THE MAIN EVENT-1930'S

WHAT WAS THE GREAT DEPRESSION?

• was the deepest economic decline in the history of the Western world
• began in the United States right after the stock market crashed in October 1929
• Wall Street wiped out millions of investors
• Consumer spending and investments dropped over the next couple of years

John D. Rockefeller once said, "These are the days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come and gone. Prosperity has always returned and will again."

HOW DID IT AFFECT AMERICA?

• Personal income, tax revenue, profits, and prices dropped
• international trade plunged by more than 50%
• Cities who were dependent on heavy industry were hit really hard including jobs such as construction, farming, and mining and logging
• Many people became homeless, were starving, and ill

HOW DID IT AFFECT FAMILIES?

• The Great Depression affected families by delaying marriage
• So many men lost jobs that they had to rely on their wives and even children to help out
• 1.5 million married women had been abandoned by their husbands

THE ENDING...

• By 1933, the Great Depression reached its climax and 13 to 15 million Americans were unemployed
• The economy didn't fully turn around until after 1939, when World War 2 started and put American industry to work