Great Depression Essays (Examples)

Great Depression

Angela Thomas

The Great Depression was a pivotal time in the history of the United States and as a result, American business, banking, agriculture and society were drastically altered. It is commonly believed that the crash of the New York stock market at the end of October 1929 caused the Great Depression, but in reality this turbulent period of American history was brought on by a number of factors. And as the causes of the Great Depression are still being debated, so to are the effectiveness of President Franklin Delano oosevelt's "New Deal" solutions. What is agreed upon is that the Great Depression and oosevelt's New Deal changed America forever.

While there is still much debate as to the exact causes of the Great Depression, there is no doubt that it began with a decline in industrial production in early 1929. However, this decline did not necessarily mean…

References

Coleman, Amanda. (2010) "Rehabilitating the region: the new deal, gender, and the remaking of the rural South." Southeastern Geographer 50.2 (2010): 200+. Retrieved from Academic OneFile.

Hillstrom, Kevin. The Great Depression and the New Deal. Detroit: Omnigraphics. 2009. Print.

Himmelberg, Robert. The Great Depression and the New Deal. Westport: Greenwood. 2001. Print.

Temin, Peter. (1994). "The Great Depression, Historical Paper No. 62." The National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from http://econ161.berkeley.edu/teaching_folder/Econ_210b_spring_2001/Readings/

There was little support for an Equal ights Amendment, largely due to the belief that there were other problems to solve first, but the mindset of women was well set for what would be their need in the workforce during World War II. However, while large numbers of women worked during the Depression, scholars often see their status slightly decreasing because the American Federation of Labor, for one, did not allow women to join unions and pushed employeers to hire men (Moran)

Minorities -- Most of America's minorities did not benefit from oosevelt's New Deal Programs. They were considered the "last hired, first fired" regardless of their tenure with the company, and because so many White Males were out of work, had a tougher time finding employment. A shortage of jobs in the American Southwest, however, led to the illegal deportation of 400,000 Mexican-Americans just so Whites could take those…

REFERENCES

"America in the 1930s." June 2009. EyeWitnessesto History.com. Web. March 2013. .

Briggs, J. "1930's Race Relations in the American South." 3 March 2004. mgagnon.myweb.uga.edu. Web. March 2013. .

Feagin, J. Racist America: Roots, Current Relaities, and Future Reparations. New York: Routledge, 200. Print.

Moran, M. "1930s America: A Feminist Void?" April 1989. loyno.edu. Web. March 2013. .

Great Depression

Dorothea Lange's iconic picture of the Great Depression in America is titled simply, "Migrant Mother." The title depersonalizes the image of Florence Thompson, who Jennifer Keene claims is "angry and bitter" that the photographer never asked her name, nor used the photograph to help the poor. According to Keene, Thompson believes that Lange profited from the photo without fulfilling the original promise to inspire government aide for the poor. On the other hand, Thompson's two youngest children are also depicted in the photograph taken in 1936. One of those daughters claims that it is only via self-reliance that economic independence is possible, suggesting that government aide is not necessarily the best or only way to help the poor. Indeed, the best way to help the poor at any time is to provide a diverse range of programs and resources. The "poor" should never be lumped together as a…

Reference

Keene, Jennifer. "Dorothea Lange and Migrant Mother." Video retrieved:  http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/history/MHL/U.S./videos2/migrant_mom-large.html

In fact, from 1923-1929 corporate profits rose 62% and dividends rose 65%." (McElvaine R.S. p. 39) This is further evidence not only of the inequality of general wealth distribution, but also of the severe imbalance that was to create havoc in the economy.

This dilemma was also further exacerbated by the fact that the Federal Government encouraged this situation. For example, President Coolidge signed the Revenue Act of 1926, which in effect reduced tax for the wealthy. "... he was able to lower federal taxes such that a man with a million-dollar annual income had his federal taxes reduced from $600,000 to $200,000.. Even the Supreme Court played a role in expanding the gap between the socioeconomic classes. " (Gusmorino P.A. 1996)

This situation was further worsened by another imbalance, namely the disparity between supply and demand. This was to have far-reaching and damaging effect on the economy and was…

Bibliography

1929 -1939 - the Great Depression. Canadian Economy Online. July 7, 2005. http://canadianeconomy.gc.ca/english/economy/1929_39depression.html

Baer, Doug, Edward Grabb, and William a. Johnston. "Class, Crisis, and Political Ideology in Canada: Recent Trends." Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 24.1 (1987): 1-22.

Bernanke, Ben S. "The Macroeconomics of the Great Depression: A Comparative Approach." Journal of Money, Credit & Banking 27.1 (1995): 1+. Questia. 8 June 2005  http://www.questia.com/ .

Christiano, Lawrence, Roberto Motto, and Massimo Rostagno. "The Great Depression and the Friedman-Schwartz Hypothesis." Journal of Money, Credit & Banking 35.6 (2003): 1119+. Questia. 8 June 2005

Thus, when stricter regulations should have been implemented, they were not, and the avoidable became utterly unavoidable. The president Hoover's initial reaction was to allow the market to fix itself, thus going alongside his lassiez-faire beliefs. Yet, he was forced by Congress to act, but did so minimally (Wilkison 1). Thus, it was not long before the nation was in demand of a more hands on president who was willing to implement new social and economic programs to get the United States back on track to economic prosperity.

When Franklin D, oosevelt took over the Oval Office, he inherited a multitude of problems still reeling from the onslaught of the Great Depression. In his formulation of a plan, oosevelt created the New Deal, which "sought to save capitalism and the fundamental institutions of American society from the disaster of the Great Depression," (Wilkison 1). Thus, oosevelt created a multi-faceted approach…

References

Ezzell, Patricia Bernard. "TVA: From the New Deal to a New Century." TVA Heritage Column. Retrieved 5 Dec 2009 from  http://www.tva.gov/abouttva/history.htm 

Gusmorino, Paul Alexander. "Main Causes of the Great Depression." Gusmorino World. 1996. Retrieved 4 Dec 2009 from  http://www.gusmorino.com/pag3/greatdepression/ index.html

Hall, Thomas Emerson & Ferguson, David J. The Great Depression: An International Disaster of Perverse Economic Policies University of Michigan Press. 2001.

