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Definition: Great Depression from Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable

The economic slump that began in 1929 in North America, Europe and other industrialized regions of the world. It originated in the United States, where it was triggered by a catastrophic collapse of stock market prices on Black Thursday, resulting in the insolvency of many banks. As the US was the major creditor and financier of postwar Europe, whose economies had been weakened by the war itself, its effects were soon felt across the Atlantic. See also Dust Bowl; New Deal; Okies.

Great Depression

From Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History
The Great Depression was the most severe economic downturn in U.S. history. Beginning with the initial decline in August 1929 and punctuated by the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, the Depression lasted nearly a decade and created unprecedented levels of unemployment, poverty, and homelessness. The gross national product (GNP), the total value of all goods and services produced each year, fell from $104.4 billion in 1929 to $74.2 billion in 1933, setting back the per capita GNP by 20 years. From 1929 to its peak in 1933, the U.S. unemployment rate soared from 1.5 million persons without jobs to more than 12.8 million, though some estimates placed that number as low as 10.6 million and as high as 16 million. By 1933 the annual national combined income had shrunk from $87.8 billion to $40.2 billion. Farmers, who were perhaps affected most severely, witnessed their total combined income drop from $11.9 billion to $5.3 billion. With so many people unemployed, starving, and homeless, …
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Full text Article Great Depression

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Severe economic depression that afflicted the USA throughout the 1930s. At the close of the 1920s, economic factors such as over-production, unrealistic credit levels, stock market speculation, lack of external markets, high corruption, US financial isolationism, and unequal distribution of wealth…
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Full text Article Great Depression

From The Great American History Fact-Finder
A period of economic failure following the stock market crash and panic of 1929. More than 15 million people were unemployed during the height of the depression, thousands of homes and farms were foreclosed for failure to pay mortgages, millions lost their savings, and huge losses were incurred by…
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Full text Article Great Depression

From Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present Full text Article A-Z Entries
The unemployed line up outside a soup kitchen in...
A profound global economic downturn that began in 1929, hit bottom in 1933, and continued for the rest of the decade. The Great Depression was an economic event of unprecedented dimensions. There had been no downturn of its magnitude or duration before, and there has been none of its like since. In…
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Full text Article Great Depression

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
Farmers and townspeople in the center of town on...
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Full text Article Great Depression

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Migrant Mother, photograph by Dorothea Lange for...
Longest and most severe economic depression ever experienced by the Western world. It began in the U.S. soon after the New York Stock Market Crash of 1929 and lasted until about 1939. By late 1932 stock values had dropped to about 20% of their previous value, and by 1933 11,000 of the U.S.’s 25,000…
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Full text Article Great Depression

From Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History
Rampant trading and speculation using borrowed...
The Great Depression was the most severe economic downturn in U.S. history. Beginning with the initial decline in August 1929 and punctuated by the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, the Depression lasted nearly a decade and created unprecedented levels of unemployment, poverty, and…
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Full text Article Great Depression

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
in U.S. history, the severe economic crisis generally considered to have been precipitated by the U.S. stock-market crash of 1929. Although it shared the basic characteristics of other such crises (see depression ), the Great Depression was unprecedented in its length and in the wholesale poverty…
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In its severity and its length, the Great Depression marks the worst period of economic, social, and political turmoil in the history of the United States. The Great Depression seemed all the worse because it was preceded in the 1920s by one of the greatest economic booms in American history, marked…
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Full text Article Great Depression (The)

From AllSides Red Blue Dictionary
The mainstream historical narrative of the great depression is that unregulated capitalism caused the depression and that government intervention was crucial in saving the nation from financial disaster. These included leaving the gold standard, enacting safety net programs and Roosevelt's "New…
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Full text Article Great Depression

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
World economic crisis 1929–late 1930s, sparked by the Wall Street crash of 29 October 1929. It was the longest and most devastating depression in the Western world in modern history. The Great Depression was precipitated by the Wall Street crash when millions of dollars were wiped off US share…
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