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Causes of the Great Depression Document Based EssayDirections: The following assignment requires you to answer the questions below and to construct a coherent essay that integrates your interpretation of Documents A-J and your knowledge of the American economy during the 1920's. You must use and cite at least 50% of the documents for full credit.How did the six factors of 1. Problems for Farmers, 2. Uneven Distribution of Wealth, 3. Overuse of Credit, 4. Problems for Business and Industry, 5. Crash of the Stock Market, and 6. Run on the Banks cause the Great Depression? Be sure to explain all six causes AND identify which one you believe was the biggest cause and why.Document A7143751676410Document B-1524005588000The final development that set the stage for the collapse of American prosperity in 1929 was the speculative boom that developed with increasing intensity in the years after 1927. As more investors put their money into securities (stocks) in the hope of making a quick profit on a speculative rise in stocks, the character of the New York Stock Exchange was fundamentally altered. Instead of serving primarily as a device for the accumulation of capital of industrial enterprises, the exchange became a betting ring where people gambled on stocks in much the same fashion that gamblers wagered on roulette or horse races. Security prices were forced up by competitive bidding rather than by any fundamental improvement in American corporate enterprise. - Harry J. Carman and Harold 0. Syrett, A History of the American People, 1952. Document C-1524003492500Source: Table constructed from data In Frederick Lewis Allen, The Big Change, 1952US Family Distribution of Income (1929)Annual IncomePercent of Families Earning this IncomeOver $10,0002%$5,000-$10,0006%$2,000-$500032%$1,500-$2,00018%$1,000-$1,50021%Under $1,00021%-9525025908000Document D[Easy] margin requirements permitted the investor to enter the market on a shoestring. By buying on margin, the investor had to pay only a fraction of the quoted price of any particular security. The additional money needed to cover the purchase was supplied by the broker, who obtained these funds from a bank with which he had deposited his customer's stock as collateral. The margin buyer was particularly vulnerable to even a small decline in stock quotations. With any decrease in security values he would have to pay the additional money to cover the corresponding decrease in his collateral. If he should be unable to supply this money - and usually he could not - the broker would be compelled to sell the stock to protect himself at the bank. Once this process had started there was always the danger that it could not be stopped. (P)rices would be further depressed, and more margin buyers would be compelled to dump more stocks on the market. The circle would then be complete, for there was no apparent way of checking this downward spiral after it had been set in motion. - Harry J. Carman and Harold 0. Syrett, A History of the American People, 1952.-9525026860500Document E(A)lthough the bankers were not unusually foolish in 1929, the banking structure was inherently weak. The weakness was...in the large number of independent (banks). When one bank failed, the assets of others were frozen while depositors elsewhere had a...warning to go and ask for their money. Thus one failure led to other failures, and these spread with a domino effect.... When income, employment, and values fell as the result of a depression bank failures could quickly become epidemic. This happened after 1929.... The weak destroyed not only the other weak, but weakened the strong.... Needless to say, such a banking system, once in the convulsions of failure, had a...repressive effect on the spending of its depositors and the investment of its clients. - John Kenneth Galbralth, The Great Crash, 1954.Document F7905753048000-9525026352500Document GWith debt no longer regarded as shameful, people bought on installment. Three out of every four radios were purchased on the installment plan, 60 percent of all automobiles and furniture. In other words, consumers bought goods on installment at a rate faster than their income was expanding, but it was inevitable that a time would come when they would have to reduce purchases, and the cutback in buying would sap the whole economy. - William E. Leuchtenburg, The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932, 1958-6667522034500Document H-6667527686000Document IWhile agriculture struggled, industry soared in the decade preceding the Wall Street Crash. In the ‘boom’ period before the ‘bust’, a lot of people were buying things like cars, household appliances and consumer products. . . And as production continued apace the market quickly dried up; too many products were being produced with too few people earning enough money to buy them – the factory workers themselves, for example, could not afford the goods coming out of the factories they worked in. The economic crisis that soon would engulf Europe meant that goods could not be sold across the Atlantic either, leaving America’s industries to create an unsustainable surplus of products. - Chris Trueman, HistoryLearningSite, 2000-12382526796900Document JSource: Historical Statistics of the United States, Part I, 1975U.S. Unemployment (in percent)Civilian Labor force including farmersNon-farm Employees Only19284.26.919293.25.319308.914.2193116.325.2193224.136.3193325.237.6193422.032.6193520.330.2193617.025.4-46672523558500Use the remaining space on this side of the page to write any notes you want to help you write this essay.Document Analysis Worksheet: DBQ What Caused the Great Depression? Directions: For each Document that you read, assign it a title and answer the questions provided. This sheet and these documents will help you draft your DBQ which is due February 15th Document A: Summarize this document below. How does this document relate to the causes of the Great Depression? Is this a primary or secondary source? Document B: Summarize this document below. How does this document relate to the causes of the Great Depression? Is this a primary or secondary source? Document C: Summarize this document below. How does this document relate to the causes of the Great Depression? Is this a primary or secondary source? Document D:Summarize this document below. How does this document relate to the causes of the Great Depression? Is this a primary or secondary source? Document E: Summarize this document below. How does this document relate to the causes of the Great Depression? Is this a primary or secondary source? Document F: Summarize this document below. How does this document relate to the causes of the Great Depression? Is this a primary or secondary source? Document G: Summarize this document below. How does this document relate to the causes of the Great Depression? Is this a primary or secondary source? Document H: Summarize this document below. How does this document relate to the causes of the Great Depression? Is this a primary or secondary source? Document I:Summarize this document below. How does this document relate to the causes of the Great Depression? Is this a primary or secondary source? Document J: Summarize this document below. How does this document relate to the causes of the Great Depression? Is this a primary or secondary source? ................
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