The Great American Trivia Book by Daniel Adams

Author:Daniel Adams [Adams, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4405-7361-3
Publisher: F+W Media
Published: 2014-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

WORLD WAR I AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION

The son of a Presbyterian minister, Woodrow Wilson took the presidential oath of office in 1913 determined to live up to his new commitment. Indeed, his high moral principles were tested, for it took much skill to keep the United States at peace in a world moving toward war. World War I (also known as “The War to End All Wars,” and “The Great War”) raged in Europe from 1914 to 1918, and resulted in the end of the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian Empires.

After the devastating war, the 1929 stock market crash sent Americans plummeting into the Great Depression, though the war was by no means the only reason why the nation faced an economic downturn. During Prohibition, bootlegging made money for organized crime figures and even more respectable businessmen, but it did little for the national economy. For nearly a century, single-crop farming had ruined the soil and contributed to cycles of drought and flooding in America’s farm belt. Finally, the unequal distribution of wealth and surpluses in business corporations meant that farmers and laborers were not able to purchase the goods being produced.

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