The Crash: From Decadence to Depression

Learning Objectives

1. Explain the various causes of the Great Depression. Analyze the reasons for the stock market’s decline, the banking crisis, and the decline of consumer demand.
2. Evaluate the response of the Hoover administration to the growing economic turmoil of the early 1930s. Explain how customs of limited government restrained this response, while at the same time exploring the ways that Hoover sought to expand the role of government to meet the crisis in new ways.
3. Summarize the issues of the election of 1932. Explain how Roosevelt was able to win by a landslide while previous Democrats had been defeated by Republicans by equally large margins in previous elections.