The FDR And The Key Causes Of The Great Depression

During the late 1920s to the late 1930s, the United States was impacted by the Great Depression, in which the US economy reduced the amount of job opportunities and increased the amount of poverty in the nation. The Great Depression was an economic depression that affected the US economy severely during the 1930s. The Stock Market Crash of 1929, Overproduction in farms and factories, Conflicts with the international economy and the Inequality of income in the US were all key parts that caused the Great Depression. The Depression took place at the end of Herbert Hoover’s presidency and carried into Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. FDR stepped into office with several problems that affected everyone in the nation. One of which included Unemployment. …show more content…
For example, FDR appeals to the public in his fireside chat by telling them to fill unemployment cards in order to identify a particular region of severe unemployment and to find a suitable industry for job-less people (Doc. D). The audience of FDR’s fireside chat is the people of the US, especially the unemployed who are concerned to find a job and need a permanent cure to the depression. FDR was also urged by his wife, Eleanor, to create programs that helped increase employment for the youth (Doc E). Consequently, the National Youth Administration was created to help provide funds for education and job-training as well as provide education fund for many African Americans under the leadership of Mary Bethune (Doc E). Also, FDR’s administration was able to pass the Federal Emergency Relief Act or FERA, led by Henry Hopkins, which provided $3.1 billion in aid to the State governments and employed about 20 million people (Doc G). The purpose of this act was to create an administration that increased employment and to reflect the beliefs of FDR by incorporating the government in an important role to quickly decrease unemployment and reduce economic tensions during the Depression. In continuation, FDR’s New Deal was able to create the Public Works Administration in 1933, led by Harold Ickes, which was …show more content…
In fact, the Great Depression in the US can directly relate to the Great Depression in the United Kingdom. In the UK, the economic depression hit before World War I had started due to the economy being driven off the gold standard in 1931. This resulted in high unemployment rates around the country, just like in the US. British leaders took a similar approach to FDR by increasing opportunities of employment. The British leaders were able to increase the growth of manufacturing industries, automobile industries and agriculture in order to provide jobs for their expanding middle class. In respect to the Great Depression in the US, the UK depression also was able to decrease unemployment through the urgency of its leaders. Both UK and the US survived through their own depressions because their leaders saw a sense of panic spread throughout their nations and decided to find a quick solution to the dilemma. Overall, the Great Depression was able to test the leadership of the FDR administration by providing challenges like unemployment that are not easy to overcome unless acted on with