Kelly, Martin. "Top 5 Causes of the Great Depression." American History. Retrieved 4 Dec 2009 from  http://americanhistory.about.com/od/greatdepression/tp/greatdepression.htm

Depression

The Great Depression

Pre-Depression Economy Summary

• rite a journal entry describing a weakness in your chosen character's sector of the economy that would later contribute to the Great Depression.

• rite a summary of the weaknesses in the American economy that contributed to the Great Depression.

The Great Depression was one events of the twentieth century that defined the entire century. It was the longest lasting and most widespread financial crisis in the history of the country. However, it also spread globally and many economies were all involved in varying amounts depending on their trade arrangements with the U.S. The atmosphere in the U.S. was filled with desperation and pretty much any political leaders who had a seemingly reasonable idea gained popularity quickly as people demanded action.

In the United States the economy went from virtually booming to bust in a relatively short time frame. Although the unemployment…

Works Cited

History. (N.d.). New Deal. Retrieved from History:  http://www.history.com/topics/new-deal 

Rampell, C. (2010, January 28). Unemployment Today vs. The Great Depression. Retrieved from The New York Times:  http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/unemployment-today-vs.-the-great-depression/

Great Depression was the single most significant economic catastrophe of the 20th century, brought on by a lack of the ability to control monetary pricing as well as a period of sustained high unemployment. Unlike modern economies, pre-Great Depression governments did not have many tools to sway the economy one way or the other, there was a long standing belief in "laissez faire" capitalism, with the premise that all markets are to be left alone, with the belief that the market can always correct itself if given enough time. Sensing that the world economy could take years to recover on its own, economists such as John Maynard Keynes of Britain advocated the creation of government backing for bank deposits, which gave citizens the peace of mind of knowing their money would be backed by the government in case of another banking disaster like we saw in the 1930s. (B News…

Concerning whether a downturn in U.S. economic growth affects Canadian economic growth, there is indeed a direct correlation. Due to the closeness of the two economies, and the mammoth size of the U.S. Economy in general, there is no way that any disruption in one country would not be felt in the other. Over the past twenty years, globalization, NAFTA, and an increase in technological capability has only brought both countries financial mechanisms closer. In fact, Canadians are at great risk when the behavior of Wall Street becomes reckless. It is risky behavior, such as that exhibited during the subprime lending crisis, that most affects international financial institutions.[footnoteRef:3] (Somerville 2010) The health of the U.S. economy is vital to the success of Canada's economy, and therefore caution must be placed whenever either country predicts a downturn in the imminent future. [3: Somerville, Glenn. Reuters. January 31, 2010.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/01/31/us-usa-economy-bailout-idUSTRE60U09L20100131 .]

However Canada does have its own ability to handle government spending however it likes. For instance, providing a single payer health care system greatly simplifies the health care process and costs, and ensures that even during an economic downturn, citizens are able to seek the medical treatment they are entitled to. This is a service provided by the government even during hard times, a social responsibility which is lacking in the American public conscience. This is in stark contrast to the United States, which opts to spend heavily on military and defense, while relying entirely on the private sector to provide health insurance for Americans. Among other differences between the nations, the way labor is exported from America to China and other low income nations is not nearly as extreme in Canada. Additionally, Canada's property market was not as heavily affected as in the States, due to better market regulation and less of a reliance on sub-prime loans. [footnoteRef:4] [4: CBC News. Replay of Great Depression Unlikely. September 25, 2008.  http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2008/09/25/td-forecast.html .]

In conclusion, we see that the Great Depression has taught all world governments how to evade calamity, but the extent to which government involvement in the market should be permitted is still in heavy contention. The pro-business low tax business class sees Keynes as a man who simply redistributes wealth via tax collection and government spending, meanwhile the middle class typically benefits from the benefits government offers in its ability to stabilize the market and prevent prolonged periods of slow growth and unemployment, periods which are inherent in the instability of the free market.

Depression V ecession

The Great ecession of 2009, which in economic terms lasted two quarters but for many people stretched out quite a bit longer, was billed as the worst economic event since the Great Depression. This provides us with an opportunity to examine the two events, their respective time periods, and what sort of similarities and differences we can determined between them.

The 1920s were known as the roaring twenties, and were considered a boom time. The period after the First World War saw significant shifts in American life, in terms of standard of living and how people lived. The 20s saw a significant shift towards urbanization, fueled by job opportunities that were emerging in white collar sectors. The term urban is juxtaposed against rural -- in many cases these areas were what we would consider small country towns. But the shift away from the farm was a profound…

References

Berger, I. (2013). The continuing, transformative impact of IT. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 6, 2014 from  http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2013/06/14/the-continuing-transformative-impact-of-it/ 

Escow, R. (2014). 7 facts that show the American Dream is dead. Salon. Retrieved December 6, 2014 from  http://www.salon.com/2014/10/25/7_facts_that_show_the_american_dream_is_dead_part 

ner/

Investopedia (2014). Definition of laissez-faire. Investopedia. Retrieved December 6, 2014 from  http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/laissezfaire.asp

The middle one, Stevie, he's usually hiding in his room but every now and then, he'd hug me like he knew I needed it. Times aren't the greatest for my friends either. They all have family and are looking for jobs, too. Remember our neighbors, the Moribitos? They've got six kids and Domenic, the husband, is out of work, too while his wife is running after their wee little ones. I think despite all the problems, the neighborhood here in New York City seems cohesive like we're all one big family facing the same dilemma. In the end, all we need is love right, and as long as our families got each other; money doesn't make the world go round! It's what I tell Eileen and myself but I don't think she's buying much of it anymore. We have nothing to our name but these ragged clothes on our backs…

Weak governmental intervention and stubborn responses by overzealous investors led to the stock market crash in October of 1929. Non-existent money artificially inflated the prices of stocks traded on the market and caused firms to produce more than they could sell. When reality hit, it was too late to prevent the market from crashing.

