDR Presidential Library & Museum

Overview | Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945 | U.S. History Primary Source Timeline | Classroom