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Altus Student

US History 1
Lesson 15
Document Based Writing
In the period before World War II a worldwide economic depression hit,
causing the economy to plummet and massie amounts of people to become
unemployed! It a"ected rich countries and poor countries in e#treme ways!
$he %reat &epression caused the birth rate to rapidly drop because families
could no longer a"ord to support their children! 'obs also became ery hard
to obtain and ma(ing a liing was nearly impossible for most families!
In &ocument 1, )uddy )lan(enship is forced to discontinue his
schooling in order to wor( so that he can proide money for his family! In
&ocument *, the pictures display how people had to resort to selling items
on the streets +ust to ma(e an honest liing! ,onditions were so rough that
receiing only one meal a day and receiing half a-days pay for double the
wor( came to a lu#ury!
&ocument . depicts the e#cerpt written by ben Isaacs, it illustrates
how the %reat &epression cause his salary to greatly decrease and he had to
resort to ta(ing acre of his children by receiing money from the relief! He
compared his liing situation to that of a place where a dog wouldn/t een
want to lie!
&uring the %reat &epression money was nowhere to be found, causing
many people to su"er greatly! &ocument 0 describes Louis )an(s/ di1culty
in 2nding a +ob3 he describes it as nearly impossible! Although many were
desperate and would do almost any sort of wor(, absolutely no employment
opportunities presented themseles! In comparing the %reat &epression to
our present day economic situation, the casual obserer can see that the
unemployment rates are nowhere near as high as they once were during the
%reat &epression!
All in all the %reat &epression a"ected Americans in many di"erent
negatie ways! It was ultimately the economic 4roc( bottom5 in American
history, though many lessons were learned from it! $he economy eentually
too( a turn for the better through new leadership and World War II!

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