President Hoover reacted by stimulating construction and public works projects. Urging firms to keep wages steady and relatively high, he cut taxes and increased allocations for public spending. Hoover was initially praised for his approach and for his awareness of ancillary factors causing the recession including his blaming rampant stock speculation. His reputation fell when he passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff. Moreover, his pro-development policies did not help circulate the surplus goods. Oversupply and under-demand were still core problems that needed to be addressed. Worker wages remained too low to stimulate consumer spending. In the absence of…

References

America's Great Depression." Retrieved Oct 25, 2006 at  http://www.amatecon.com/gd/gdcandc.html 

Gupta, P. & Lee, J. (1996). "The Great Depression and the New Deal." Retrieved Oct 24, 2006 at  http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/depression/ 

Gusmorino, P.A. (1996). "Main Causes of the Great Depression." Retrieved Oct 25, 2006 at  http://www.gusmorino.com/pag3/greatdepression/ 

The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum." Retrieved Oct 24, 2006 at  http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/Hooverstory/gallery06/gallery06.html

These two factors would cause the economy to experience a sudden erosion of economic stability. At which point, a new Administration would begin: massive spending and enacting various regulations to address the causes of the Great Depression. This would help to provide stability to: the economy and it created a foundation for placing some kind of support in the different economic structures (i.e. banks / the stock market). What all of this shows, is that the lack of taking any kind of action from the federal government would make the situation worse. As it would cause the depression to begin and have devastating effects. Then, when they finally decided to do something about it, the policies would essentially negate each other. What put an end to the Great Depression was: the massive amounts of government spending on social programs and new regulations to address the underlying causes.

Causes of the…

Bibliography

Baru, S. (2009). The Global Economic Crisis and U.S. Power. Economic Meltdown. (pp. 3 -- 38). Seattle, WA: National Bureau of Asian Research.

Bonnick, K. (2010). Securitization. Why to Big to Fail. (pp. 61 -- 68). New York, NY: Author House.

Edsforth, R. (2000). A New Deal in 100 Days. The New Deal. (pp. 121 -- 149). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing

Flynn, K. (2008). Federal Deposit Insurance. New Deal. (pp. 142-147). Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith.

The excessive use of margin had encouraged speculation. Poor governance on the part of banks and brokerages allowed for a market failure where investors were not making rational decisions, resulting in a bubble.

A variety of new taxes were created to offset Roosevelt's social programs. The American psyche had been scarred by the abject poverty of such a wide proportion of the population. There was palpable fear and desperation. This resulted in the creation of a social safety net and massive infrastructure investment. To pay for this, payroll taxes were developed and this was followed by more taxes to pay down. ithholding taxes and broader income taxes also came out of this era.

The gold standard was abandoned as a result of the Great Depression. The rigidity of the standard was considered to be an impediment to recovery. The coming of orld ar Two resulted in the postponement of monetary…

Works Cited:

No author. (1929). Wall Street Hums on the Day of Rest to Catch up at Work. New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2009 from  http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/102829crash-sunday.html 

No author. (1929). Stocks Collapse in 16,410,030 Share Day, but Rally at Close Cheers Brokers; Bankers Optimistic, to Continue Aid. New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2009 from  http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/103029crash-lede.html 

Salesman, Richard M. (2004) "The Cause and Consequences of the Great Depression, Part 1: What Made the Roaring '20s Roar" The Intellectual Activist .

Carter, Susan. (2006). Historical Statistics of the U.S.: Millenial Edition. Retrieved April 23, 2009 from  http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/connections_n2/depression9.html

Great Depression was an immense tragedy for Americans. It was the beginning of involvement of government in the economy. After a decade of prosperity and optimism, the United States of America was thrown in despair on October 1929. The whole stock market got crashed and the Great Depression began officially. That day is known as Black Tuesday. There was no hope of the recovery of stock prices. Masses of Americans tried to sell all the stock but there was no buyer. At that time, the stock market became the path of bankruptcy. After the crash of stock market, the banks had to close forcefully as they had invested the savings of their clients in the stock market. This caused a lot of panic and people rushed to the opened banks for withdrawing their money.

The Great Depression caused the unemployment to reach 25% and the wages of employed people fell…

References

Dickstein, Morris. Dancing in the Dark: A cultural History of the Great Depression. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2009. Print.

McElvaine, Robert S. The Great Depression: America 1929-1941. New York: Times Books, 1984. Print.

"Wall Street Crash of 1929 and it's after math." Historylearningsite.co.uk. Web. 1 April 2012.

Great Depression New Deal Voices Protest

In this essay, the author will discuss the importance of Huey Long and Father Coughlin in shaping the course of the New Deal. Since rinkley also mentions Charles Townsend's social security ideas, it will also be necessary to consider them as well. It is the author's position that Alan rinkley is largely correct that these individuals forced the president Franklin Delano Roosevelt to move left in 1935. Evidence will be presented to support this position. The urbane, pragmatic president looked with fear upon the above extremist figures and found it necessary to craft a third way between the extremes and a leftward drift was necessary to achieve this.

While this essay comprises principally a comparison of rinkley and Rauchway, it is necessary to consider Long's writings themselves and the impact that they had upon the American political landscape. In 1934 Huey Long created "Share…

Bibliography

Amenta, Edwin, Dunleavy, Kathleen and Mary Bernstein. "Stolen Thunder? Huey

Long's 'Share Our Wealth', Political Mediation. 59. (1994), 678-702,

 http://www.jstor.org/pss/2096443 . (accessed May 31, 2011).

Beekman, Scott. William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism And the Occult .

Question 1
In essence, there was rapid expansion of the United States stock market in the 1920s. This expansion was founded on credit. In late 1920s, wild speculation reached its peak, and the price of stocks went too far from their intrinsic value. This led to the 1929 Stock Market Crash. The 1930s ushered a period of the stock market contraction as a consequence of the Great Depression.
Question 2
The United States did not have its factories destroyed during WW1, unlike was the case in some European countries. It is important to note that through necessity, there was significant increase in production as well as manufacturing during the war. For this reason, and several others, the United States emerged from the WW1 stronger, with a booming economy and as an industrial leader.
Question 3
With most people having zero experience in the purchase of securities, Liberty Bonds, “Investing Culture”,…

References
[FullyFundedTrader]. (2013, Jan 30). 1929 The Great Crash. – A Video about the Stock Market Crash in 1929 [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/POMhTJqw1d4

Great Depression has had a significant effect on society as a whole and it has also provided inspiration for creative minds who acknowledged the suffering that it generated. Many American writers saw the events accompanying the economic crisis from a firsthand perspective and their artistic personalities thus came to shape their perception of these respective happenings. Literature actually provided a way out for individuals who suffered financial deficit, as they could escape society's problems into the pages of a book that could provide them with a whole new point-of-view regarding the depression and concerning their personal identity.

