1929 and 1939 was the deepest and most enduring economic decline in the history of the Western industrialized world. The Great Depression began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next two years, consumer spending and investment declined, causing sharp declines in industrial production and rising levels of unemployment as failing companies laid off their workers. In 1933, when the Great Depression reached its all-time low, between 13 and 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the country's banks failed. Although President Franklin D. Roosevelt's relief and reform measures helped mitigate the worst effects of the Great Depression, the economy did not fully recover until after 1939, when World War II provided a major boost. to American industry. entered a normal recession during the summer of 1929, when consumer spending fell and unsold goods began to pile up, slowing production. Stock prices continued to rise and by the autumn of that year had reached levels that could not be reconciled with expected future earnings. On October 24, 1929, the stock market bubble had finally burst, when investors began selling stocks together. A record 12.9 million shares were traded that day, known as Black Thursday. Five days later, 16 million shares were traded after yet another wave of panic swept Wall Street, called Black Tuesday. Millions of shares ended up losing value, and investors who had bought shares with borrowed money were then completely wiped out . As consumer confidence faded following the stock market crash, declining spending and investment brought the factor... half of paper ....... also Project Administration, a permanent work program that employed 8.5 million people from 1935 to 1943, contributed to the recovery. During the Depression, hardship had fueled the rise of extremist political movements in various European countries, particularly that of Adolf Hitler's Nazi government in Germany. The Great Depression and the New Deal forever changed the relationship between Americans and their governments. Government involvement and responsibility in caring for the needy and regulating the economy was predictable. .history.com/topics/great-depressionhttp://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/about.htm http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GreatDepression.html http://www .gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/great-depression.cfm