The Great Depression

Welcome to the Depression. Your hungry, dirty, cold and unemployed. You need to point the finger and you point it at Hoover. The 1920's was a time of great prosperity in the lives of most Americans and our natural human stupidity made us think it would stay that way forever. We had just come out of the WWI and business was booming, along with farming and the stock market. The future looked good, but people failed to understand that economies can't be good forever, it has to come down sometime.

All of the signs of a depression were there; the farmers were producing too much, uneven income, easy credit and huge debts; people just didn't notice them. Then on October 29, 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, the bottom of the stock market fell out taking millions of Americans lives with it. Even though many didn't admit it, they knew what was on the way.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933. Lietuvių: Frankl...

Hoover Dam Bypass

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People who had been buying stock on margin suddenly found themselves poor and in bigger debt than they could imagine. America went into a panic, pulling money out of banks in a frenzy causing many to close their doors. President Hoover tried hard to make the times better for the unemployed first by setting aside almost $800 million for public works like the now Hoover Dam. Conditions, however, failed to improve. His other policies, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Home Loan Bank Act, also didn't make much difference.

The election of 1932 made it clear that the American people were unhappy with Hoover. Franklin Delanor Roosevelt won the election on the Democratic ticket by a landslide. His promise of "a new deal" gave Americans hope for what he could do for them. Two days after his inauguration he ordered a 'bank holiday' for all...