In October 1929, the stock market crashed, wiping out 40 percent of the paper values of common stock. Businesses closed their doors, factories shut down and banks failed. By 1932, approximately one out of every four Americans was unemployed. The American people were questioning all the maxims on which they had based their lives - democracy, capitalism, individualism. The presidential campaign of 1932 was chiefly a debate over the causes and possible remedies of the Great Depression. Herbert Hoover, unlucky in entering The White House only eight months before the stock market crash, had struggled ineffectively to fix the problems. In 1933, the new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, brought an air of confidence and optimism that quickly rallied the people to the banner of his program, known as the New Deal. The New Deal represented the result of a long-range trend toward the leaving behind of "laissez-faire" capitalism, going back to the regulation of the railroads in the 1880s......

Join Now to view the rest of this term paper!
Members: Login to view this research paper.

Title: The Great Depression
Approximate Word Count: 1001
Approximate Pages: 5 (250 words per double-spaced page)

With the Term Papers Lab Membership Pass, you get instant access to every essay on this site, including this essay on The Great Depression, for as long as you remain a member.

Other essays sites charge almost $100 for a single term paper. At Term Papers Lab, you can get instant access to over 100,000 research papers for as little as $29.95!