One of the principal negative consequences triggered by the Great Depression was the fact that the American Dream was no longer attainable in an environment dominated by poverty. American writers got actively engaged in writing in regard to the crisis and did not hesitate to paint a true portrayal of conditions in the…

Bibliography:

Andrews, William L., Smith Foster, Frances, and Harris, Trudier, "The Concise Oxford Companion to African-American Literature," ( Oxford University Press, 2001)

Burt, Daniel, S. "The Chronology of American Literature: America's Literary Achievements from the Colonial Era to Modern Times," (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004)

Solomon, William, "Literature, Amusement, and Technology in the Great Depression," (Cambridge University Press, 2002)

Yannella, Philip, R., "American Literature in Context After 1929," (John Wiley & Sons, 2010)

Second, margin accounts are now regulated. There are margin call limits nowadays which prevent individuals and institutions from assuming too much risk in the stock market. Banks also limit margin borrowing. A person has to fill out a special application in order to open a margin account and demonstrate knowledge of stock trading before such an account is opened. Thirdly, banks that are big are not permitted to go out of business like they were in the Great Depression. During the Great Depression, when financial institutions failed they had a ripple effect on all facets of the economy from farming to automobile production. During the current recession, federal government action saved most of the biggest banks from collapse by supporting them up with emergency financing. Lastly, the stock market is not allowed to plummet too much in a given period of time. Trading halts or breaks are imposed in times…

Krugman, Paul (2009). The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 W.W. Norton & Company.

Fabozzi, Frank J. (1992). The Handbook of Mortgage-Back Securities 3rd Edition. Probus Publishing Company. P. 483-511.

Eichengreen, B.J., & O'Rourke K.H. (2009). A Tale of Two Depressions.

Great Depression -- Randall E. Parker

Albert Hart: Albert Hart's interview in this book opens with a description of his influence on the American economic machinery (72): his highly influential book, Debts and Recovery 1929 to 1937 " ... painstakingly documented and analyzed changes in the structure of the internal debts" of every detail of the U.S. economy, according to the book's author, Randall Parker. The interview also began with some humor. Hart, who died a month after the interview took place in 1997, related a story about his father, who was born in 1851, and thought he had earned a $400 fellowship from Dearborn Theological Seminary, which was supposedly going to pay all his school costs and living expenses. The catch to the money, Hart related, was that after his father was told he would get it, his father still had to "swear that he believed unbaptized infants were…

Work Cited

Parker, Randall E. (2002). Reflections on the Great Depression. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

Great Depression and the New Deal

Brinkley, lan the Unfinished Nation: Concise History of the merican People. 4th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill 2004.

FDR Question

There is almost something comical about the level of the outrage expressed by contemporary Democrats regarding the appointment of John Roberts, President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. While not to mitigate the importance of the Supreme Court as enforcing the law of the land, the fact that John Roberts might -- gasp -- interpret the constitution with a more strict constructionalist viewpoint than his moderate predecessor seems far less hubristic in comparison to President Roosevelt's efforts to stuff the U.S. Supreme Court with new numbers of justices. Roosevelt openly wished to increase the number of justices specified in the Constitution for the highest court of the land to make it easier for him to enforce his…

Americans responded with hope and optimism to the first coherent plan to elevate the American nation out of the depression. Even today, the durability of Roosevelt's attempt to construct the foundations of the federal social welfare system and for the federal government to take responsibility for helping to elevate the quality of life of ordinary American people shows his greatness as a president.

8.Explain the evolution of American diplomacy toward Japan between 1921 and 1941. Was war between the U.S. And Japan inevitable? If so why and if not how might it have been avoided?

While not inevitable, war between the U.S. And Japan seemed unavoidable after Japan so securely allied itself with Germany, causing American diplomacy to become increasingly hostile after an initially sympathetic period after the end of the first World War -- had America become part of the League of Nations, perhaps, and mitigated some of Japan's regional, territorial, and economic concerns, only then could the Japan and Nazi union been avoided.

Many Americans became jobless and homeless, even setting up shantytowns.

) the Hoover administration did little in response to the growing crisis. The administration remained committed to balancing the budget, and refused to run a deficit in order to stimulate the economy. He felt the use of volunteerism was the path to success. He did try a couple of things, with the Agricultural Marketing Act and the Emergency Relief and Construction Act. The Federal Reserve did not act to loosen the money supply.

4) I believe there could be another Great Depression. Many of the root causes have been seen at different points in the past several years. In the earlier part of this decade we saw the dot-com bubble, and we also saw a decline in confidence in the markets following scandals like Enron. The present oil crisis is raising prices and pressuring the economy to a degree that…

3) the Hoover administration did little in response to the growing crisis. The administration remained committed to balancing the budget, and refused to run a deficit in order to stimulate the economy. He felt the use of volunteerism was the path to success. He did try a couple of things, with the Agricultural Marketing Act and the Emergency Relief and Construction Act. The Federal Reserve did not act to loosen the money supply.

4) I believe there could be another Great Depression. Many of the root causes have been seen at different points in the past several years. In the earlier part of this decade we saw the dot-com bubble, and we also saw a decline in confidence in the markets following scandals like Enron. The present oil crisis is raising prices and pressuring the economy to a degree that is similar to the effects of Smooth-Hawley. Should all of these factors come together at one time, during a period of poor fiscal management, we could see another Great Depression.

Faragher, John Mack et al. Out of Many: a History of the American People. 5th ed. Vol. 2: (Since 1865. Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006)(Chapters 21-24).

