Collapse In America

Improved Essays
The Collapse of the Great Nation During the economic boom of the twenties, traditional values of America wore out and, now faced with jazz age, women smoking, drinking, and wearing short shorts. The average American were busy sending their hard earned money on automobiles, household appliance, and the guessing game of the stock market, where big money was made. Those in the American dream howere bought their good with credit. As more and more products came out the more people were in debt, suddenly the economy couldn 't sustain itself any longer. On October 29, 1929 also known as “Black Tuesday” the stock market crashed triggering The Great Depression, the worst economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world. The crash affected American, and everyone around the world, causing mass hysteria. With business and banks falling to their knees more than 15 million Americans were unemployed, lasting for about 11 years people went to their last resort of crime and prostitution. People would steal, kill, and mug one and another for petty things like shoes and toothpaste, while women leaded towards prostitution for it’s high pay and effortless work. During The Great Depression there was a mass scapegoating of one and another. People blamed President Hoover for his lack of help in the mess and the poor angry, accused the rich for speeding way too much. As a result of The Great Depression, many people blamed each other for diluting their American delight and as far as blaming their own president, a crash that affected the whole world causing major outcry and poverty, and people’s last resort going to crime and prostitution. During The Great Depression scapegoating was ramped where people would use scapegoats as a mean of venting out anger. …show more content…
Throughout the The Great Depression President Hoover was blamed for the mess, the Democratic Party quickly took every opportunity to bash Hoover for the economical crisis. After being fed up with all the talk about him Hoover quickly diverted the blame to immigrants, this caused a snowball effect. This scapegoat caused tension between natives and immigrants and immigrants and immigrants, furthermore causing race separation. Many people started creating ethnic camps where people with similar race or ethnics could join. The tension between race caused problems like in some cases whites would kill blacks employees in order to take their jobs. In fact, the Encyclopedia of the Great Depression, published by U.S. History in Context, elaborates on an instance in which white unionized workers along with railroad brotherhoods “intimidated, attacked and murdered [Black] firemen in order to take their jobs” (Blackstar). Many people used scapegoating was a mean degrading peoples reputation in order to take their jobs. The Great Depression had affected Americans and nations around them. It was the time of great poverty across the nation, many people being unemployed and in poor health. Since the government didn’t set up a plan for the catastrophe, many homes were lost and tent camps and shack towns began to appear. One of the campsites called Hooverville was in honor of the President whom they blamed for the Depression. Many people disliked the harsh and filthy environment they had to live in. Hundreds of thousands of the unemployed roamed the country on foot and in boxcars in futile search of jobs. Although few starved, hunger and malnutrition affected many. People outraged of why they were going hungry in a country possessing huge food abundance. Blaming Wall Street, Hoover administration, and banks for poverty many protest and organized a "hunger march". The (UCL) or Unemployed Citizens League acted fast and quickly created programs like the self-help production. The self-help was a program to ensure cooperation between each other to …show more content…
Although, both events have been put in the past, hysteria will more than likely stay with us. As long as there’s someone to blame for your problems there will be scapegoats, and hysteria. The people during The Great Depression created pandemonium and more problems than needed. They struck fear in people when people started to perform crimes like mugging and killings. Both events can be in a nutshell quickly summed up is “What you ignore becomes more” (“ T H E A C T U A L I Z E

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Black Tuesday In one day, America’s economy lost billions of dollars. On Black Tuesday, the stock market crashed causing the economy to crash. The crash was caused by a number of reasons. Buying on margin, speculation, and the mass selling of stocks caused the stock market to crash on Black Tuesday.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many believe that Hoover held a great deal of responsibility for the causes, and the negative effects of the depression. Hoover first approached the issue when he lowered income tax, believing that with more money to spend citizens would invest in the stock market, and buy the products that were being overproduced. However, this made little significant impact because income tax was already low. Hoover also asked that big business owners not lower the employee wage. Many became homeless as a result of the Great Depression and, as a result, Hoovervilles were created.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    New Deal Dbq

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The unemployment rate rose steeply. As a result, many lost their homes and some even took their own lives. America was in the midst of the “Great Depression” with little to no hope of recovery. During this time, the industrial production declined, the banks were failing and, farmers couldn’t afford to harvest their crops leaving them to fester (history.com) while many people starved.…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    New Deal Dbq

