Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T10:14:47.438Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - The Great Crisis and Its Recovery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2014

Chittabrata Palit
Affiliation:
former Professor of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
Jenia Mukherjee
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, History, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata
Get access

Summary

This chapter is on the Great Depression of 1929 that marked the dawn of a new era of plenitude and prosperity. The impact of the American economic depression was severe at the home front and the European world and its colonies. By throwing light on various economic theories and arguments like that of the classical theories, Keynesian economics, debt-deflation analyses, etc., it tries to answer the most intriguing question concerning generation of scholars: Did the crash occur suddenly? While the first section generates pessimism, the next one is of hope when US followed the path of economic recovery under New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The chapter ends with the outbreak of the WWII.

a. The Great Depression of 1929

The hopeful era ushered in by Harding and Coolidge in the post-WWI period, proved to be short lived. Coming a long way from Wilsonian idealism, America in the 1920s, gave itself over to crass materialism and to ruthless making and spending of money. When Herbert Clark Hoover became the President in 1929, the nation thrived in affluence, which inspired the new president to comment, ‘we in America are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.’ There was boom in big business and technological goods and factory productions could not keep up with the increasing greed for newer and newer gadgets; stocks and shares skyrocketed. It was the dawn of a new era of plenitude and prosperity. But this euphoria did not last long.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Foundation Books
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The Great Crisis and Its Recovery
  • Chittabrata Palit, former Professor of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Jenia Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, History, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata
  • Book: An Introduction to the History of America
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/UPO9789382993650.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The Great Crisis and Its Recovery
  • Chittabrata Palit, former Professor of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Jenia Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, History, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata
  • Book: An Introduction to the History of America
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/UPO9789382993650.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Great Crisis and Its Recovery
  • Chittabrata Palit, former Professor of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Jenia Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, History, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata
  • Book: An Introduction to the History of America
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/UPO9789382993650.010
Available formats
×