Prices would fall and farmers lose money when their techniques are more efficient because in that scenario there would be a surplus of agricultural products on the market that automatically causes a drop of prices. Where crops are rare, there is under surplus and prices will eventually rise. Where there is a fall of agricultural prices and a slump in industrial orders, industrialized nations and those supplying primary products (food and raw materials) are all affected in one way or another (About the Great Depression 2). Great Britain (Economic Handout Point 8b): Britain fortunes improved after leaving the gold standard. Under the Gold Standard, which linked currencies to the value of gold, governments were committed to maintaining fixed exchange rates. The British economy stopped declining soon after Britain's abandonment of the gold standard in September 1931, though genuine recovery did not begin until the end of 1932 (omer 2). Great…

References

About the Great Depression. 1-6. Accessed 17 October 2011.

Cached - Similar

American President: Herbert Clark Hoover. A Reference Resource. 1-4. 2011.

Accessed 17 October 2011.

Great Depression of the 1930s and the current status of the United States.

Great depression of the 1930's and current economic status of the U.S.

The research paper compares and contrasts the great depression of the 1930's and the current economic status of the United State of America.

It first of all makes a general overview of each of these two different periods and then focuses on certain specific aspects during these different times which include the causes to the economic recessions witnessed, impacts of the economic recessions and the solutions that were introduced so as to bring the economy to a recovery level or phase and lastly the research paper will conclude the topic.

Great Depression of 1930's

When talking about any topic regarding the American history it would be hard not to mention the 1930's great depression, this is evident by the fact that various authors in those…

Reference

Embrechts, Donnelly. The devil is in the tails: actuarial mathematics and the subprime mortgage crisis, (1) pp 1-33, (2010).

Gusmorino, Paul. "Main Causes of the Great Depression. Web page" . 9th November, 2010.

Mitchell, Broadus. Depression Decade: From New Era through New Deal, 1929-1941, pp 462, 1947.

Taylor, David. Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley & Sons, pp 21-54, 2009.

Industrial workers were probably less affected by the depression than African-Americans or the elderly (Temin, 27). They often did not have much extra money with which they could invest in the stock market, so most of them didn't have much to lose when it crashed (Temin, 31). They might have lost a little bit when it crashed, but they still had jobs to go to. Industry had to go on, regardless of what the rest of the country was doing (Temin, 35). These workers were building things that the country had to have, so their jobs were fairly safe (Temin, 36).

Even though such a large segment of society was affected by the Great Depression, many history texts and other literature make it sound as though everyone suffered greatly. This is not entirely true as there were many people, such as the industrial workers mentioned previously, that did not have…

Works Cited

Bordo, Michael, Erceg, Chris, & Evans, Charles (2000). "Money, Sticky Wages, and the Great Depression." American Economic Review 90, 1447-1463.

Christiano, Lawrence, Motto, Roberto, & Rostagno, Massimo (2003). "The Great Depression and the Friedman-Schwartz Hypothesis." Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 35, 1119-1198.

Cole, Harold, & Ohanian, Lee E. (2000). "Re-considering the Contributions of Money and Banking Shocks to the U.S. Great Depression." In Macroeconomics Annual, edited by Ben Bernanke and Kenneth Rogoff. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Ohanian, Lee E. (2001). "Why Did Productivity Fall So Much During the Great Depression?" American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings (May 2001), 34-38.

Introduction
The Great Depression is said by economists to be the worst economic downturn to ever occur in the Western World. It started in 1929 and lasted for 10 straight years. The economic depression was triggered by a stock market crash in the October of 1929. The stock market crash sent shockwaves through Wall Street resulting in investors losing millions of dollars. After the stock market crash, investment and consumer spending naturally dropped in the following months and years. This had a negative effect on manufacturing and employment resulting in millions of Americans being laid off. At its lowest point, the economic depression had forced approximately 15 million to lose their jobs. Moreover, nearly 50 percent of the America’s banks collapsed during the Great Depression. This paper discusses the great depression, its causes, the negative effects it had, and the recovery.
What caused the Great Depression?
From the turn of…

Works cited
Eichengreen, Barry, and Peter Temin. \\\\"The gold standard and the great depression.\\\\" Contemporary European History 9.2 (2000): 183-207. Web.
Elder, Glen H. Children of the great depression. Routledge, 2018. Web.
Hobsbawm, Eric. \\\\"The age of extremes: A history of the world.\\\\" New York: Pantheon (1994). Web.
Kyvig, David E., and David E. Kyvig. Daily life in the United States, 1920-1940: how Americans lived through the\\\\" Roaring Twenties\\\\" and the Great Depression. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004. Web.
Romer, Christina D. \\\\"The great crash and the onset of the great depression.\\\\" The Quarterly Journal of Economics 105.3 (1990): 597-624. Web.
Simpson, Brian P. \\\\"The Great Depression.\\\\" Money, Banking, and the Business Cycle. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2014. 187-219. Web.
Watkins, Tom H. The great depression: America in the 1930s. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1993. Web.

Lessons From the Great Depression

he great depression in the U.S.A. was occasioned by the crash in the stock market in October 1929 and led to great panic at the wall street, wiping out millions of investors, the consumer spending drastically dropped and hence drop in investments hence by 1933 around 15 million Americans were rendered jobless and close to half the banks in the nation closed. More citizens withdrew their money from the banks with fears that the banks could go under despite the repeated assurance by President Roosevelt that it was safe to keep their money in the banks than to keep it under the mattress. It is a period that left people with no options to satisfy their basic needs, yet on the flip side, it presented people with positive lessons and skills to adopt in order to survive through the tough economic times (Browder, Laura

,…

The effects of the depression were far reaching, however, there was a section of population that had an easier time as compared to other Americans. The Dakota population was a special exemption during the depression. McNicol Stock & Catherine, (1992)

note that apart from the crash at the stock market, the depression was further exacerbated by the bad weather that mutilated the agricultural sector just as the economic downturn took its worst turn. The people of Dakota however had a lucky spell of rainfall that meant they had a better harvest than the rest of the country. With this advantage over the rest of the U.S.A., Dakota combined it with the other skills and forged ahead with their economy as the rest of the country remained behind. It was a case of luck and skills combined for Dakota in the lessening of the effects of the drought, a lesson that the nation can learn on how to strengthen the parts of the economy that ach state has for the good of the entire U.S..

