The Great Depression DBQ
Birsa Chatterjee
Mr. Meyer
APUSH II
15 January 2014
The America in the 1930s was drastically different from the luxurious 1920s. The stock market had crashed to an all time low, unemployment was the highest the country had ever seen, and all American citizens were affected by it in some way or another. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal was effective in addressing the issues of The Great Depression in the sense that it provided immediate relief to US citizens by lowering unemployment, increasing trust in the banks, getting Americans out of debt, and preventing future economic crisis from taking place through reform. Despite these efforts The New Deal failed to end the depression. In order for America to get out of this economic disaster, the Federal Government rightly overstepped it’s constitutional bound to adopt the role of a “care taker” and establish a basic minimum of living for the American people.
Perhaps the single most important aspect of the New Deal was the WPA, an organization which provided jobs for the unemployed working on federally funded projects such as dams, bridges, and public buildings.
As William Lloyd Garrison, Jr. noted, the government was spending
"immense sums for public-works projects". The government was attempting to pump money back into the economy in the form of wages for the unemployed. This stopped, but did not reverse the terrible effects of the Great Depression on America. As is evident in Document J, not until World War II did unemployment drop below 20%. Although the WPA, or the New Deal, for that matter, did not end the depression, it did create an entirely new role for the government. Because the WPA hired not only manual laborers but musicians, artists, and skilled craftsmen, it set the precedent that the government would be responsible for helping all people in times of trouble. The WPA also employed
African-Americans, and because of that, "the government has taken on meaning and substance for the Negro
Mr. Meyer
APUSH II
15 January 2014
The America in the 1930s was drastically different from the luxurious 1920s. The stock market had crashed to an all time low, unemployment was the highest the country had ever seen, and all American citizens were affected by it in some way or another. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal was effective in addressing the issues of The Great Depression in the sense that it provided immediate relief to US citizens by lowering unemployment, increasing trust in the banks, getting Americans out of debt, and preventing future economic crisis from taking place through reform. Despite these efforts The New Deal failed to end the depression. In order for America to get out of this economic disaster, the Federal Government rightly overstepped it’s constitutional bound to adopt the role of a “care taker” and establish a basic minimum of living for the American people.
Perhaps the single most important aspect of the New Deal was the WPA, an organization which provided jobs for the unemployed working on federally funded projects such as dams, bridges, and public buildings.
As William Lloyd Garrison, Jr. noted, the government was spending
"immense sums for public-works projects". The government was attempting to pump money back into the economy in the form of wages for the unemployed. This stopped, but did not reverse the terrible effects of the Great Depression on America. As is evident in Document J, not until World War II did unemployment drop below 20%. Although the WPA, or the New Deal, for that matter, did not end the depression, it did create an entirely new role for the government. Because the WPA hired not only manual laborers but musicians, artists, and skilled craftsmen, it set the precedent that the government would be responsible for helping all people in times of trouble. The WPA also employed
African-Americans, and because of that, "the government has taken on meaning and substance for the Negro