How Did America Prevent The Great Depression?

Imagine witnessing the faces of hopeless starving young children, frantic men and women lining up in front of closed banks that held their life savings, and/or the homeless living in cardboard shantytown. America had been doing great in its industrial economy, that is until the Great Depression. The Great Depression was one of the darkest times in U.S. economic history leaving many Americans unemployed and struggling to survive. It all began with the stock market crash of 1929. The crash affected the banks and resulted in many people losing their investments and causing the public to panic. With America’s industrial production dropping by half and the number of homeless people rising, America had lost all hope.

Unemployment was on the
The new deal’s plan believed that the power of the federal government was needed in order to save the depression. The first new deal consisted of the passing of emergency relief programs, work relief programs, bank reform laws and agricultural programs. The first new deal focused on rebuilding the economy from the top down. One of the first acts of this new deal was the Agricultural Adjustment Act which focused on paying farmers to produce less crops. Another part of the plan was the National Industry Recovery Act which authorized President Roosevelt to regulate industry in an attempt to raise prices and stimulate economic recovery. The last part of the plan was the Tennessee Valley Authority which was intended to create many high paying jobs such as dam-building and flood control, by using millions of dollars to reform seven states along the Tennessee river.

The second phase of Roosevelt’s plan was known as the second new deal. The second new deals’ plan was to begin fixing the economy from the bottom instead of the top. President Roosevelt launched the Works Progress Administration to provide jobs such as building bridges,schools, and parks. The National Labor Relations Act was highly successful as