Use this Discovering American History video entitled The Great Depression and The New Deal to study the cumulative effects of underlying weaknesses in the American economy and the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression. Learn how many unemployed workers blamed themselves rather than the system, but they increasingly began to look to the government for some relief. Discover how President Hoover remained committed to budget balancing and a relatively limited response to the crisis, but frightened and angry voters elected an avowed Democratic reformer, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His original "New Deal" of 1933 was mostly a cooperative business-government venture, but the "Second New Deal" that followed made a more dramatic shift toward direct government intervention in the economy and direct aid to the unemployed.
Learn about The Great Depression and The New Deal.