The great depression had various lessons as noted above for the current U.S. society in terms

Great Depression and the New Deal

The Great Depression

The Great Depression was caused by the stock market crash of 1929. The 1920s had been a roaring good time for Americans: credit was easy and investments were going up. In the 1920s, it was known as the Installment Plan -- and "enjoy while you pay" was a popular expression used to lure buyers into the market who could not otherwise afford to be consumers. Credit was used for everything -- including stock. However, when credit expands in the form of shoddy loans, a credit bubble is created. The bubble, in this case, popped in 1929 when the market realized no more credit was going to be pumped in as a result of too many loans to undeserving customers were being made (i.e., customers who could not pay them back). With the market correction came the margin calls and accounts had…

Bibliography

Brinkley, Alan. Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and The Great

Depression. NY: Vintage, 1983.

Butler, Smedley. War is a Racket. LA: Feral House, 2003.

Jeansonne, Glen. Transformation and Reaction America 1921-1945. IL: Waveland

lacks and the Great Depression

The Great Depression, which had significant impacts across America, had a lesser impact on lack America. The greater is the loss, the greater the impact. Vice versa, the lesser is the loss, the lesser the impact. Historically, lack Americans had relatively less to lose in a Great Depression. Consequently, lacks, already disenfranchised from American society, were less affected in the Great Depression than White Americans.

Understanding the Great Depression means, in part, that its effects on Americans cannot be painted with one brush stroke because the Great Depression had different effects on different groups of people. Certainly, the Great Depression had devastating effects on many Americans. As excerpts from two of the more than fifteen million letters written directly to President and Mrs. Roosevelt show, some Americans desperately needed coats[footnoteRef:1], rent, transportation, food and utilities[footnoteRef:2] but were unable to obtain financial relief from government programs.[footnoteRef:3]…

Bibliography

Greenberg, Cheryl Lynn. "Or Does it Explode?": Black Harlem in the Great Depression. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1991.

McElvaine, Robert S. "Letters to the Roosevelts During the Depression." In America: A Narrative History, 8th Edition, by George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi, 221-222. New York, NY W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2009.

Shlaes, Amity. The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2008.

Turkel, Studs. "Two Views of the Great Depression (1932)." In America: A Narrative History, 8th Edition, by George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi, 214-216. New York, NY W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2009.

Great Depression or hat Reagan Doesn't Know about the 1920s" analyzes the economic and social conditions of the 1920s from a "Marxist underconsumptionist" stance and criticizes the foundations of a capitalist, free market economy. The prevailing view of the causes of the Great Depression centers on monetarism and thus oversimplifies the actual and complex causes of the Depression Monetarism focuses on the role of government fiscal controls such as the Federal Reserve and posits that the presence of key masterminds could have helped avert the crisis. However, Stricker finds that monetarism fails to address the entire gamut of social and economic conditions that led to the Depression.

Rather, a number of interrelated social, economic, and political issues, all of which hinge on a capitalist state, directly impacted the Great Depression. Moreover, the causes of the Great Depression cannot be viewed without considering the general economic conditions of the 1920s. The…

Works Cited

Striker, Frank. "Causes of the Great Depression, or What Reagan Doesn't Know About the 1920s."

Economics

The Great Depression

The Great Depression started in 1929 and lasted until the end of the Second World War, it was the most severe depression seen in the western world. The depression had far reaching economic, social, and political consequences. To understand the depression it is necessary to look at the event itself, underlying causes, the impacts and the way in which recovery took place.

The Great Depression may be argued as starting in August of 1929, when the countries GDP started to decline; but it is the cash of October 1929 that marks the official beginning of the crisis (obbins & Weidenbaum, 2009). The stock market crash of 1929 was a surprise for many; the previous decade had been one of growth and prosperity. On Black Tuesday 29th of October the bottom dropped out of the stock market, which resulted in panic selling loosing 40% of the paper…

References

Bernanke, BS, (1983), Nonmonetary Effects of the Financial Crisis in the Propagation of the Great Depression, The American Economic Review, 73(3), 257-276

Cecchetti, G, (1992). Sources of Output Fluctuations During the Interwar Period: Further Evidence on the Causes of the Great Depression, Working Paper No. 4049, National Bureau of Economic Research

Robbins, Lionel; Weidenbaum, Murray, (2009), The Great Depression, Transaction Publishers

The downward spiral of deflation, the collapse of countless banks and other financial institutions, and the unprecedented levels of unemployment all demanded that something be done.

The programs that constituted President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal were not entirely unknown in the pre-Depression world. Various European countries already possessed social welfare schemes to some extent, but in the United States this was largely new thinking. The changes wrought by the New Deal reflected as much the uniqueness of conditions during the Great Depression as they did the undercurrent of new attitudes and ideas that had gradually been taking hold among America's intellectuals.

FDR's planners acted in the context of changing values, an evolving set of institutions, shifting political and economic circumstances, and the ebb and flow of planning opportunities to create a distinctly national, American form of planning.... They were part of a wide-ranging national debate over how to create…

Works Cited

DUMMY CITATION #1 G.M., Blaauw, G.A., and Brooks, Jr., F.P. "Architecture of the IBM System/360," IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 44, No. 1/2, IBM, January/March 2000 [Reprint of IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1964.]

DUMMY CITATION #2 Anderson, Philip, and Michael L. Tushman. "Technological Discontinuities and Dominant Designs: A Cyclical Model of Technological Change." Administrative Science Quarterly 35.4 (1990): 604fl.

Gibbons, Jim. "Gibbons Tells Congressional Committee to Abolish Arbitrary FAA Retirement Age: Nevadan Calls Current Federal Rule, 'Blatant Age Discrimination.'" Press Release, (United States Congress, Washington D.C., 12 March, 2003).

Wilkening, Robin. "The Age 60 Rule: Age Discrimination in Civil Aviation." (No Date). URL: http://aeromedical.org/Articles/age60.html.

With a decreasing demand, the economy could no longer produce to the same levels, pressured by price deflation as well, so the spiral continued to tail the economy downwards.