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The United states financial system was in ruins after the stock market crashed. The complete crash of the stock market occurred “On October 24th, 1929 when about 13 million shares of stock were sold. “The damage was extended on Tuesday, October 29 when more than 16 million shares were sold making the day forever known as Black Tuesday.” (John Hardman). Banks were failing, the nation’s money supply was dwindling, and companies were going bankrupt.…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    "The Financial house of cards collapses, a financial panic grips the world. Practically overnight an economic blizzard swept the world. It is always the unemployed, the soup kitchens, the grinding poverty, and the despair” (Unidentified Man). This quote perfectly explains the hardships America had to trouble through during the 1920s. America was hit with it’s worst economy ever known to United States history.…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Another historical event that happened in the 20s is the stock market crash of 1929 that plummeted America into the Great Depression. The crash in which millions were negatively affected; over sixteen shares were sold, billions of dollars were lost and unemployment skyrocketed on October 29 of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday. As the 20s ended, so did the…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    To many, the Roaring Twenties seemed to be a time of extreme social and economic success, however, a plethora of factors were in-fact straining the economy. In Who Was Roaring in the Twenties—Origins of the Great Depression, Robert McElvaine analyzes these economic factors. He starts by providing background on his argument: how America’s shift in foreign policy post-WWI would require economic changes. Simply, the U.S. began to dominate the world market, but didn’t want the “responsibilities that came with world leadership” (125). Initially, McElvaine examines the growing strains on American farmers, which threatened the national economy.…

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Depression is a time period in history in which the United States was faced with tragic economical crisis. It began in 1929 while President Herbert Hoover was in office. There is not one major cause of the Great Depression. During this blacks were moving from the south for a better way of life and more job opportunities in factories, this is called the Great Migration. Socialism v.s. Communism, socialist believed that everyone should depend upon the government while communist believe that everyone should essentially be self-guided or independent.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Great Depression, spanning from 1929-1939, was a period of great turmoil in the United States. A depression is a sustained, long term period in which the economy is failing. The Great Depression was caused by the collapse of the Stock Market and the failure of the Banks. The reason why the crash of the Stock Market was so impactful to our economy was because of the speculative nature of the Market. Many people bought stocks on margin, which meant that they only paid 10% for the stock while loaning the rest from the bank.…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Roaring Twenties Dbq

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It has been argued that the stock market crash of 1929 was the worst financial crises that the United States has ever seen. Prior to the crash during the 1920s society as a whole was experiencing some of the most prosperous times that had ever been seen throughout the history of the United States. The era definitely earned its nickname the Roaring Twenties. Throughout these well-to-do times, there was a wealth of money, optimism, and excitement. However, all good things must come to an end.…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Causes And Effects Of Prohibition In The 1920s

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 4 Works Cited

    The Stock Market started having problems on October 24, 1929 which was known as black Thursday (Rosenburg). Stock prices fell and people started to sell a lot of their stocks, which made things worse. October 29, 1929 is known as Black Tuesday. It was the worst day in stock market history (Rosenburg). 16.4 million shares of stock were sold that day which was a new record (Rosenburg).…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 4 Works Cited
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    October 29, 1929 otherwise known as Black Tuesday was the start of a very difficult time for Canada. The decline of the stock market began a couple days before Black Tuesday on October 24th. On that day the New York Stock Exchange experienced massive declines in wold trading. (Hillmer, The Great Crash) Thousands of accounts were demolished before leading bankers got involved and stopped the slump temporarily.…

    • 1243 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Depression

    • 1365 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Stock Market Crash wasn’t the start of it all but it was one of the biggest symptoms beginning on October 29, 1929. Black Tuesday cleaned out many investors because of their 16 million shares on the New…

    • 1365 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Great Depression Causes

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The result was massive economic collapse. A second long term factor that contributed to the downfall was the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor. The main problem came about when the rich stopped investing money in businesses which caused businesses to close down and fire their employees. In 1928, the year President Herbert Hoover was elected into office, the combined long term causes culminated in the stock market crash lunging the U.S. economy from recession to the Great Depression. Unemployment rates went up 25% for white males and 50% for ethnic males.…

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the 1920’s America had experienced an economic growth in which not only did it made the Nation rich but the people were able to obtain more luxuries such as cars, jewelry, events, and even afford buying a house. By the time it had become popular for people to possess items of high value and even value them more than anything. The time during this period was suitable; People were earning more money and consuming more, which also meant that people were investing great amounts of money into stocks, but on October 29, 1929 the stock market took a downturn in which eventually led to the events of the Great Depression. As the stock market crash not it only did it affect millions of Americans, it affected the economy as well. This tragedy is historically known as “The Stock Market Crash of 1929,” were it focuses on the events that led to the stock market’s collapse and its aftermath, The Great Depression.…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays