In the lesson, you read about the causes of the Great Depression and how the U.S. government reacted to it. You also saw how Americans were affected by these hard times.

Write three paragraphs explaining the causes and effects of the Great Depression and reflecting on the experience of those who lived during this time.

Your well-developed response should thoroughly address each of the following in one paragraph:

the causes of the Great Depression and how people were affected by it
the response by the Hoover administration to the distress
As you write your third paragraph, look at the photograph shown on this screen. It was taken by Dorothea Lange of two families on the side of a highway in Bakersfield, California in 1935.Explain how the photograph reflects the experience of those who lived during the Great Depression. Be sure to make connections between what you have learned in the lesson and specific details in the photograph.

In 1929 the Great Depression started because of the great New York Stock Exchange was crashing and in the 1930s unemployment and businesses started to crash. Without the New York Stock Exchange, happening money was not coming in and that resulted in people not being able to buy anything. With people not buying anything that then leads to a jurassic effect on everything. No stock exchange, no money, no money, no spending, no spending, no businesses, no businesses, no economy. The worst part was that the people of this time and the government didn't have much time to fix this or help at all, since this all happened in a span of 10 weeks. Every one out of four americans had to pick up and leave because of jobs being loss, housing being taken, and bussinesses and food disappering.

During the Great Depression President Franklin Roosevelt came up with "The New Deal". Once he came up with the 'New Deal' program and it was approved by congress, the 'New Deal' which provided $41.7 billion in funding for domestic programs like work relief for unemployed workers. The 'New Deal' program would help those who lost jobs, homes and everything else. This program was to help people who had nothing left and needed help to support themselves and their familes. As federal money was pouring into the recovery and relief efforts of the 1930s, GAO’s (Government Accountability Office's) workload increased. With about 1,700 employees at the time, GAO soon found itself shorthanded and needed to hire more employees to process paperwork, such as vouchers. By 1939, our workforce nearly tripled to 5,000.

In this photo is shows that all they have is what they can carry and fit in there cars. They are going on the road to possibly find jobs and a "better place" even though it is the same accross the whole country. These two familes probably didn't have much in the first place, and once the Great Depression happened it took what they had and cut it in half or more. So now those familes only have a quarter of what they had before. Before the Great Depression people would struggle but not like how they were in the 1930s. Once the Stocks crashed and didn't have the same value to any value they were completely wipped out of money, resources and everything that made a community and economy run. People could hardly provide food let alone a house, a car, clothes shoes, and other basic needs for a person and a family.