The Great Depression and World War IIIThe Great Depression (1929-41) was the deepest and longest recession in the history of the Western industrialized world. In the United States, the Great Depression began shortly before the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into panic and wiped out millions of investors (including banks) due to a decline in stock prices. An unprecedented 50%. Over the next few years, consumer spending and investment fell, causing a sharp decline in industrial production and rising unemployment levels as bankrupt companies laid off workers. In 25 years (1920-1945), unemployment increased by 40%. To be more precise, about 1.6 million Americans were unemployed and this number increased significantly to 12.8 million (about half were non-farmers). Americans were unemployed, many businesses failed, and nearly half of the nation's banks failed. To combat the economic crisis, strict business and banking regulations were put in place, as well as financial protections, enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the newly created Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The Depression led to a rapid increase in crime rates, as many unemployed people resorted to petty theft to put food on the table. Alcoholism increased as Americans sought outlets to escape, made worse by the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Rural New England and upstate New York lost many citizens seeking opportunities elsewhere. Most of the migrants were teenagers seeking opportunity away from their families who had younger mouths to feed. Americans overall felt for the first time that the government was not there to protect them and abandoned conservative laissez-faire middle of paper...... 00 veterans marched on Washington to declare that they couldn't wait until 1945 to receive their bonus, they needed it now. However, Hoover summoned the army to "remove them from DC." In this event, four people died, two children died from tear gas used by the army and two veterans were stabbed with bayonets. During these trials, the United States was divided on some aspects, but remained united to overcome the Great Depression and World War II. Between 1929 and 1945, the Great Depression and World War II completely redefined the role of government in American society and catapulted the United States from an isolated peripheral state to the world's hegemonic superpower. Despite the fact that diseases began to appear weakly, then with increasing urgency once the Great Depression began. Yet curiously, as many observers have noted, most Americans have remained inexplicably docile, even passive, in the face of this unprecedented calamity..