The New Deal measures produced the exact reverse effects. In this sense, stimulating the economy with new governmental programs and increased governmental spending meant that new jobs were created and that the economy gradually resumed its growth.

ibliography

1. Causes of the Great Depression. 2001-2006. On the Internet at http://www.learninghaven.com/articles/causes_of_the_great_depression.html.Last retrieved on October 13, 2006

2. en S. ernanke. August 1994. The Macroeconomics of the Great Depression: a Comparative Approach. Working Paper No. 4814. National ureau of Economic Research. Page 23.

3. Rothbard, Murray N. 1969. Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure. The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle compiled by Richard M. Ebeling. On the Internet at http://www.mises.org/tradcycl/econdepr.asp.Last retrieved on October 13, 2006

4. Keynesian Model. 2000-2006. On the Internet…

Bibliography

1. Causes of the Great Depression. 2001-2006. On the Internet at http://www.learninghaven.com/articles/causes_of_the_great_depression.html.Last retrieved on October 13, 2006

2. Ben S. Bernanke. August 1994. The Macroeconomics of the Great Depression: a Comparative Approach. Working Paper No. 4814. National Bureau of Economic Research. Page 23.

3. Rothbard, Murray N. 1969. Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure. The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle compiled by Richard M. Ebeling. On the Internet at  http://www.mises.org/tradcycl/econdepr.asp.Last  retrieved on October 13, 2006

4. Keynesian Model. 2000-2006. On the Internet at  http://www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/awb_nav.pl?s=wpd&c=dsp&k=Keynesian+model.Last  retrieved on October 13, 2006

Similarly, FD initiated the Securities and Exchange Commission. FD served four terms and would be the last president to serve more than two terms in office.

The New Deal was built upon oosevelt's belief in the power of the federal government to alleviate the financial woes of the nation. Although unpopular to some, many of the New Deal programs proved to be promising in both the short- and the long-term. Opponents of the New Deal generally disagree with the theory of big government; the New Deal epitomizes big government but in the wake of the Depression only such broad programs could have taken root and alleviated the suffering of so many Americans. The New Deal definitely contributed to the American economy's revival but the Second World War would help, too.

One of the reasons for the Great Depression, according to oosevelt and his supporters, was the proliferation of big business,…

References

Great Depression." Wikipedia. Retrieved Aug 4, 2006 at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression 

New Deal." Wikipedia. Retrieved Aug 4, 2006 at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal

Lessons from the Great Depression, William Watson is comparing the current recession with the time frame between 1939 and 1940. This is when ritain and France had declared war on Germany after its invasion of Poland. However, no real hostilities took place between the two until Germany invaded France in May 1940. The time when there was little conflict that was occurring, fooled many people into thinking that the war and the subsequent events would not be as bad as feared. Once this occurred, it caused the public to have a sense of complacency about these events and the impact that they would have on the lives of ordinary people. (Watson, 2009, pp. 41 -- 44)

According to Watson, a similar situation is occurring with the recent financial crisis that has taken place. This was sparked initially by doomsday predictions that many in news media were making about: the bailouts…

Bibliography

Watson, W. (2008). Lessons from the Great Depression. Policy Options, 41 -- 44.

Great Depression

Although there are few Americans alive today who actually lived through the Great Depression, the event exacted an enormous toll on the country's and ultimately the world's economy in unprecedented ways, and some contemporaries questioned whether recovery was ever possible. To determine the facts, this paper reviews the literature concerning the Great Depression to identify is causes, including the financial, ecological and speculative reasons for the crash of the American economy. Finally, a discussion concerning the gradual recovery that spelled the end of the Great Depression is followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning this seminal event in American history in the conclusion.

eview and Discussion

Although precise figures remain elusive, historians estimates that at least one-quarter and perhaps even more of the American workforce was unemployed during the period following the stock market crash in October 1929 through 1932, and 9,000 banks failed…

References

Byas, S. (2016, December 5). The Great Depression: Why it started, continued, and ended. The New American, 32(23), 33-37.

Joseph, L. C. (2003, November-December). Legacy of the Dust Bowl. Multimedia Schools, 10(6), 36-39.

Salamon, H. & Ebrahimi, M. (2014, October). The functions of speculation in economy: An investigation on the New York Stock Exchange Crash (1929-39). Asian Social Science, 10(19), 129-133.

World War I and the Great Depression

World War I

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 sparked the occurrence of the First World War. A Serbian nationalist called Gavrilo Princip murdered him as the heir apparent to the throne of Austria. However, other underlying factors that contributed to the rivalry between the Great Powers include the system of alliances, nationalism, domestic political factors, militarism, the Eastern question (The Balkans), and the crises before 1914. The main powers of Europe before 1914 were: (i) the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy (1882) and (ii) the Triple Entente of Britain, ussia and France (1907). In nature, the alliances were defensive, and this implied that major political disputes inevitably would lead to large and not small conflicts. Nationalism looked at eager people across the world who wanted to let the rest of the world know how strong and…

References

Giangreco, D. M. & Griffin, R. E. (1988). Airbridge to Berlin -- The Berlin Crisis of 1948, Its Origins and Aftermath. Background on Conflict with USSR.

Hiebert, Ray, and Roselyn Hiebert. (1970). The Stock Market Crash, 1929. New York, NY: Franklin Watts.

McElvaine, R. S. (1993). The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941. New York, NY: Times Books.

Parrish, M. E. (1992). Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920-1941. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

New Deal and Programs to Cure the Great Depression

Back in the 1930s, the Americans experienced the worst financial crisis that has ever occurred in the United States' history. In attempts to get back from this particular disaster, the New Deal- a chain of laws and programs, meant to provide assistance to the Americans- was established by Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, an argument has always existed regarding the usefulness of the policies of the New Deal. Robert haples published his results to the prolonged Great Depression in his article "here Is the Consensus among American Economic Historians?" back in 1995. The findings of a research on Forty Propositions states: it is quite exciting to view where the division falls in this argument, given that the difference in reactions clearly exists amidst historians and economists.

In his article, "An Overview of the Great Depression," he offers an introduction to the circumstances…

Works Cited

Eggertsson, Gauti. "Great Expectations and the End of the Depression." American Economic Review. 98. (2008): 1476-1516.

