The Great Depression in America

By: Juan F. Polanco 9A

What is The Great Depression?

The Great Depression was a world wide economic depression. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s. It was the longest, most widespread, and deepest depression of the 20th century.

When did The Great Depression begin?

The depression originated in the U.S., starting with the fall in stock prices (Wall Street Crash) that began in September 4, 1929 and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 (known as Black Tuesday). From there, it quickly spread to almost every country in the world.

Effects

Employment

Housing

Health

Food

Clothing

Social/ Leisure

Everyday life

Employment

Companies went broke and anyone working for that company went unemployed. Companies depended on each other and when I company went broke, it cause another one to go broke too and so on. People were looking desperately for a job.

US Unemployment 1910-1960

Housing

People bought lots of shares and were forced to sell them, but no one would buy them and they couldn’t pay their fees. So banks were forced to their houses away and people would live in houses made from anything they could find laying around.

Health

The peoples health was affected in many ways. Firstly during that time there were lots of disease around and cities were not very clean. Also because of the lack of food and money for people to buy food, people were forced to eat anything in order to survive, that includes paper, rats and other things. Rats carry loads of diseases and those who ate them became sick too.

Food

I big issue during that time was food, people needed to eat in order to survive, but with the lack of jobs and money people simply couldn’t afford it. This lead people to eat anything they found, this includes paper and ever rats. This made the people very sick and many died cause of this. But there were also some places were people could go and eat a small meal that was just enough for day.

Clothing

So people were unemployed and with no money having to spend the little amount they have in food to survive, they couldn’t afford clothing. Their clothes was either very old or it was broken and not in good quality. People just couldn’t afford buying clothes when they have more important things to use their money on.

Conclusion

The Great Depression were vey hard times to live in and you had to be very strong mentally and physically to support all the misery and trouble. The Great Depression ended around late 1930s and early 40s. But even when things were starting to get better, Adolf Hitler had risen to the power in Germany and World War 2 was starting.

Thank You For Listening

Bibliography

"Great Depression in the United States." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 25 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression_in_the_United_States>.

"Great Depression." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 25 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression>.