Free Sample Essays > United States History

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Wall street crash: Cold war and Black america

a familiar sight in American cities, but still Hoover did very little to help. He believed in 'rugged individualism' (people should look after themselves and stand on their own two feet). He appealed to businesses and charities to do what they could to help. By the time his government began to take action in 1932 it was too late. Hoover had lost the trust of the people. 'In Hoover we trusted, now we are busted,' became a popular saying.

The growth of shanty towns

Hoovervilles were the names given to the areas where homeless people lived in shacks that they had built out of wood, boxes and any other materials that they had managed to find on dumps. Due to unemployment or the loss of life savings, these people could no longer afford to pay their mortgages or rent. They had lost their homes and now had nowhere to live. The fact that these areas were called Hoovervilles shows what the people thought of President Hoover. They even called the newspapers that they covered themselves to sleep with 'Hoover blankets'.

Food shortages

Many unemployed people could not afford the basics and spent hours queuing for free soup or bread, handed out by charities or businesses. Unemployed workers in America received no help from the government. They had to resort to charity, begging and even theft to feed themselves and their families. People were hungry and many felt worthless and ashamed.

Farming

Farmers, who had already missed out on the boom of the 1920s, were also affected by the Depression. Low agricultural prices meant that in some places farmers could not afford to harvest or market their crops, which were left in the fields to rot. With unemployment rising throughout America, people could no longer afford to buy the farmers' produce, even at low prices. In some areas, for example Oklahoma, terrible soil erosion meant that farmers could not even attempt to grow any crops. Many of these, having lost their homes and farms, left with their families to search for work elsewhere.

Franklin Roosevelt - a new President

On 9 November 1932, Americans voted in the presidential election. The Democrat Franklin Roosevelt stood against Hoover. The voters did not believe that Hoover had taken the Depression seriously enough or done enough to help them. Roosevelt was elected by one of the largest majorities in American history.

Cold War Revision

A war short of full scale war because of the development of the Atomic bomb.

CAUSES OF THE COLD WAR [BARE]

1. Beliefs: Russia was a Communist country, ruled by a dictator who cared little about human rights.

America was a capitalist democracy, which valued freedom.

2. Aims: Stalin wanted reparations from Germany/ a buffer of friendly states.

Britain and the USA [led by President Truman] wanted to help Germany recover/ to prevent large areas of Europe from coming under Communist control.

3. Resentment about history: The USSR did [next page]