Kirkwood, John. "The Great Depression: A Structural Analysis." Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. 4. (1972): 811-837.

Parker, Randall, ed. Economic History Association. Tuscan: 2010. s.v. "An Overview of the Great Depression."  http://www.eh.net/eha/contact-us  (accessed February 10, 2013).

Causes
One of the primary proximate causes of the Great Depression was the stock market crash of 1929, but even the market crash was the culmination of years of speculative banking and investments leading to the economic downturn. For example, also during this time, American banks—as well as some foreign ones—actually capitulated, causing many people to lose their savings and many businesses to lose their access to financing as well. Responding to initial fears of a financial crisis, several policy initiatives exacerbated the situation. For example, when banks reduced or curtained entirely the number and value of loans offered to Americans, there was less of an opportunity to re-invest in business or housing infrastructure.
Europe
Another policy problem was protectionist tariffs on foreign goods, which stifled foreign trade, which also contributed to the Great Depression. For instance in 1930, the American government passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which was intended to…

orld ar I upon the Great Depression on the federal role of American government

After the advent of the Great Depression and the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, America shifted in its national emphasis from being an economically decentralized nation, with a capitalistic and 'hands off' attitude to the development of industry, to a more truly modern nation that took an active role in the lives and well being of its citizens. The American federal government also began to seek to exercise its moral influence upon the rest of the world. However, this shift from American isolationism towards those in need within America, as well as the needs of individuals abroad, did not come with some national soul-searching. The historian illiam E. Leuchtenburg writes in his text The Perils of Prosperity: 1914-32 that the economic advancement of the post orld ar I era, and America's less economically damaging late involvement in…

Works Cited

Gould, Lewis. America in the Progressive Era. New York Longman, 2000.

Leuchtenburg, William E. The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-32. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958.

Article Review:
Religion for the Blues: Evangelicalism, Poor Whites, and the Great Depression
White evangelical religion is often conceptualized as a solely conservative force inhibiting social change. The purpose of the article “Religion for the Blues: Evangelicalism, Poor Whites, and the Great Depression” by Wayne Flynt is to contextualize the type of religious faith that sustained many poor whites during difficult economic circumstances in the early half of the 20th century in America. Rather than a source of repression, Flynt argues the religion provided a sense of purpose and a way of making sense of senseless circumstances.
Flynt is interested in giving voice to his subjects on an individual basis to humanize them and present their unique perspectives. He begins his article not with a theoretical overview but with a description of May Jordan, a congregant at the Buck Hill Baptist Church, the daughter of a faith doctor. Jordan left…

Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression

In recent years, a debate has arisen regarding the extent of Herbert Hoover's progressive and Keynesian leanings, with conservative historians suggesting that Hoover may have been less of an advocate for laissez -faire capitalism than was commonly believed during his lifetime. Ideologues such as Amity Shlaes and Murray Rothbard have suggested that Hoover was a closet statist and New Dealer, and that ranklin Roosevelt simply continued many of these policies in a natural progression. On the other hand, liberal and mainstream historians have generally accepted the idea that Hoover was perhaps a more activist president than his earlier reputation may have indicated, but disagree with conservative historians as to the extent of Hoover's progressive inclinations. They argue that Hoover's retreat from laissez-faire policies was too little, too late, and ultimately inadequate to deal with the severity of the economic crisis, a position in direct…

From the start, Hoover urged industry not to lay off workers and maintain their 1929 levels of employment, although this eventually proved impossible as the economy continued its downward spiral. At first, Hoover remained an orthodox proponent of balanced budgets and the gold standards, unlike FDR, who abandoned gold in 1934. His Federal Reserve was also slow to respond to the crash and actually seemed to be determined to control inflation by raising interest rates, although this led to a severe contraction of the money supply, which fell by one-third in 1931 alone. As prices and credit continued to collapse, wages fell over 50% in 1928-32, while agricultural prices sunk below the cost of production by 1933.

(This last detail must have been especially galling to Hoover, considering his time spent as Commerce Secretary and his previous belief that government intervention in the agricultural industry was beyond the pale.)

Hoover was known as a humanitarian and compassionate man, and both traits were attributed to his Quaker background. In private he would literally end up crying at his desk in the White House after reading desperate letters from hungry and unemployed citizens. Furthermore, he lamented the fact that the shantytowns that grew up around all major cities during the Depression were called 'Hoovervilles' and his inability to end the economic crisis, but he was unable to translate this

The people. The faces

At the doors. Then my own face at the door.

No work, man. The pavement beneath my feet.

I can feel the cardboard in my shoes and once Only the finest of leather would do. From living

It up putting on the Ritz in the Big Apple

To selling Apples and eating Ritz crumbled

In charity stews. FDR says

Big government will provide big jobs

And once again I will spend, and America

Will spend, and all will be well again.

But it's hard to believe,

What you read,

On paper, in the papers

After losing your money, your shirt, and everything

You are and own on paper -- paper lies, paper money

Paper words, are cruel.

So sir, that's how my Great Depression began.

That's why I learned not to spend. To save string.

To hoard, like a rat, what I earn, burning with anger…

era through the great depression_

The economy of the United States was faced with fair share of challenges towards the close of the 19th century that had to be mitigated lets they got out of control. Other than the economic woes, there were also widespread social injustices. There was eminent war between capital and labor. Progressive era was realized in the very last years of the 19th century up to 1917 (Sage, 2010). The progressive era was a dawn of new ideas and progressive reforms. Some of its advantages are enjoyed to date. Some of the major events that characterized the progressive era were the birth of the American oil industry in 1901 and the initiation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909.

The first American oil was prospected in Texas' Spindletop and this set precedent for evolution of the nation's oil sector. The Texan…

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Commercial Laws. (2012). What is the Hepburn Act 1906? Retrieved March 14, 2013 from  http://commercial.laws.com/hepburn-act .

Grossman, J. (1973). The origin of the U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved March 14, 2013 from  http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/dolorigabridge.htm .

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People Victories. Retrieved from  http://www.naacp.org/pages/our-mission .