How Did The Great Depression Affect America In The Twentieth Century

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America’s Tolerable Depression Did the Great Depression completely destroyed America in the twentieth century? During the twentieth century, America experienced one of the longest and influential depressions, the Great Depression. Some struggles that were faced in this depression were the bank failures, the stock market breakdowns, and the loss of institutions. One of the causes of the depression were the corruption of the Jazz Age, as Robert S. McElvaine mentioned “It is difficult to think of the time as anything but the Roaring Twenties, the years of flappers, the Charleston, bathtub gin, petting parties, and the Slutz Bearcat. These were the days when America Withdrew from the world and went into an orgy of self-indulgence.” (McElvanie…show more content…
The rebellions within the community could have occurred because of the unemployment, loss of property, and in general the opposite opinions between the leaders and the citizens in America. As McElvanie said the start of the Depression had made the citizens be psychology unstable (52). Moreover, the program that handled this issue was the Emergency Relief Act (FERA), which was an aid to the unemployed. As the Utah history Encyclopedia mentions “In 1933 Utah's unemployment rate was 35.8 percent, the fourth highest in the nation, and for the decade as a whole it averaged 26 percent. By 1932 the wage level for those who had not lost their jobs had declined by 45 percent and the work week by 20 percent. Annual per capita income dropped 50 percent by 1932, and in 1940 had risen to only 82 percent of the pre-depression level.” (McCormick). In other words unemployment was powerful. Also the FERA program helped the citizen’s throughout the depression. The citizens gained trust, and they believed that the leaders of the nation were trying to handle the depression efficiently. In addition, other factor was the loss of order within the community. The program that prevented this was, the National Recovery Administration (NRA) Agency, which brought together a lot of stuff such as wages and working conditions, prices of consumption and unfair practices that take advantage of depressions to create a felony. “That depression led to massive unemployment, which in turn fueled protest. Workers were angry and ready to undertake cooperative and, in some cases, radical action. These facts alarmed middleclass Americans, some of whom believed revolution might be imminent, particularly since the farm belts of the nation were seething with populism. Under the circumstances, Middle America chose to cast its lot with business and dig in to defend economic orthodoxy.
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