Great Depression Dbq Essay

Words: 930
Pages: 4

Although the United States has experienced depressions both long before and after, none have ever compared to The Great Depression. The Great Depression continues to be seen as the longest-lasting and most destructive depression in American history. Beginning shortly after the “Great Crash” of the stock market in 1929 and lasting until the start of World War II, the population of the United States would be living through these miserable circumstances for a decade. During the time America saw an overwhelming increase of citizens being unemployed and was pushed further back into our post-World War I isolationism. Although there is no consensus on the actual cause of the depression, many theories such as over speculation and overproduction have …show more content…
As a result, prices began to drop, factories began closing down and countless workers were laid off. At the same time, prices for farm products also fell, so farmers were not able to pay off bank loans and many lost their farms. Farmers began to produce an excess of “Too much wheat, too much corn, too much cotton, too much beef, too much production of everything” (Doc 3), this caused prices to plummet with no increasing demand. “Now farming became industry… new tractors were going on the land” (Doc 7) and the new technology began to increase production even further. As the depression continued more and more workers were being left unemployed and barely had any money to be spent on food, as the demand for consumer good fell to an all-time low. As Will Rogers said, “we are the first nation to starve to death in a storehouse that’s overfilled with everything we want” (Doc …show more content…
The Great Depression’s effects not only occurred in the United States but all over the entire world. While the Great Depression came to an end during 1939-1940 this also, unfortunately, marked the beginning of World War II which took to lives of countless people around the