10.1The Great Depression

After the 1929 crash, the economy spiraled downward. Banks failed by the thousands, businesses collapsed, and unemployment soared to roughly one in four workers. Families lost homes and farms; shantytowns spread; a devastating drought turned the southern plains into a "Dust Bowl," driving hundreds of thousands from their land.

President Herbert Hoover, a Republican, believed recovery should come mainly from private initiative and limited government action, and he resisted large-scale federal relief. As suffering deepened and his response seemed inadequate, public anger grew. The Depression discredited the small-government, pro-business creed that had dominated the 1920s and set the stage for a dramatic political turn.