The United States during the period from 1919 to the present has been an interesting time with most of the major events that have drastically shaped the modern day occurring during this period. Some of the most important eras of this period that truly shaped American history are the end of the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, during this time America and the rest of the world faced the biggest economic collapse the world has ever seen. ever seen, causing the best The economy America had ever seen, created in part by the end of the Great War, became the worst economy virtually overnight. Another extremely important period during this time was the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, during this time we had massive civil rights protests for black Americans such as the Birmingham protest and the march on Washington. A final time period is the end of the Cold War and the new century with events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union and the September 11 attacks which had led to the war on terrorism and the masses. surveillance we have today. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Great Depression was a period between 1929 and 1942, there were several factors that led to the Great Depression, including the collapse of the stock market along with economic weakness due to undeveloped land and failing banks, along with 'Europe needing American-made goods less and less as it was recovering from the war, before the onset of the depression Herbert Hoover was elected president but due to his poor response to this During the economic recession he lost the next election by a landslide votes in favor of FDR who did everything he could to solve the depression. In 1928 Herbert Hoover was elected president with 83.6% of the electoral votes and 58.2% of the popular votes, losing only 8 of the 48 states. The following year the Depression began and as the world economy had never seen such a severe economic downturn, the economy was unable to deal with the collapse causing a chain of events with Germany defaulting on reparations, forcing France and Britain to stop paying their debts. America, causing banks to fail, meant people were unable to get their money and prices for everything collapsed, so people were unable to make money, forcing employers to lay people off most if not all of their employees because they were unable to pay them. “By 1929, the gross national product had fallen by a third, prices by nearly 40 percent, and more than 11 million Americans – 25 percent of the workforce – could not find work.” (Foner, p.637) Because many people were unable to pay their homes or rent, they were kicked out and forced to live on the streets and many shantytowns formed called Hoovervilles, named after the president. In 1932 approximately 20,000 veterans of the Great War marched on Washington to demand in advance their bonuses which they were supposed to receive in 1945, but they had to be chased away by federal troops. Many other protests also occurred during these early years of the Depression, such as farmers blocking roads to prevent food from reaching markets and others protesting eviction from their homes. Many people saw Hoover's response as "inadequate and indifferent" (Foner, p.640) with many of his mostly wealthy advisors telling him that this was a normal part of capitalism and that it is the people's fault ifthey are poor, and should tighten their belts and work. “In 1931, Hoover quoted former President Grover Cleveland from four decades earlier: 'The government should not support the people... Federal aid... weakens the strength of our national character.'” (Foner, p.640 ) In an effort to help the public trust, he kept trying to tell them that "the tide had turned," but people simply saw it as evidence that he was out of touch with what they were dealing with. In 1932 Hoover finally voluntarily admitted that the action wasn't working and created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation which made loans to many businesses and homeowners and created public works projects such as the famous Hoover Dam. The next election came in 1932 and this one was not in Hoovers' favor like the 1928 election. In the election, Hoover faced off against FDR who got 88.9% of the electoral votes and 57.7% of the popular vote, leaving Hoover with only 6 states. FDR was able to win with such a majority because he promised massive government intervention while Hoover did nothing until the end of his term to help with this economic crisis. A few days after being officially inaugurated as president, FDR was faced with the banking crisis and declared a public holiday temporarily halting all baking operations and rushed to pass the emergency banking law to provide funds to needy banks and shortly thereafter created the Glass Act -Steagall. to prevent this from happening again. During his first hundred days Roosevelt quickly created agencies such as the NRA, AAA, and CCC. The NRA (National Recovery Administration) was supposed to help businesses by setting standards for everything from production to prices to wages. Unfortunately, the NRA codes were written by large companies who wrote the codes in their favor while hurting smaller companies. Even though it didn't really help the economy, it showed that the government would do something to solve this crisis. The CCC was created to allow young people to find jobs to help improve things like national parks which earned these young people about $30 a month in 1933, worth about $565 today. Many other agencies were created in an effort to help end the Depression. Along with these programs the 20th and 21st amendments were created and passed, the 20th moved the presidential inauguration to January 20, and the 21st amendment repealed prohibition. In 1935 the Supreme Court, run primarily by conservative justices, decided that the NRA and AAA were unconstitutional because the NRA regulated local businesses that were not part of interstate commerce and the AAA for using Congress's power over local economy. many Americans were union members and participated in strikes across the nation: there were more than 2,000 strikes that year alone. Due to the midterm elections giving Democrats more seats, FDR initiated the second new deal which focused more on economic security, while the first new deal focused more on economic recovery. This second new agreement created things like social security and welfare. In addition to working on the new agreement, Roosevelt held "fireside chats" on the radio, "At a time when his political opponents controlled most newspapers, he harnessed the power of radio to bring his message directly into American homes ". (Foner, p.658) After his re-election in 1936, FDR attempted to create a law that would allow him to replace any member of the Supreme Court over the age of 70 (which was 6 out of 9 at the time), but this did not it happened. passed, but it sent the message to the court to align the president's plans with the.