25

From “Normalcy” to Economic

Collapse: 1921–1933 From “Normalcy” to Economic

Collapse: 1921–1933

CONTENTS

■During the Depression, thousands of young men rode freight trains from

one city to another, looking for work, as depicted in Private Car(1932), by

Leconte Stewart.

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Massive layoffs ensued. “I don’t remember any time, maybe

even the Great Depression, when things went down so

fast,” observed Paul Volker, the eighty-one-year-old former

chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The Great Depression had similarly been preceded

by an era of economic prosperity. In 1924 Commerce

Secretary Herbert Hoover had proclaimed “a new era”

in which cutthroat competition was being superseded by

cooperative associations of producers. This heralded

“infinite possibilities of moral progress.” Such words

perhaps sounded hollow, coming in the wake of a

Harding administration disgraced by scandal. By 1924

Calvin Coolidge was president, to be succeeded by

Hoover in 1929; both presided over a nation that basked

in the dawn of a prosperous new era, though a few dark

war clouds could be seen in the distance. Many

Americans, giddy over their stock market winnings,

placed more and more bets on Wall Street. When it all

went bust in 1929, many found themselves mired in the

depths of the Great Depression. ■

■Harding and “Normalcy”

■“The Business of the United

States is Business”

■The Harding Scandals

■Coolidge Prosperity

■Peace without a Sword

■The Peace Movement

■The Good Neighbor Policy

■The Totalitarian Challenge

■War Debts and Reparations

■The Election of 1928

■Economic Problems

■The Stock Market Crash

of 1929

■Hoover and the Depression

■The Economy Hits Bottom

■The Depression and

Its Victims

■The Election of 1932

■Re-Viewing the Past:

There Will Be Blood

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