C121 Task 4
docx
keyboard_arrow_up
School
Western Governors University *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
C121
Subject
History
Date
Feb 20, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
4
Uploaded by BrigadierApe3896
C121 Task 4
Briana Vick March 21
st
, 2023
2
Lasting from 1929 to 1939, the Great Depression had a lasting effect on the United States economy and its people. The 10-year period of the Great Depression was marked as one of the longest and most damaging economic periods in the history of the United States. There were several different causes that led to the Great Depression. One of the most major and prominent of these causes was Stock Market Crash of 1929. On October 24, 1929, the Stock Market crashed rapidly. Loosing over 11% of its total value in one day, traders began to panic and tried their best to sell off all of their stocks to prevent any more huge losses. Disaster struck again on “Black Tuesday”, October 29
, 1929 when the market lost an additional 12% of its total value, which followed the 13% loss it had experience the previous day. The amount of money that the was lost during that week, was cataclysmic. The stock traders and the financiers were trying their best to assure the public that the crisis would be over in about 2 months, but
2 months turned into 10 years. The reason that this crash had such an intense impact on the economy was because many people and businesses had mortgaged themselves to the bank. With many people being in debt to the banks, once the stock market crashed the banks (who had also lost money and stocks with the crash) tried to cash in their loans, but people were unable to pay them back. With no money to pay back loans and mortgages, there was also no money for goods and services either. It became incredibly difficult for individuals and families to afford necessities, let alone any extra things. The lack of commerce in the economy resulted in one of the worst recessions in the history of the United States. (Norton, 2015)
During Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inaugural term as President of the United States of America, he aimed at passing the New Deal legislation. The New Deal was a series of programs, public reform, and legislation that was aimed at helping the economy and its people recover from the Great Depression. While the New Deal did not end the Great Depression, it did help lessen the effects of it for the economy. One way the New Deal helped the economy was the creation of the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). The AAA was created to help farmers with funding and crop controls. However, the funding was only available to those farmers who agreed to cut down on specific crops. In 1933, farmers all around the nation agreed to destroy 8.5 million piglets. Many Americans could not understand why the farmers would agree to waste so much food, especially when so much of the American food source was limited. The Supreme Court eventually ruled the AAA as an unconstitutional act, in 1936. Congress worked on new legislation that would meet the Supreme Court’s objections. Once they were able to get this new legislation and revise the old, many farm subsidies continued into the 21
st
century. (Norton, 2015)
The New Deal also sought to improve the Great Depression by passing the Social Security Act. This was Roosevelt’s long-term plan to help benefit America and its people. With this act, eligible workers are required to pay social security taxes on their income, and the employers would contribute an equal amount of taxes, once these workers retired, they would receive federal retirement benefits (Norton, 2015). Not only did this act create a fund to help out citizens during their retirement, but it also
created many federal welfare programs. Some of these programs included Aid to Dependent Children (this gave money to needy families without fathers) and the Cooperative Federal-State System of Unemployment Compensation. With these laws and legislation, the federal government ensured that the elderly, the temporarily unemployed, dependent children, and disabled were going to be taken care of, even if it was on the tax payers dime. A third way that the New Deal addressed the issues that stemmed from the Great Depression was by the passing of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). This act was at the center of the New Deal and was one that Roosevelt felt the most strongly about. The NIRA was based around the ideal that
competition was destructive and had severely increased the industry’s economic issues (Norton, 2015). The NIRA allowed competing businesses to cooperate in crafting industry-wide codes that allowed manufacturers to establish industry wide prices and wages. The thought was that if there were
3
consistent wages and prices, there would be a correlation to increased spending, which would create more work for the company. With more work, the company would be able to hire back the employees that had to be let go because of the Great Depression. The NIRA also gave Industrial workers the right to
unionize (section 7a). There was also the ability to earn overtime pay if the workers were required to work more than full-time hours. With the creation of the NIRA, was also the creation of the Public Works
