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The Great Depression began in 1929 when, in a period of ten weeks, stocks on the New York Stock Exchange lost 50 percent of their value. -
With the addition of sound, movies became increasingly popular. Comedies, gangster movies, and musicals helped people forget their troubles. In the early 1940s, some of the great dramas of American film reached theaters. Radio was also wildly popular, offering many kinds of programs, from sermons to soap operas.
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Between 1930 and 1940, the southwestern Great Plains region of the United States suffered a severe drought.
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In 1933, the number of labor union members was around 3 million, compared to 5 million a decade before. Most union members in 1933 belonged to skilled craft unions, most of which were affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL).Although the future of labor unions looked grim in 1933, their fortunes would soon change. Labor unions experienced gains from the pro-union stance of the Roosevelt administration and from legislation enacted by Congress during the early New Deal.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor of New York, was nominated as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. The New Deal Roosevelt had promised the American people began to take shape immediately after his inauguration. Based on the assumption that the power of the federal government was needed to get the country out of the depression, Roosevelt's administration saw the passage of banking reform laws, emergency relief programs, work relief programs, and agricultural programs. -
The 1935 National Labor Relations Act (also known as the Wagner Act) required businesses to bargain in good faith with any union supported by the majority of their employees. Meanwhile, the Congress of Industrial Organizations split from the AFL and became much more aggressive in organizing unskilled workers who had not been represented before. Strikes of various kinds became important organizing tools of the CIO. -
Dry land farming on the Great Plains led to the systematic destruction of the prairie grasses. In the ranching regions, overgrazing also destroyed large areas of grassland. Gradually, the land was laid bare, and significant environmental damage began to occur. Among the natural elements, the strong winds of the region were particularly devastating. Nineteen states in the heartland of the United States became a vast dust bowl. -
In the 1930s, big bands and swing music were popular, with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller popular bandleaders. In the 1940s, the bands started to break up, and band singers like Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan went out on their own. War songs became popular. -
By 1932, approximately half of African Americans were out of work. Racial violence again became more common, especially in the South. When the U.S. entered WWII, In resonse to labor leader A. Philip Randolph's threats to organize a march on Washington to protest job discrimination in the military, Roosevelt issued an executive order stating that all persons, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, would be allowed to participate fully in the defense of the U.S. -
The U.S. entry into the war helped to get the nation's economy back on its feet following the depression. Although just ten years earlier, jobs were very difficult to come by, there were now jobs for nearly everyone who wanted one. With the creation of 17 million new jobs during the war, workers were afforded the opportunity to pay off old debts, as well as to begin saving some of their earnings.
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On December 7, 1941, following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. Three days later, after Germany and Italy declared war on it, the United States became fully engaged in the Second World War. -
On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered. After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945, and the Second World War came to an end. The war cost the lives of more than 330,000 American soldiers. Many more were permanently injured or maimed.