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Chapter One
It Was a Dark and
Stormy Decade
In This Chapter
* Getting into a depression
* Dragging nearly everyone down
* Coping with life on the economy's edges
* Trying to make things better
In August 1928, a few months before winning the U.S. presidency,
Republican candidate Herbert Hoover boasted that "we in
America are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever
before in the history of any land."
Boy, was he wrong.
Less than a year after Hoover assumed office, the United States
was plunged into the deepest and longest economic recession in
its history. It wasn't called the Great Depression for nothing.
This book tells the story of this period in U.S. history (from the
end of 1929 to the country's entry into World War II in late 1941)
by looking at the different elements that gave the era its shape, as
well as some of the lessons and legacies that the era left us. This
chapter tells you what those elements are and where to find out
more about them.
Before the Beginni ... read full excerpt from: Lessons from the Great Depression For Dummies ebook