The Stock Market Crash of 1929

The Stock Market Crash of 1929

A timeline shows important events of the era. In 1929, Hoover is inaugurated as president, the stock market crashes, and the Great Depression begins; photographs of Hoover (top) and the crowds on Wall Street on Black Tuesday (bottom) are shown. In 1930, the Dust Bowl results from severe drought conditions and poor farming practices; a photograph of several Great Plains houses is shown, with a massive dust cloud overhead. In 1931, the Scottsboro Boys trial begins in Alabama; a photo of one of the defendants, Haywood Patterson, is shown alongside a photo of the Jackson County Courthouse. In 1932, Hoover forms the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the Bonus Army riot breaks out in Washington, and Roosevelt is elected president; photographs of the burning Bonus Army encampments (top) and Roosevelt (bottom) are shown.
(credit "courthouse": modification of work by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Herbert Hoover became president at a time of ongoing prosperity in the country. Americans hoped he would continue to lead the country through still more economic growth, and neither he nor the country was ready for the unraveling that followed. But Hoover’s moderate policies, based upon a strongly held belief in the spirit of American individualism, were not enough to stem the ever-growing problems, and the economy slipped further and further into the Great Depression.

While it is misleading to view the stock market crash of 1929 as the sole cause of the Great Depression, the dramatic events of that October did play a role in the downward spiral of the American economy. The crash, which took place less than a year after Hoover was inaugurated, was the most extreme sign of the economy’s weakness. Multiple factors contributed to the crash, which in turn caused a consumer panic that drove the economy even further downhill, in ways that neither Hoover nor the financial industry was able to restrain. Hoover, like many others at the time, thought and hoped that the country would right itself with limited government intervention. This was not the case, however, and millions of Americans sank into grinding poverty.

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