Administration. The Public Works administration had the ability to give money to cities and states and had dedicated $33 billion to build things such as schools, roadways, bridges, dams, freeways, airports, and other public things to help those cities thrive. With The Public Works Administration becoming another sector of the government, this also led to an increase in employment which eventually gave 4 million people a job. (Norton, 2015)
At the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union who had once been allies had now become competitors. The need and want for increased technology in weapons had come to a head and whoever could create the most dangerous weapon first would win, eventually in what we came to know as the Arms Race. The Manhattan Project was a research project of the United States to create the first nuclear weapon, which had the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. (Norton, 2015). When the Soviet Union heard about the Manhattan project, they were furious and wanted to be the ones that beat the United States to the creation of the powerful nuclear weapon. All of a sudden, there was race between the United States and the Soviet Union to see who would reign supreme. Knowing that both countries were out to destroy each other, the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) policy was formed, which basically stated that neither country wanted to start a nuclear war and destroy
its own. (Norton, 2015)
A lot of the tension that the United States and the Soviet Union had during the Cold War was a result of different ideologies between the two countries. The countries didn’t physically battle, but they competed for powerful alliances, economic cooperation, ideological support, and mutual-defense agreements from other countries. The United States was a democratic-republic country who thrived on capitalism. The Soviet Union was a United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), a one-party ruling Communist
party. The USSR believed they were a “workers paradise” and that every country should run as they did. However, the United Stated began to become powerful and more respectful to the other countries in the world. With this power shift, the USSR was unhappy about being surpassed as one of the most powerful countries in the world. The USSR tried to use their power to take over other countries and turn
them into Communist, Socialist countries, claiming they can be powerful because look how powerful the
USSR was. The increased power of the USA and their encouragement of democracy and personal freedoms was a direct threat to the USSR. (Norton, 2015)
During the Cold War, many in the United States were incredibly afraid of the Soviet Union and nuclear war. United States citizens not only feared the Soviet Union, but they feared any Communist. They would often use the word Communist to explain anyone they feared or did not understand. Communist or Commie became a slur to many. This slur led to attacks on anyone who was labeled Communist and even those that did not agree or align with the communist party. This created another fear for the American people. Senator Joseph McCarthy was one who was leading the charge against the
Communist Party and its constituents. Senator McCarthy was focused on exposing those who had any connection to the Communist Party, interviewing many people and accusing them of being Communist. McCarthy claimed he had a list of members of the State Department that were communist, as well as celebrities like Lucille Ball and Charlie Chaplin. Some of these accusations derailed people’s lives and made others hate them for the connection, and often the non-connection to the Communist Party. Not only did the Cold War influence our government, but it also changed many things within education in our country. Many of the universities and colleges during this period became incredibly politicized and the study of Communism became dangerous for many and looked down upon. Because less people
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
4
were studying Communism, our people and country were ill prepared to fight the Cold War if it ever came down to it, since the resources and research now became unsafe to access. (Norton, 2015)
During the 1960s and 1970s, many homosexual people were subject to a lot of hate because of their lifestyle. In fact, in most of the United States intercourse with two people of the same sex was illegal and the American Psychiatric Association labeled homosexuality as a mental disorder. The Gay Rights Movement came about to help further the rights that homosexual people had in the United States. In 1973, the mental disorder label was lifted by the American Psychiatric Association. This meant that being gay was no longer a mental disorder in the United States. Also in 1973, over 800 organizations
had been created to help further the rights of gay people. Many of these organizations were created in cities and towns with college campuses that were offering support for people “coming out of the closet” and helping to push for more reform. A lot of these organizations are still in affect today and still fighting for Gay Rights. (Norton, 2015).
References Norton, M.B. (2015). A people & a nation. Retrieved from https://ng.cengage.com/static/nb/ui/evo/index.html?
snapshotId=140078&id=38559619&deploymentId=48887122133667389135808215&eISBN=978130581
6817