America’s Great Depression
Read America’s Great Depression: www.amatecon.com/gd/gdcandc.html
· Read Digital History: Sections Why it Happened to President Hoover http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/teachers/lesson_plans/pdfs/unit9.pdf
- Hoover’s presidency will be forever shadowed by the Great Depression. Is it fair to blame Hoover’s actions or inaction for the Great Depression?
- Should we compare Presidents Hoover and President Roosevelt’s attempts to deal with the depression?
Sample Answer
Is it fair to blame Hoover’s actions or inaction for the Great Depression?
It is a complex question to answer whether Hoover’s actions or inaction contributed to the Great Depression. There are many factors that contributed to the Great Depression, including the stock market crash of 1929, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, and the agricultural depression. However, Hoover’s policies did not help to alleviate the crisis, and some historians argue that they may have even made it worse.
For example, Hoover opposed government intervention in the economy, and he believed that the free market would eventually correct itself. However, this approach did not work, and the Depression only worsened. Hoover also vetoed a number of relief bills, and he refused to provide federal assistance to the states. This led to widespread suffering, and it made Hoover very unpopular.